America the Beautiful, Patriotic Songs

I don't just collect magazines. As a lover of history and Americana, I've always kept an eye out for great paper items. When I had more money (and no ex-wives!) I put together a now long-gone collection of Presidential signed documents and still get goose bumps at autograph dealers booths at bookfairs.

Fortunately, I was able to hold onto a few great pieces, in particular patriotic songs. Musicians often reproduced a few bars of music for collectors and poets do the same for lyrics, known as faircopies. Here are a few of my favorites:

During the Civil War, perhaps the most beloved "flag" song (on both the Union and Confederate sides) was "Rally Round the Flag Boys" written in 1862 by George F. Root.

"America", or "My Country Tis of Thee", written by Samuel F. Smith was very popular and Smith wrote out hundreds of copies, some including all the stanzas, for collectors.

Katherine Lee Bates was inundated with requests for "America the Beautiful". Here's mine with the letter she sent to the collector who requested it. Not a bad piece of Americana!

Of course, how could one exclude John Philip Sousa

or Irving Berlin.

I've been looking for over thirty years for a George M. Cohan "Grand Old Flag" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" but I've never seen or heard of one for sale. Perhaps one will surface. More likely he never did one. Oh the collector's mentality!

OK. 2 posts done- off to the pool. Once again, have a great holiday.

United We Stand July 1942 Flag Covers

In July 1942, seven months into "the good war", as a sign of solidarity and patriotism the Magazine Publisher's Association decided that every magazine should have a cover depicting a flag. Over 500 magazines participated.

In 2002, to commemerate the sixtieth anniversary of the campaign, the Smithsonian presented an exhibition of over a hundred of them. The website http://americanhistory.si.edu/1942/introduction.html shows nearly 500 images. An interesting story worth reading.

Here is how it was described in 2002

During July 1942, seven months after the United States entered World War II, magazines nationwide featured the American flag on their covers. Adopting the slogan United We Stand, some five hundred publications waved the stars and stripes to promote national unity, rally support for the war, and celebrate Independence Day.
For magazine publishers, displaying the flag was a way to prove their loyalty and value to the war effort. For the U.S. government, the campaign was an opportunity to sell bonds and boost morale. The magazines brought home a message of patriotism and ideals worth fighting for.
The National Museum of American History presents this exhibition to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the United We Stand campaign. We hope you enjoy touring the virtual exhibit, and we also invite you to visit the Museum, where nearly one hundred original flag covers will be on view from March 22 to October 27, 2002.
Today, in light of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the flag and the slogan United We Stand have a renewed meaning for many Americans. As the home of the Star-Spangled Banner, the National Museum of American History is a place to explore the history of our national symbol and the ideals for which it stands.

The winner of the competition for the best of all was House and Garden

Here's two from my collection that aren't on the site.

These are fun to collect and display. The more obscure the title, the more valuable. Enjoy! Happy 4th of July.

Early Michael Jackson Magazines

In Memorium Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Michael's first solo national magazine cover. Text of article below.



Rolling Stone's Article about Michael and the Jackson 5



Earlier pictures of the entire Jackson 5 appeared on Jet in 1970







These are considerably rarer than the Rolling Stone.




This is not the time to buy these magazines. The market will stablilize in a few months at a reasonable level. Pre June 25th price $10.

A rare African-American Playboy clone: Duke Magazine and Dan Burley

After the phenomenal success of Hugh Hefner's Playboy, started in 1953, dozens of clones appeared. Most were low class ripoffs with little or no redeeming merit. Some, like Rogue and Cavalier were a cut above the rest and, as Playboy, featured some good literature and other germaine articles. One that is little known (thanks to David Leishman for making me aware of it) is Duke, published in June 1957. Duke was published for an arican-american audience and featured reprinted literature from Langston Hughes and Chester Himes as well as Ray Bradbury "The Last White Man" and others.

Amazingly, there is very little about this magazine on the web and it probably lasted only one issue.

The editor was Dan Burley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Burley who was involved in many African-American publishing enterprises, including Jet, whose idea he sold to the Johnson Publishing empire. Burley's daughter is an international radio host and maintains a wonderful website about her father http://danburleyfoundation.wetpaint.com/ which incidentally does not mention this magazine! Burley was involved in many aspects of popular culture, most notably music, and coined the term "bee-bop".

