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I’m New Here: Week Twenty-Seven…
August 23, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment 
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Vacation is a good thing – as is coming back after a small change of scenery. I was up in Maine on a pond that is larger than any lake in my home state. And, while there, I was introduced to some important, prestigious folks who are third generation cabin (“camp” in the local vernacular) owners . We met at a covered dish supper out on one of the islands, bringing our contributions of bread and pie by way of a handmade wooden boat with a small outboard motor. And the inevitable question, “what do you do?” gave me a temporary fascinating status within the small group that included a renowned city planning consultant, a state representative, a former missionary to one of the Pacific islands and a couple of people who loosely classify themselves as “working in finance”. And, once again, I can reflect on the wealth that comes to anyone with access to information and knowledge.
Last week I had intended to tell about The National Tribune – a paper packed full of everyday life. My bit of time away in a very small town where people still own the original house that their great grandfather built, or moved, or rebuilt after fire swept through that portion of the town, made me even more eager to share it.
We have here, in the annex, the years of 1885 through 1887. Within these weekly offerings is that strange blend of folksy and elite – the movers and shakers of a national capital as they move around town and shop and advertise and gossip and greet. Unlike that other Washington title The National Intelligencer, the first of the eight pages contains very little news, while the third page is devoted to veteran accounts of the American Civil War, with columns headed by campaign and battle names. Sandwiched between the words of the wife of the Speaker of the House concerning her eight children and the scientific reporting on the application of incandescent mantles to carriage lights are details of Senate hearings and policy matters that still impact us today.
If you have the opportunity, consider purchasing a random date from this collection. It’s less than two movie tickets and popcorn, and will likely enrich your life as much as it entertains. The newsy, small town tone reminds me of my recent time in New England, with the strange familiarity induced by elements we all have in common, whatever our circumstances or position.
Anyway, I plan to wander the New England titles from the 1800’s in my next bit of adventuring time. Life, as described by a community newspaper, is filled with unexpected moments of beauty, kindness and every day heroism.
Note: If you would like to purchase an issue of this title from the 1800’s, feel free to do so at: National Tribune, 1885-1887
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- I’m New Here: Week Thirty-Six…
I’m New Here: Week Twenty-Six (aka, “She’s Still New Here – the first six months”)…
August 15, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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There has rarely (if ever) been someone who has walked through our archives of historic newspapers and not been overwhelmed by the history that courses through the premises, but what is uncommon is to have such an individual become a member of our staff. Unlike many things that initially overwhelm or amaze us but soon lose their wonderment, if you love history, there are enough hidden treasures buried deep within our stacks to create excitement and appreciation for a lifetime. It was with this unique opportunity in mind we decided to have Stephanie Williams, our new office manager, chronicle her “learning curve” through a series of ongoing posts titled, “I’m New Here…”. Now that she has eclipsed the six-month mark, we thought it might be nice to assemble the posts into one easy-to-access location. Please enjoy her initial 6-month trek.
I’m New Here…
Week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-6, 7, 8, 9-10, 11, 12, 13, 14-15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20-21, 22-23, 24, and 25 (this being week 26)
(Also, Stephanie was on vacation so we thought it was a good time to create this chronology.)
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- Where have we been?
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- I’m New Here…Week Two
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Snapshot 1858… A French flying machine…
August 13, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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The following snapshot comes from The National Intelligencer, dated August 7, 1858. It’s a shame those in the article below this snapshot didn’t have access to such an invention.
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I’m New Here: Week Twenty-Five…
August 9, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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I began this post with a completely different musing on the world of collecting. However, one hundred and twenty words into it I received a query concerning the content of an issue posted on one of the web market places. After my research concluded, I cleared my page to begin again.
We had a 1927 New York Times listed for sale, and the request was to verify whether or not a name was mentioned within the feature story. And so, for the first time ever, I read about the USS S-4, a submarine that was rammed by a Coast Guard ship off of Massachusetts on December 17th. Of the forty on board, six crew members survived long enough to signal their location. For three days the divers heard sounds of life; then the tapping ceased. One of the rescue team almost lost his life attempting to attach an air hose to the cavity in which the small group had huddled. His buddy eventually received a medal for saving him.
