The Acquisitions Table: The Other Side

The Other Side (Bloomington, IL).  Apr. 14, 1868.  Vol. 1, no. 4. This is a campaign newspaper printed in broadside format.  It was a Republican paper edited by C.F. Merriman, a long-time newspaper editor of this town.  Though stating it was to be published daily, output was irregular, and it claimed a circulation of 2,000.  The ...

Calling all Newsies: NY Paps for Adoption Here!

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Don't let the name fool you -- Adopt-a-Book is for newsies too. AAS's fifth annual Adopt-A-Book event is coming up this Tuesday, April 3, at 6 p.m. Browse the 2012 Adopt-A-Book Catalog to view the 150 items up for adoption.  Here are a few highlights of New York newspapers still available for adoption. ...

The Acquisitions Table: Our Song Birds

Our Song Birds (Chicago, IL). July 1866. George Root was noted as a composer and as one of the largest music publishers in Chicago during the 1860s. This cute little 64-page booklet was written by Root and B.R. Hanby, and published by Root & Cady. It comprises one issue of a juvenile musical quarterly, Our Song ...

The Acquisitions Table: Calathumpian Advocate

Calathumpian Advocate (Concord, NH).  June 19, 1850. This interesting political periodical could be described as rabble rousing. The term “calathumpian” is probably a colloquial Americanism relating to a society of social reformers, especially those that disrupt political events. This particular issue includes a report of the Calathumpian Fusiliers disrupting an election in Concord, ending with a ...

‘Chasing the Dumpster’ for historic newspapers

Who knew the skill set for a successful curator of newspapers included dumpster diving abilities? While this may not always be literally true, figuratively speaking at least AAS's curator of newspapers has rescued some of the collection's treasures from pretty precarious situations. Vincent Golden recently gave a talk on his "Chasing the Dumpster" activities, which ...

The Acquisitions Table: The Californian

The Californian (San Francisco, CA).  70 issues, 1864-1867. This bound volume of The Californian begins with the first issue of May 28, 1864. It was primarily a weekly literary periodical with some local news thrown in. Charles Henry Webb started the paper but Bret Harte soon succeeded him as the editor. One of the contributors hired ...

The Acquisitions Table: Major Downing’s Advocate

Jack Downing was a comic character created in 1830 by Seba Smith, who developed the country dialect-speaking character in a series of letters for the Portland Courier. As Downing became famous, Charles Augustus Davis imitated the style and wrote under the same name for New York papers. Davis started Major Downing’s Advocate on Mar. 12, ...

The Acquisitions Table: The Deposit Courier

AAS has few newspapers from Delaware County, NY and, until this spring, only two issues from the town of Deposit. Six years ago we were the underbidder at auction on a lot of the Deposit Courier. The person who won it was a Californian, John Aiello, who had grown up in Deposit. Mr. Aiello promised ...

150 years ago this week…

...a young man named Henry L. Joslin, from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was writing home to his mother on September 24th. Henry, born in 1843, was serving in the Civil War and was working picket duty in Poolsville.  In his letter he describes his camp, what guard duty was like, and gives updates about his health, and other young ...

The Newspaper Front: The Civil War from the Southern Side

Disclaimers always add something titillating to a post, so here goes our very own… This post focuses on reporting in the South, but the war of words worked both ways during the Civil War. The northern press could be inaccurate, hypocritical, and disingenuous. We would love to read examples you have ...

Samuel Cornish, John Russwurm, and the Early Black Press

In March 1827, Rev. Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm co-founded Freedom’s Journal in New York City. It served as the first African-American newspaper in the United States and commemorated the 50th anniversary-year of the first American anti-slavery statutes in the 1777 Vermont Constitution. One of their primary objectives in starting Freedom’s Journal was to combat ...

Ads during the Civil War Years

Civil War era newspapers were more than just sources of information regarding current events.  In the Boston Daily Advertiser, for example, nearly half of any given issue was devoted to advertising.   It was certainly not alone in this, though it was at least honest enough to include the word “advertiser” in its name.  Goods and ...

This Week in the Civil War: Gettysburg, Hippos, and the French are in Mexico!

In the United States today July, 1863 is remembered primarily as the month of the Battle of Gettysburg.  For Americans at the time, however, there was plenty of other news to think about.  Readers of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, a weekly publication from New York, learned about the battle in the July 11th edition of ...

The Civil War Comes to California

As was mentioned in a post last week, Americans will be marking the 150th anniversaries of the great events of the Civil War over the next four years.  Many of the battles, commanders and regiments of that conflict have become legends, and the narrative of a nation split apart, brother fighting against brother, remains compelling.  ...