Lincoln Assassination Newspapers

[historybuff22]

I divided all reprints into two categories: Those created as advertising pieces and those created to sell in Civil War souvenir shops, etc.

1) Most of the advertising reprints were produced by patent medicine companies. All but one of this category were four-page editions. One was a single sheet printed both sides with the back side a full page ad for the Genesee Pure Foods Company - the makers of J-E-L-L-O. This one was produced in 1900 and is the only reprint produced on rag linen paper. All of the rest, including souvenir shop were printed on wood pulp paper. This was a marketing strategy to get their products to the masses. These reprints were given away at any large gatherings such as county fairs, Grange meetings, conventions, etc. The theory was, for example, if their parent medicine was a cure for headaches, and the company man handed you a flyer for their product, most would end up in a trash cans. By putting Lincoln assassination new on the front page, people would keep it as a souvenir Perhaps months later they might get a headache and dig out the reprint and buy the medicine advertised.

2) Only twelve of the 52 reprint variants did not have any advertising in them. Producers varied from Emporiums, to drug stores, to Knot's Berry Farm. All of these reprints have 4 pages except for one - the one produced by Ford's Theatre and Library of Congress.

Over one-half of the reprints clearly state the year produced. For the rest, by researching City Directories of the city where the company that produced a specific reprint was located,, I have determined that perhaps as many as a combined total of one million total reprints were produced between 1871 and 1916!! Unfortunately, an average of 3 of these reprints are offering every week on eBay. Very few identity their specimen as a reprint.

Rick Brown
HistoryReference.org
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