Among the shortages faced in the South as the war progressed was paper. To combat the problem, Southerners began to repurpose paper in any form they could, including wallpaper. Though in most instances wallpaper repurposing was for home use, in rare cases it was also used for publications. This was the solution J. M. Swords, editor and publisher of the Daily Citizen in Vicksburg, Mississippi, used for the June 16, 18, 20, 27, 30, and July 2, 1863, issues of his newspaper. Each was a single newssheet printed on the back of unused wallpaper.

In the case of the Daily Citizen, however, it was not only the use of wallpaper that signified the instability of news and printing in the South. The Confederates surrendered Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, two days after the most recent issue of the Daily Citizen. Swords fled the city, and when Union forces entered the offices of the newspaper they found the type for the latest issue still standing. They replaced two-thirds of the last column with other content, most of it from other type already set, but added a note explaining the appearance of a new edition of the July 2 issue of the paper:

Two days bring about great changes, The banner of the Union floats over Vicksburg. Gen. Grant has “caught the rabbit;” he has dined in Vicksburg, and he did bring his dinner with him. The “Citizen” lives to see it. For the last time it appears on “Wall-paper.” No more will it eulogize the luxury of mule-meat and fricassed kitten—urge Southern warriors to such diet never-more. This is the last wall-paper edition, and is, excepting this note, from the types as we found them. It will be valuable hereafter as a curiosity.

It did indeed become valuable. The AAS collections include an original July 2 issue and multiple copies of the July 4 reprint. One of the issues is also accompanied by a handwritten note identifying its provenance and authenticity. 

]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> Aside from advances in printing technology and the development of the steam railroad, the telegraph was the biggest technological influence on news media in antebellum America. From 1844, when the first message was sent by Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872) on an experimental line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, to 1861, when the first transcontinental line was completed, the rapid expansion of the telegraph network revolutionized the distribution of news. Many newspapers began to carry “News by Telegraph” sections.

One of the first national news events directly influenced by the telegraph was the Panic of 1857. Due to a confluence of national and international trends that were already causing economic strain—falling grain prices, United States cotton being undersold, overproduction of goods, overbuilding of railroads—the failure of the New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company in August 1857 spurred the panic into life. It gained momentum as banks began to put restrictions on transactions. Investors took this as a sign that a larger economic disaster was looming and so began to make poor deals on stock sales or pull out of the stock market altogether. The loss of a ship in September carrying a large shipment of gold bound for eastern banks sealed the deal. By early October, panicked depositors were withdrawing money from banks, and news of bank and business failures and general economic chaos spread instantly throughout the United States via telegraph, further inflaming the panic.

Although the Northeast was hit hardest, the panic extended throughout the country and the resulting depression had global effects. The significant part the telegraph played in the rapid spread of economic news can be seen in this “News by Telegraph” section in the Richmond Whig from October 9. There is news about failures, suspensions, and financial plans in New York, the center of the crisis, but also news from New Orleans, Alexandria, and Philadelphia.

]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> View image of full page]]> The New-York Commercial Advertiser was perhaps the most prosperous of the half dozen or so mercantile dailies that dominated journalism in New York in the 1820s and 1830s before the rise of penny papers such as the New York Sun. These papers were aimed at the political and business elites of the city, typically selling by subscription at the relatively high price of six cents a copy. The Commercial Advertiser’s name suggests its content: lots of financial and market information and lots of advertising, which was often also aimed at businesspeople. This particular issue from 1831 is somewhat unusual. While often the first and fourth pages of the mercantile newspapers were dominated by advertising, this issue devotes its entire page 1 to a history of France.

The Commercial Advertiser was one of the most durable fixtures of nineteenth-century journalism in New York. It survived, with just slight name changes, from 1797 to 1904. Though the paper was mainly concerned with commercial news and information, it also engaged with the major political issues of its time, including a long-standing opposition to slavery. 

]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> The proliferation of newspapers targeted at specific audiences did not stop with language, religion, or reform. Also included were “racy” or “sporting” newspapers, aimed at men, particularly young bachelors. Reaching their peak in the 1840s, these papers are full of colorful stories and provocative illustrations about illicit and immoral activities, boxing matches and cockfights, crime and vice, gambling and drinking, and tell-all scandals.

The Flash is one example. Among the pages in this issue are a disclaimer about libel lawsuits leveled against the paper, bawdy verses, and a notice from a woman named Mary Moore asking for a certain prominent “gentleman(?)” to return a valuable hair brush and pay a balance due. There is also a story about a woman who drowned in the North River because she drank too much, fell in, and couldn’t keep her head above water because her India rubber bustle “elevated that part of her person which has no need to breathe above the surface and depressed her head, and thus she perished.”

