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HISTORIC NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES

This page contains links to our inventory of historic newspapers and magazines and pictures of some featured items. Our inventory includes Gentleman's Magazine issues from the French and Indian War and earlier, Revolutionary War newspapers and magazines, Founding Period newspapers, War of 1812 newspapers, Civil War newspapers and many newspapers concerning United States Presidents and political campaigns. We also have many illustrated newspapers, including Harper's Weekly and Leslie's, which are especially strong in the Civil War period. Newspapers and magazine published from the Civil War through today are shown here. We even have a selection of very modern, but historic, newspapers featuring Barack Obama.

Click on titles or pictures below for more information and prices.

1750-1752

Benjamin Franklin's Electricity Experiments Transforms Him Into an International Celebrity and Is Honored With The Title Dr. Franklin

Gentleman's Magazine because of its relationship with Peter Collinson, Fellow of the Royal Society, who was Ben Franklin's early and regular scientific correspondent, and as publisher of Franklin's book on electricity, is an unparalleled repository of contemporaneous articles on Franklin's historic electricity and lightning experiments.  

First Ground Breaking Electricity Experiments Reported (January 1750; 

 

First Report of Franklin's Lighting Rod Discovery (May 1750);

 

Ben Franklin's Electricity Book and Report of French Experiments to Test His Hypothesis (May 1752);

 

French King Witnesses Electricity Experiment and French and British Skeptics Convinced (June 1752);

 

Franklin's Lightning Rod Experiment Criticized and Praised (October 1752); and

 

Franklin's Famous Letter Explaining How He Extracted Electricity from Clouds with a Kite (December 1752).

 

1754

First International Mentions of Young George Washington

June 1754 Major George Washington's First First Military Expedition to Request French to Abandon Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg).  Extensive report of expedition from Williamsburg, VA to Ohio River.

 

July 1754 Colonel George Washington's First Military Victory at Jumonville Glen

 

September 1754 Colonel Washington's First Military Loss, The Battle of Great Meadows and Capitulation of Fort Necessity

 

1770

"The Boston Massacre"  

Full Report by Boston Patriots Signed by Sam Adams and John Hancock

British Version of Incident by Captain Preston

1775 Lexington and Concord

May 1775: The First Report of the Skirmishes at Lexington and Concord; British try to stop meeting of Second Continental Congress

June 1775: Full and Complete Reports of Lexington and Concord, including patriots shooting from behind stone walls, largely unreported in American newspapers; Fort Ticonderoga captured by Americans; affidavit British soldier captured at Concord; Governor Trumbull's letter to General Gage accusing British of atrocities at Lexington and Concord; agitation in colonies following battles, including insurrection at New York City.

1775 The Battle of Bunker Hill

First Full Military Engagement of Revolutionary War that led directly to Declaration of Independence

July 1775: General Gage's Full Report of the Battle: Gen. Gage Declaration pardons all but Sam Adams and John Hancock; Journal of Fort Ticonderoga expedition under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold

August 1775: George Washington appointed Commander in Chief; American account of Battle of Bunker Hill; Congress Declares "The Causes and Necessities of taking Up Arms"

September 1775: Map of Battle of Bunker Hill American defenses; Great John Adams letter To Abigail on Burdens of Congress and Frustration with his Colleagues; First George Washington correspondence published with Gen. Gage: Congress Rejects British Conciliation Plan and Appeals to King

Early Publication of Declaration of Independence

August 1776 Edition of Gentleman's Magazine

Much News of the War in America and Parliamentary Debates on the War

Book Review of Gibbon's "History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire"

1782 British Parliament Votes To End War With America,
Effectively Granting Independence After Battle of Yorktown
Historic Newspaper Has Full Debate and Votes

 

1788 South Carolina Ratifies United States Constitution

State Convention Attaches States Rights Concerns That Persist Through Civil War

Historic Newspaper also includes General Rufus Putnam And The Ohio Company, John Trumbull and Cincinnati Society, Samuel Storrs of Mansfield Seeks Runaway

 

 

Death of George Washington and Boston Testimonials

Black Bordered January 1800 Russell's Gazette Full of Honors for George Washington

 

1798 Newspaper Reports Napoleon Invasion of Egypt

Lord Nelson Destroys French Fleet

Congressman Matthew Lyon in Prison Under Sedition Act

 

 

1843 Volume of Brother Jonathan Newspaper with Charles Dickens Novel Martin Chuzzlewit

Go To Civil War and later Newspapers and Magazines