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The end of the world… false alarm…
August 6, 2011 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
A few years ago several collectors contacted us wondering if the end of the Rare & Early Newspapers collectible was at hand. They had just received news about Google’s newspaper digitizing project and wondered if this would lead to an end in people wanting to collect historic newspapers. “Might this be the end of the old newspaper’s collectible world?” We tried to reassure them them that collecting the actual newspaper from the day it was 1st printed/read as compared to reading digitized versions is akin to eating an ice-cream sundae rather than looking at a picture of one. No matter how perfect the picture of the sundae reproduces the look of an actual one, it can never compare to the real deal. Apparently, time has proven this to be so. 2011 brought news from Google announcing the end of the digitizing project. The date of the announcement is rather ironic. Please read:
Google Announces End Of Newspaper Digitizing Project
🙂 🙂 🙂
First newspapers in Ohio…
March 21, 2011 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
Ohio was still part of the vast Northwest Territory when the first newspaper in present-day Ohio was published in 1793. The date was November 9 and William Maxwell’s newspaper the “Centinel of the North-Western Territory” was the first product of the printing press anywhere north of the Ohio River & west of the Allegheny & Blue Ridge mountains. The city of publication was Cincinnati, but just a few years earlier it’s name had changed from “Losantiville”. The newspaper would continue until June of 1796, although records show the newspaper was sold to Edmund Freeman in 1796 who changed the name to “Freeman’s Journal“. Records show, however, that it did not publish until July of 1800 and lasted less then 6 months.
The second newspaper published in Ohio was also done in Cincinnati, called the “Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette“, begun in May of 1799 and lasting till the end of 1822. Only one other pre-statehood (1803) newspaper published in Ohio, being the “Scioto Gazette” published in Chillicothe, it beginning January 8, 1801 and lasting through the end of 1803.
A collector sells bound volumes in 1878…
December 11, 2010 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
This advertisement appeared in the “Scientific American” issue of June 22, 1878, noting a collector who has various bound volumes of the title, selling for $1 each. How prices have changed.
My collecting story… Graham Dukes…
November 15, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
I have been collecting newspapers longer than most fellow enthusiasts, beginning when I was at school in England in 1943. My father went into a small second-hand shop and noticed that the owner, who sold candlesticks, old dinner plates and suchlike, was wrapping up the items in copies of the London evening “Star” for 1818, that he was tearing out of a bound volume. There were about 150 papers left and my father, who was well aware of my budding historical interest, bought the whole volume for threepence (10c).
From there I continued myself, often picking up items from shopkeepers who had no idea what they were. Nearly 70 years later, with several thousand items in store, (particularly London national papers, but also items from many other countries) some of my prize items, going back to the earlier sixteenth century, are still those that I found in the English back streets during my time as a schoolboy and later as a university student!
Graham Dukes
New discovery… Who knows what one might find?
November 8, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
We’ve often mentioned that one of the pleasures of the Rare & Early newspaper collecting hobby is finding unforeseen historical nuggets buried deep within the pages of newspapers… just waiting to be unearthed. 
This was recently brought to the surface again by a collector/history teacher who purchases 19th century wholesale lots (undescribed as to content) for his students and for personal use . His note is as follows:
This paper (from a wholesale lot) had a reference to a house vote for the “relief” of Susan Decatur, wife of naval hero Stephen Decatur. She had inherited $75,000 from her husband, who was killed in a duel in 1820. This is the equivalent of $1.4 million today. The bill was defeated. One of the nays was cast by Congressman Crockett (David). Minor, but priceless info. Your company does more good than you know.
Feel free to share your own discoveries with the collecting community.
Prices… a walk down memory lane… 1987…
October 25, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Blondie, Kool & the Gang, Ambrosia… Rubik’s Cube, Break Dancing, Transformers… The A-Team, 21 Jump Street, Moonlighting… the 80’s! Our walk through time now brings us to the 8o’s. Our exploration of authentic newspaper pricing through time takes us back to Catalog 60. To see a larger image of the catalog’s page, go here: Catalog 60
Prices… a walk down memory lane… 1993…
October 18, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · 2 Comments
Forest Gump, Jerry Maguire, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana… the 90’s. Our price-searching through time continues… all the way to “back in the day”… when everything was “aiight. Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at sample prices from 2006 and 2009. Today we explore a half-dozen years earlier – 1993. To see a larger image of the catalog’s page, go here: Catalog 90
Prices… a walk down memory lane… 1999…
October 11, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
A week ago we looked at authentic newspaper prices from 2006. Today will go a little farther back in time… to 1999. To see a larger image of the catalog’s page, go to: Catalog 120
Prices… a walk down memory lane… 2006…
October 4, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
We recently took a look at “prices realized” for a number of historic newspapers spanning the centuries. We’ll now take a look a the pricing of authentic newspapers from a different perspective: pricing over time. Over the course of the next several weeks we’ll post a random page from old Rare & Early Newspapers catalogs. We’ll start with a page from a catalog sent in 2006, and work backwards through time.
Prices realized… 20th century…
September 27, 2010 by GuyHeilenman · 1 Comment
We continue with our series on “prices realized”, with this 4th installment providing select examples of issues from the 20th century. While there are many issues to choose from, we tried to cover a variety of collectible interests.
Note: While collectible newspapers have had a good track record of increasing in value over time (see upcoming posts), we encourage hobbyists to collect for non-financial reasons. History in your hands…
20th century selections:
The previous posts in this series are:
Prices realized… 16th & 17th centuries…
Prices realized… 18th century…
Prices realized… 19th century…