Unusual Titles: The Challenge

husband always reading newspaper
“Portrait of the husband who is always reading the newspaper,” New York , 1864.

When you look at the names of current newspapers you see much sameness in the titles.  How often do you see Times, Post, Globe, Union, Herald, Sun, Independent, or Tribune as part of the title? Once in a while you might run across a paper still published today, such as the Quincy Herald-Whig (IL), which continues to hold onto a term that is now considered old-fashioned or obsolete, but generally there is little variety left in the names of papers.

Such was not the case in the nineteenth-century. Below is a list of ten titles of nineteenth-century newspapers or periodicals, but three of them are not real publications.  Can you pick out the three fake titles (without using online resources)?

Share your answers in the comments section below.  The answers will be posted next week with photos of the mastheads to prove they are real.

  1.  Sucker and Farmer’s Record  (Pittsfield, IL)
  2.  Widow’s Bite and Lincoln Advocate  (Cleveland, OH)
  3.  Horseneck Truth-Teller and Gossip Journal (Greenwich, CT)
  4.  Criminal Life of Albany  (NY)
  5.  Honest Politician  (Washington, D.C.)
  6.  Estabrook’s Great Public Chowder  (Boston, MA)
  7.  Stephen H. Branch’s Alligator  (New York, NY)
  8.  Mud Turtle  (Alligator Bayou, TX)
  9.  Striped Pig  (Boston, MA)
  10.  Pitch Fork of Righteousness  (Philadelphia, PA)

The answers can be found here.

Published by

Vincent Golden

Curator of Newspapers and Periodicals, American Antiquarian Society

5 thoughts on “Unusual Titles: The Challenge”

  1. A real shot in the dark:

    Honest Politician (Washington, D.C.)
    Pitch Fork of Righteousness (Philadelphia, PA)
    Stephen H. Branch’s Alligator (New York, NY)

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