It is horrible to follow the words of hope and heroic blow-by-blow efforts as diver after diver took a dangerous shift in the turbulence, spurred by the Morse signals from the submarine, “Is there any hope?” Finally, reluctantly, the tragic designation was issued, “lost with all hands.”
If I read the historical bits correctly, it took three months to raise the sub, which (“who” to all those in the habit of employing the feminine pronoun for a ship) was utilized for another five years following the disaster. My contact today was looking for the name of his grandfather among the divers who battled weather and odds in the hours following the crash. And he is there. The name I was commissioned to seek is nestled within the sentence, “First diver to the scene was ______________” For a full column the radioed conversations from command to scene are reported word-by-word. These were clearly the exchanges of men determined to save their fellow men, at great cost and against reasonable hope. And my imagination had me within that family, hearing bits and pieces of this epic event through the years. Perhaps he never talked about it at all. Either way, the very words spoken as one diver worked through the obstacles are here on the pages within an issue that we will carefully package and ship out to his grandson.
For me, this personal narrative embedded within a national tragedy eclipsed every other treasure found in a week packed with collectors seeking titles spanning from Virginia Gazettes to Village Voices.
I just had to share.
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- The Traveler… A commuted sentence… the angry mob and more…
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- The Traveler… digging into his job…
- I’m New Here: Week Twenty-Seven…
Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… Martin Luther King Jr. march on Washington and speech…
August 8, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the HERALD EXAMINER, Los Angeles, August 28, 1963: reporting on the March which ended with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s historic, “I have a dream…” speech: “THE GREAT MARCH At Least 200,000“
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- Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Walt Disney…
- Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… Martin Luther King, Jr. slain…
I’m New Here: Week Twenty-Four…
August 2, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · 2 Comments Email This Post
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Today someone asked me to choose the nicer of two issues. Each had the same date, the same title, the same price, and so a collector (who was in that particular instance selecting a gift) wanted to know which I thought best.
As many of my interactions are, this was a phone conversation. I offered to send photographs, but he said, “You told me my previous selection was beautiful, so I trust you.”
While that is a very nice compliment to give to “the new girl”, to be quite frank it worried me. Guy’s philosophy, when it comes to describing the condition of an item, is to set expectations low, and let the collector be pleasantly surprised. And it makes sense. He makes sense. We are shipping things hundreds of years old to folks hundreds of miles away. How can we possibly use common evaluations to describe Rare and Early items?
See, the truth is that I am a bit entranced by these old papers. I’m learning to see the browning, the foxing, and even the tears in very peripheral ways. Instead, every part of the oldest papers feels stately and significant. The decorative mastheads are fancy, but the straightforward block type conveys dependability and balance; loveliness can be displayed in a broad range of styles.
This young upstart country has packed a lot of history into two hundred and forty-three years, and these pages tell of the innovation and the expansion. They report virtues and crimes.
It’s a little magical to me to stand and contemplate volumes stuffed with the details that brought us to where we are today. For better, as they say, or worse.
An expert knows the wear and tear that decreases value, and our catalog prices often reflect that aspect. So, I’m not really the one to ask when you want to ascertain condition. If the words of the stories are there, I will probably tell you something hyperbolic like, “It’s stunning.”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m transfixed.
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- I’m New Here… Week One
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- I’m New Here: Week Sixteen…
- I’m New Here: Week Twenty-Five…
Snapshot 1852… Uncle Tom’s Cabin…
July 29, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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The following snapshot comes from the National Intelligencer dated December 28, 1852. Most are aware of the impact Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin had on the fabric of The United States, but not everyone saw eye-to-eye. The image below shows a blurb of a politically incorrect view from the northern region of the country.