The magazine cost me 16 bucks on eBay and is worth considerably more due to its rarity and cultural importance. So, you can see that twentieth century rarities can be found.

sports and baseball

Sporting magazines in America began in September 1829 with American Turf Register, published in Baltimore.

Here's a very rare offshoot from New York in 1833. As you can see, equestrian and aquatic sports predominated.









Cricket hung on in popularity until the late 19th Century whan it was replaced by Baseball. This magazine also has one of the earliest references to competitive tennis.





Baseball Magazine was the predominant publication of the sport begining in 1905, by which time the sport was wildly popular. Here's the first issue.








Remember, today's collectibles are items which were not recognized as particularly valuable in their time. Manufactured collectibles rarely are worth collecting. The baseball card market, since the mid-1970's has been ridiculously overmarketed. Bob Feller estimated that he's signed his name over 100,000 times. I ask you, how rare can that be in the future?

The same is the case for the millions of perfect condition Don Mattingly and Darryl Strawberry Rookie cards from the 1980's. The notion that baseball collectibles are a stock market of individual players will just not hold up with time. Supply and demand!

If you love baseball, as I do, its nice to have reminders of your favorite players to look at. Just don't get sucked into the notion that someday you'll be able to retire on them. Aside from the blatantly phony ones, sports autographs and memorabilia from the 70's, 80's and 90's are just not worth putting serious money into. Enough morality, I just hate to see too many people victimized by slick marketing.

More great (and truly rare) images to come.

Baseball 2

Here's a few more great items from my collection:

I showed the Ball Player's Chronicle earlier but only the masthead. Here's the entire first page.

National Chronicle is a rare title from the 1860's featuring baseball. This is the first issue.

Baseball guides made their debut in the 1860's. FYI from a website (with my illustration)

Baseball Guides Galore


By Ralph E. LinWeber

Record books have been compiled on every game of skill and athletic endeavor that exists. Baseball, America's national game, is, of course, the most prominent because of its long history, the long season in which it is played, the endless flow of statistics, and the broad interest it affords. Although statistical based newspaper and magazine articles had appeared before, the first known baseball guide made its appearance in 1860. It was called the Beadle Base Ball Guide or Beadle's Dime Base Ball Guide - an indication of its cost. It is a rare item and today the few in existence are known to be in collectors' hands.
The Beadle Guide continued publication until 1881 and in that period showed the evolution of various baseball terms and statistical categories. Baseball "matches" eventually became games and "hands lost" became number of times the batter was put out. In 1868 the Dime Baseball Guide added base hits to the score with outs coming first, runs second, and hits last in the three columns. In 1871 the Boston and Cleveland National Association clubs issued batting averages based on hits to times at bat. However, it was many years before all clubs started to show at bats in the box score.
From 1868 to 1885 the DeWitt Baseball Guide was in publication, with Henry Chadwick the editor from 1869 on. It was smaller than the Beadle Book and contained less information, but it boasted a larger circulation. Chadwick also put out his own Baseball Manual in 1870 and 1871. The man called the "Father of Baseball" was a statistician of note and his endless research into the records uncovered facts and figures that enlightened the sports world. George Wright, one of the early star players, also published a record book on baseball in 1875 while he was with the Boston club of the National Association.

the first De Witt's Baseball Handbook

from my collection.

In 1877, A. G. Spalding, a former star player who became a sporting goods magnate, launched Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide. It lasted for many years and enjoyed the greatest success of any publication of its kind. It first covered the National League and expanded to other leagues as they were established. In 1883, Alfred J. Reach, like Spalding, a former player who moved into the sporting goods field, introduced the Reach Guide. It contained the first year averages of the American Association as well as the National League and was similar in coverage to the Spalding Guide. With the establishment of the American League as a major circuit in 1901, the Reach Guide took the title of Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide. Of course, Spalding also covered the AL.
Starting in 1908, Spalding published two books, which caused some confusion to later researchers. All the minor league records were taken out of the Guide and put into the Spalding Base Ball Record, along with the major league records. The Guide also carried major league records and expanded its narrative section. This division continued until 1925 when the Spalding company cutback to one publication - the guide - with its original content.
In this period there were many other short-lived baseball guides and record books. The Wright & Ditson Baseball Guide was published intermittently between 1884 and 1912 with Tim Murnane, a former player turned writer as editor. There was a Sporting Life Guide in 1891, a Victor Baseball Guide of 1896 and 1897; John McGraw's Baseball Book of 1904 and 1905; the Lajoie Baseball Guides of 1906-07-08; and Bull Durham's Guide of 1910 and 1911.
The Spalding and Reach Guides continued strong throughout this period, publishing separately through 1939. They were duplicative, however, and published a combined edition in 1940 and in 1941. The foreword of the 1940 Spalding-Reach Guide explained the background and is quoted here in full.