Click the image below to browse the full issue. 

 ]]> AAS Catalog Record]]>

Among the print media reform movements used to spread their messages were newspapers. This temperance newspaper was printed in Springfield, Massachusetts, and distributed throughout Hampden County, providing a unifying voice for the local temperance community. The newspaper—which took its name from the Washingtonian Society, a precursor to Alcoholics Anonymous that focused specifically on an individual’s relationship to alcohol rather than society’s as a whole—included stories about the ill effects of drink, positive facts about temperance, and news of success stories. In addition to the focus on temperance, it also included some local news and advertisements, as well as other miscellany.

Click the image below to browse the full issue.

 ]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> The Akron Buzzard from Akron, Ohio, targeted several different but related audiences, devoting itself to “Temperance, Morality, Mechanic Arts, Satire, News of the Day, and Amusement.” The rise of precision metal manufacturing and the introduction of steam power into factories made it particularly important for workers to be sober and clear-headed, leading many mechanics and factory owners to be advocates of temperance. And though in many ways its inclusion of temperance and morality pieces situates it with other reform papers, the addition of information aimed at mechanics broadens its appeal. True to its word, this issue has stories about a death due to intemperance, the misbehavior of some young gentlemen in church, disturbances caused by a gang of teenage boys, the value of mechanical trades, local news tidbits, and jokes. 

Click the image below to browse the full issue. 

 ]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> While big dailies were beginning to dominate the newspaper markets of the urban centers in the first half of the nineteenth century, smaller newspapers began to pop up in more rural areas. These small local papers carried news from around the country, clipped from other newspapers. (The U.S. Post Office allowed newspaper editors to exchange copies with one another free of postage.) These papers also gradually began to focus on more local happenings, such as marriages, stage and mail coach arrivals, politics, crime, and business news.

This paper from Somerset, Pennsylvania, a town of only about 450 people in 1820, demonstrates these trends in small-town newspapers. The front page includes an extract from a discourse by a prominent bishop in Richmond, Virginia; financial news from New Orleans; and the attack of a giant snake on a woman in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The importance of the postal service is highlighted by a front-page story about the establishment of a new mail coach out of New York and New Jersey, emphasizing its amenities and the patriotic symbolism painted on the outside panels. Its first arrival in Somerset is noted, along with the observation that it “runs with great ease.”

]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> Freedom’s Journal, beginning in March 1827. Cofounded by Reverend Samuel Cornish (1795-1858) and John Russwurm (1799-1851) in New York City, Freedom’s Journal sought not only to advocate for the abolition of slavery, but also to serve the local New York community and combat negative depictions of African Americans in the New York press. Although the newspaper lasted only two years, it served as a model for other African American and abolitionist newspapers to come. The issue here discusses slavery, temperance, and the importance of education, in addition to the standard pieces of local news, poetry, advertisements, and human-interest stories.

Click the image below to browse the full issue. 

]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> The stereograph sensation is evident in these advertisements on the last page of the April 29, 1865, issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. With the war now over, stereograph publishers began to focus on the medium’s use as documentary evidence of the history of the war, as is evident in the bottom ad: “Obtained at great expense and forming a complete PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE GREAT UNION CONTEST….Everybody is interested in these memorable scenes.” The demand is emphasized even further by the top advertisement, which notes that the Christian Commission will donate 25 percent of the revenue raised by the sale of “Albums, Stereoscopic Views and Card Photographs” within a two-week period to the “relief of our sick and wounded soldiers.”

]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> View image of full page]]> The affordability of the carte-de-visite form meant that it was used in a wide variety of ways, including to reproduce works of art and photography. During and after the Civil War, this included the work of the most famous photographers of the conflict, Mathew Brady (1822-96) and his associates. This carte-de-visite, one in an “album” released by Brady, reads “Completely Silenced! Dead Confederate Artillery Men, As they lay around their battery after the Battle of Antietam.” Though the “authenticity” of Brady’s photography has been questioned throughout the years, due to the moving and placement of bodies and equipment to create a desired scene, there’s no doubt about the strong effect it had on viewers. Brady also knew the value of his work, putting a copyright disclaimer on the back to keep others from reproducing it. Reproduction without permission—often without even proper credit to the photographer—was a common practice in the early years of photography.

]]> AAS Catalog Record]]> View larger image]]>