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I’m New Here: Weeks Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three…
July 26, 2019 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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Time seems to be advancing at an ever-increasing pace. Each day is crammed with more tasks than can possibly be accomplished; I think this means I am beginning to get the hang of things. But Monday brought me up short a bit as I searched titles tracing a particular story which initially diverted to the Freedom Ride. As intriguing as the tone in those accumulating reports of bus rides through the South was, the heading on a neighboring column wrested my eyes and my thoughts. I had to know the reason that divorcees (such a fancy and outmoded term) spent a night in jail. At least that’s what I believed at the time. However, since it has been four days since I read the report and I am still ready to sound forth at a moment’s reflection, it might have been better if I stuck to the familiar angst over bus seats allocated by color of skin.
In case accompanying photographs do not tell enough story, women went to jail because deadbeat dads (such a crass and modern term) did not pay court-ordered child support. Just that. The year was 1963, and I suppose I am not meant to expect much else from the era — particularly that the freedom to assemble could possibly, legally, be constrained to a total of four persons.
Because, that was the crux of the charges — the reason for the headline: Night in Jail Makes Divorcees Contrite. “They promised that if they ever picket the County Building again to protest lagging support payments they will keep within the legal limit of four.” Fifty-six years ago a woman who was not receiving justice promised by the legal system had to promise to forego rights granted in 1791 by the First Amendment, even as she attempted to bring pressure to bear on the powers that be. Of course, I’m not foolish enough to think that this tiny fragment that sparks my ire is as important than any of the other Civil Rights /liberties that seem to have too limited of a citizenry to whom they are applied. And I am fiercely glad that the group of four swelled to an angry mob of twelve, bringing so much havoc upon the town that these single mothers had to be jailed in order to preserve the peace. Perhaps they were granddaughters of those who marched for Suffrage . It may be that they were inspired by other heroes that brought about change. Because things are not the same today. Here it helps me to take in the 1963 newspaper as a whole, reading again of the laws that were eventually impacted by two different groups. In 2019, wearied with seemingly insurmountable conflict, offense, discrimination and outright hatred, the neighboring headline, “11 Riders Quietly Leave for Mississippi Test Run” provides some perspective. Multiple barriers to equality remain, but many have been knocked down. Many barriers have been knocked down, but perhaps some have been worn away through the centuries by those whose stories are woven through old newspaper pages, those who find their own, quiet, persistent way to push back.
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The July (2019) Newsletter from Rare & Early Newspapers…
July 22, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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Each month the staff of Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers sends out a newsletter to our members which includes special offers, discounts, alerts to new inventory, and information related to the rare newspaper collectible.
The July, 2019 newsletter:
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Welcome to the July 2019 edition of our monthly
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- The July (2018) Newsletter from Rare & Early Newspapers…
- The July (2020) Newsletter from Rare & Early Newspapers…
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- The September (2018) Newsletter from Rare & Early Newspapers…
The Village Voice… Greenwich Village, New York…
July 19, 2019 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment Email This Post
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Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Nat Hentoff, John Wilcock, Norman Mailer, Ezra Pound, Lynda Barry, Robert Christgau, Andrew Sarris, J. Hoberman, James Baldwin, E.E. Cummings, Ted Hoagland… Broadway and Off-Broadway theater reviews, the annual Obie Awards, upstart musicians and actors, progressive and left-leaning journalism… the beatnik, hippie , and Bohemian cultures…
Although we rarely use this space to announce new inventory, we’ve recently taken in a collection which is unique enough to warrant an exception. As many know, The Village Voice, the iconic newspaper from Greenwich Village, recently stopped printing new issues. However, over the years they had saved samples of a majority of their issues for the purpose of eventually creating a digital archive, and once done, we were able to procure the lion’s-share of their own collection. What a treat! Although I personally am unable to endorse portions of their content, their impact on culture as far as newspapers are concerned may very well be second to none. Over the next year or so collectors will begin to see listings appear through our website and our eBay store. In the meantime, if there are specific issues you would like to add to your collection, and can appreciate their provenance, please be in touch at guy@rarenewspapers.com. Our holdings include most issues from 1956 through close to the final publication.
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