Inherited 26 1865 New York Herald Lincoln Assassination Newspapers

[L Verge]

(12-04-2013 05:02 PM)historybuff22 Wrote:  There are two types of newspaper collectors: Those that want them for research purposes and those who want the originals. For the person conducting research they would NOT pay, say for instance, even $100 for it. For those that want the originals they would likely pay much more.

Almost all newspapers in the 19th century were bound into volumes - e.g. oversize book. Various institutions that subscribed to newspapers at some point would send them out to be bound. At another point the institutions would have the originals digitized (microfilm, etc.) and sell off the original bound volumes to make room for new newspapers. In this case, however, it is likely that the original owner had them professionally bound to better preserve them.

As far as preservation goes, the first historic newspaper I purchased was a Booth captured issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer dated April 28, 1865. I made the purchase in April 1965 - 48 years ago. In that time I have let hundreds of people handle and read it - without gloves!!! Today, it still looks the same as when I first saw it 48 years ago as well as close to how it appeared 100 years ago when it came off the press.

Another aspect to consider: How long will a dollar bill last before it becomes "destroyed?" It is likely that thousands of people will have handled it before it becomes destroyed enough to be withdrawn from circulation. NONE of the handlers wore white gloves when touching the dollar bill. Newspapers in this era, I repeat, were printed on the SAME paper that currency was printed on. However, in most cases, other items of the era were printed on paper of lower grade - such as wood pulp. For these items,not on rag linen, yes, it is recommended to wear white gloves.

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

Obviously you and I will disagree on conservation standards -- museum studies vs. personal collections. I will just add that I, too, once collected Lincoln assassination newspapers, and several that I purchased had distinct finger smudges of brown (foxing) in certain areas as well as browning around edges, etc.

You did touch on one thing above, however, that I was suspecting. When I viewed the photos that Dave has supplied of what appears to be a large, ledger-type book containing these newspapers, I immediately thought that they had been commercially bound at some point - and to me the label on the front was a dead give-away.

Does this increase or decrease (or even change) the value of the collection to have them thusly bound?