Puck's Library was an offshoot of the famous humor magazine started bt Johannes Kepler. The first issue in 1887 was devoted entirely to baseball.

I love this one. A rare and short lived title featuring a cover of Babe Ruth in 1927. The second issue feature Man O'War.

There's presently an issue for sale on eBay for $750. Probably a little high but not by much.

Speaking of Yankees, here's Joltin Joe DiMaggio and his son on the cover of the first issue of Sport in 1948, the year I was born.

and the great Ted Williams.

More to come- seventh inning stretch!

Our National Game: Early baseball magazines

As with virtually every other aspect of popular culture, the history of baseball can be traced in magazines. While there are a number of illustrations in books in the first half of the 19th century touted to show early images of baseball, the game we know today had is real roots in New York/New Jersey in the mid 1840's when a number of amateur teams began playing each other. The first games were played in Hoboken at Elysian Fields and reports began to crop up in Spirit of the Times in the mid-1850's. If one searches the index of the 1854 volume, there are only four articles, the remainder being predominantly cricket. Within a few years, articles and box scores became quite frequent and the American game was now well established.

I was fortunate enough to find a number of quite interesting and early baseball references in magazines. The May 12th 1855 issue of Spirit of the Times published an early (the first?) version of the rules. The third volume of Porter's Spirit of the Times in 1857 published the first image of the game in an original engraving, here reproduced for your viewing pleasure.

The first magazine devoted to baseball was Ball Player's Chronicle, whose first issue appeared in 1867, two years prior to the establishment of the first professional team, The Cincinnati Red Stockings, in 1869. Before this a number of great images appeared in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and The New York Clipper. Sports is now one of the favorite areas to collect, unfortunately it is far too commercial and many devout present-day card collectors will find that their investments will have very little demand for them in the future. As I've said: collect because you enjoy it. If someone tries to sell you something "because its a good investment", run in the other direction!

Enough lessons in collecting: Play Ball!

The Final Piece of the Puzzle. Norman Rockwell

I started collecting magazines thirty seven years ago, just after I entered medical school in Chicago. In those days it was fun to go from city to city to the plethora of dusty old bookstores and mine for gold. On one of my day trips to nearby Milwaukee, I found a Saturday Evening Post with Norman Rockwell's first cover and bought it for 17 dollars.

Rockwell was still living then so I shipped it off to Stockbridge, Massachusetts with a number of other rare magazines and, sure enough, it came back signed with a wonderful inscription "This was my first Post cover of years ago, sincerely, Norman Rockwell.

It became one of my prize possessions and piqued my interest in Rockwell, who, for magazine collectors of the day was an icon. As it happened, my compulsive collecting of Rockwell illustrated magazines and books gave me some very interesting experiences.

In his later years, Rockwell's memory was quite poor and, unlike the compulsive Maxfield Parrish, he had not been in the habit of documenting what he had done in the past. As a commercial illustrator, he really cared little for the work he had done after it was completed. The final painting became the possession of whomever commissioned it and he most often gave away the preliminary drawings and canvasses.

As interest in Rockwell increased, the museum wanted to learn where the paintings they had came from and really had no siurce to find out. This was componded by a 1943 fire that destroyed most of Rockwells studio and records. Enter a crazy doctor from Chicago. They began calling me and, before too long, since I had put together the best collection, we had somewhat of a working relationship. I, essentially, became Rockwell's memory. I had the privilege of showing Rockwell's work to his wife and three sons shortly after he died.

