Amateur Newspapers
The amateur newspaper occupies an unusual place in the history
of journalism. An amateur journal is a periodical created to
afford pleasure to its readers as well as to its editor and its
publisher. The rage to
publish, rather than profit, is the motive that most often induces
people to become amateur journalists; and, throughout the history of the
genre,
most but not all amateur journalists have been juveniles.
The Amateur Newspaper collection at the American Antiquarian
Society consists of about 50,000 issues. There are more than 5,500
titles, from every state except Alaska and Hawaii, as well as issues
from fifteen foreign countries, thus making the Society's holdings
among the largest and most extensive in the United States. The
Society has files of seventy-eight titles from Worcester alone.
Amateur newspapers range in size from miniature to quarto, and
from two to as many as fifty or more pages. The Society concentrates
its efforts on acquiring amateur papers that were
published in the United States from the time of their first
appearance until the year 1900. However, the Society's collection does
include many amateur newspapers published during the twentieth
century.
It is not known for certain when amateur journalism began, but
the first amateur newspaper published in the United States is
believed to be the Thespian Mirror. This paper was edited by
John Howard Payne, the future dramatist and actor, while he was a
New York City bookkeeper. The first issue appeared on December 28,
1805, and the final issue on May 31, 1806. The journal was printed
for Payne, then just fourteen years old, by professional printers
and was intended for an adult audience. AAS owns seven of the
fourteen issues of this amateur paper that included theatrical
reviews, biographical sketches, and poetry. Pen-printed amateur
newspapers were also made by amateur journalists. The Society
holds the earliest extant issue of a pen-printed amateur newspaper
by James Johns of Huntington, Vermont, dated October 10, 1834.
During the 1840s and 1850s, amateur newspapers began to
proliferate. Until the late 1860s there were three methods of
publication available to the amateur journalists: (1) writing or
printing the contents of the paper with pen or pencil, the method
used by the editors of the Flower, published at Smithfield, Rhode
Island, in 1836, and for the Casket, published at Boylston,
Massachusetts, in 1857; (2) paying a professional printer to do the
typesetting and presswork with the aid of the amateur's manuscript,
as did John Howard Payne; and (3) building his or her own press, as
did Marcus Rogers, who in 1854 constructed a press and printed the
Rising Sun at Mill River, Massachusetts, and Cyrus Curtis, who in
1865 utilized a discarded hand press to print the Young American
at Portland, Maine.
In 1867, Benjamin O. Woods of Boston invented an inexpensive
"Novelty Press" (as Woods named it), which, owing to its simple
construction, could be sold for a few dollars. Woods advertised
his press in periodicals designed for youngsters, which also
carried news about amateur printers and editors.
During the ten years following the invention of Wood's press,
the number of amateur newspapers in existence increased from fewer
than 100 to almost 1,000. Although many of these were short-lived,
some endured for five years or more. Amateur journalism flourished
all across the country from Maine to California. In addition to
editorials, original short fiction, essays, jokes, stories gleaned
from other publications (both amateur and professional), and
poetry, puzzle departments began to appear as a regular feature in
many amateur papers. The Society has a great many amateur journals
from the 1870s and 1880s, the golden age of amateurdom.
The Society's amateur newspaper collection is arranged in 134
folio boxes. Four boxes shelved at the beginning of the collection
contain general information about amateur journalism. In the next
128 boxes are the amateur newspapers filed alphabetically by title.
The last two boxes hold uncataloged brochures and books that were
written and/or published by amateurs.
Five trays of catalog cards provide access to the amateur
newspaper collection. Each card lists the place of publication,
the title of the newspaper, its frequency of publication, and the
Society's holdings of the title. The catalog cards are filed
alphabetically by place of publication. After the United States
titles, which take up four and a half trays, there are about fifty
cards that list titles with unidentified places of publication;
these are filed alphabetically by title. The final cards list the
foreign amateur newspapers, which are filed by name of country,
city or town, and alphabetically by title.
- Dennis R. Laurie, Refernece Specialist of Newspapers and
Periodicals
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A selection of amateur newspapers
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