Behind The Times Antiques

26 Aug

Posted by Anna Category: Uncategorized

behind the times antiques
In an earthquake I found the front page from a Detroit Times from 1904. What should I do?

It was behind an antique mirror that turned out to be over 100 years old. I’ve been searching online and considered getting it appraised but really can’t find any infomation.

It’s really neat to see a newspaper from over a hundred years ago isn’t it? I’d keep it to show people, they will be interested. The advertisements are even interesting. Unless it covered a unique event and has some material that isn’t found anywhere else, it probably isn’t worth very much. People just don’t find them collectable. Newsprint also has a bad acid problem and you’ll likely find it will start to crumble now that it is exposed to air. Unfortunately there is so much acid in newsprint, it’s really hard to preserve, even professionals are sometimes unable to save the original, which is why they always take a photograph of it first.

But it does have certain historical value so a museum’s archive somewhere will likely be interested in having it. To someone who is doing research about an event that happened on that day, sometimes a real front page from a newspaper that covered the story will be invaluable to them.

So while it isn’t likely worth very much money wise, history wise it does have value. If you keep it, get it out of the air. Between two sheets of glass is best, but that is really expensive and with newsprint no preservation method is foolproof. Even museums have problems preserving newsprint. Since it kept well there, the best place to keep it may actually be the place where you found it, behind the mirror.