In the late 1970's, we struck a deal. I gave them the collection I accumulated and they gave me an original Rockwell drawing in return, to my knowledge, the only piece of original art ever to leave the museum archive. Unfortunately, in the early 80's I donated it back to them for a $50,000 tax deduction. It would be worth in excess of a million dollars today- tsk tsk. On the basis of acquiring my collection, the museum was then able to put together a catalog raisonne of Rockwells work, "A Definitive Catalog". The author, still executive director, Laurie Norton Moffatt, was kind enough to acknowledge my participation in the introduction.

Getting back to the first Post cover. Since rarity rules, I actually traded it away to a friend for the first issue of LOOK Magazine in the late eighties. I eventually regretted the trade but, as luck would have it, my friend sold it to someone else, who put in on Ebay five years ago and I was able to re-acquire it for $900. A bargain by any measure.

Part of the collection I traded away to the museum was a complete collection of twenty or so early juvenile fiction books illustrated by Rockwell. Only yesterday, I acquired the final book to duplicate what I gave away thirty years ago. The last piece of the puzzle was "Keeping His Course" a very volume by Ralph Henry Barbour with four NR illustrations. It is probably rare since the title page incorrectly attributes the illustrations to another artist, Walt Louderback. Perhaps the publisher realized their mistake and pulled the edition. Anyhow, its taken thirty years to find another copy.

I still have a drawer full of the rarest Rockwell covers I've found over the years, most of which are not in the catalog. I still keep the museum up to date on my new finds. Thank goodness, Rockwell never kept records, he's the gift that keeps on giving- and my nostalgic Post cover is back where it belongs!

John Peter Zenger and Freedom of the Press. The New York Weekly Journal

President Obama is directly responsible for this post, by virtue of the comments he made yesterday iat the National Press Club about the importance of free speech and journalism.

I am often asked what the earliest item in my collection is. The New York Weekly Journal, printed by John Peter Zenger was started in 1733, eight years prior to what is generally considered the first magazine.

I obtained the first three issues (the first being only the latter portion) from a run sold at Sotheby's in the 1990's. While the issues surrounding Zenger's famous trial for seditious libel are the most coveted by newspaper historians, from a purely historical standpoint, I like mine alot better. The opening essay by "Cato" a pseudonym of either John Trenchard or Willam Gordon begins "The freedom of the press is a subject of the greatest importance", and goes on to explain why. This is the beginning of American thought on the subject we hold so dear. Fifty-five years later, the very first amendment to the Constitution on the United States made it official.

Further writing of this most important publication, codified by the trial, established the principal that the press was able to print defamatory material, as long as it was found to be true.

Sorry for the brevity of this post but I'm still quite busy finishing my new book (aside, of course, from also running a practice of neurology)- now available for pre-sale on Amazon.com.

The First Report of American Independence

Over the years I have been exceedingly fortunate to be able to put together a complete run, with all the engravings and maps, of Thomas Paine's Pennsylvania Magazine, published between January 1775 and July 1776. While much has been made of the importance of of the July 1776 issue, that contains the only contemporary magazine printing of the Declaration of Independence, the other issues are full of incredibly important articles and illustration.

In particular, the June 1776 issue is rarely discussed but, in my mind, far more valuable and important. The magazine was intended to be published on the first Wednesday of the succeeding month, therefore making the "Declaration" somewhat old news in early August, since it already had been published in numerous newspapers throughout the newly independent colonies (that now sell for over $100,000, the first, The Pennsylvania Evening Post, more than twice that) . The first printing of the actual declaration, the famous and exceedingly valuable Dunlap and Claypoole broadside (conservatively $2,000,000), was printed on Thursday the 4th and started being circulated on Friday the 5th.

Tucked into the very rear of the June issue is a succinct report from Tuesday, July 2, likely printed and circulated on Wednesday the third:

most probably the first printed report of American independence. Now that's a pretty big deal!

Here's what the entire front and back pages look like:

and there's more: a very rare an early American map of North & South Carolina and Georgia (the first of the area printed in America?) opposite page 268 (Jolly no. 300, incorrectly listed in in the May issue):

More to follow about other Pennsylvania issues shortly. Right now I'm off to meet the co-authoe of our Franklin Roosevelt book (my current passion) for one on New Jersey's great steaks.(Steve's Sizzling Steaks in Carlstadt) I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!