Periodical Dig at N-YHS

Fun with Old Publications Day -- we saw mammoth sheets, pocket books and some sparkling cover art.Mariam Touba, periodicals librarian at New-York Historical Society led us on a merry dance through periodicals in NY from the very earliest to NY Post Headline about the Blackout of 2003. She noted that the New-York Historical Society collections held a coveted V1, N.1 New-York Times which the company does not itself own. And that the microfilm of the New-York Evening Post from July 1804 containing a surprisingly short notice of the dueling death of its founder Alexander Hamilton had gone missing, although we got to see the actual issue. The notice was on the inside pages, with the most "important" news on the front, e.g. shipments of cotton from Sea Islands in Georgia and coffee, arriving from places like Port-au-Prince, see image. This surprised me due to recent victory in 1804 revolution there, not too many former slaves felt like raising the old crops in Haiti. The handwritten manuscript "Incidents and Sketches Among the Newsboys" 1855 included the Song of the Newsboys, beginning on the cheerful narcissistic note common to lads through the ages  "hurrah for ourselves." We know from Vincent DiGirolamo's talk later in the day, that often the newsboys had only themselves for cheer.Sandra Roff led us through ladies' publications, starting with some in colonial era, such as Ladie's and Gentleman's Pocket Magazine. The cover illustration suggested reading while reclining under a tree in empire style dress might be enlightening, indeed. How could we fail to agree? I especially appreciated the motto of 1801 New York publication, The Ladies Monitor "to improve the mind and also to amuse."A Prohibition-era issue of the original Life magazine featured a John Held cover with risque dancing flappers and advertised an advice article on Alibis -- obviously a good way to sell copies in 1927.