About Jim Lyons


I was a full-time dealer in historical newspapers from 1972 until I retired in September 1997. My stock of some quarter million newspapers covered a span of 300 years, from the 1600s to as recently as the 1970s. Now it's just a hobby.

There are a few items in the Wisdom and Humor sections now, and the Civil War section has a nice selection of interesting material. Many of these articles are close-up and personal looks at a variety of subjects, such as the Civil War, Mormon, the Old West, coins, Indians, Mark Twain, the Gold Rush (California and Alaska), Lincoln, every war up to World War I, every tragedy from the 1811 New Madrid earthquake (the largest to ever hit the United States) to the sinking of Titanic, and a hundred other subjects. Be sure to make a bookmark!

Some of the eyewitness accounts are spellbinding and make you believe you are right there. (That's one of the major benefits derived from old newspapers - the emotions felt by the writer of the article are just as vivid today as they were 100 or 150 years ago.)

I will be including some of my own writings here, delving into various subjects, but much of it telling the hows and whys of newspaper collecting - everything from what's available to collect, how to preserve and display it, authenticate it (surprisingly easy), and how to use newspapers in such things as genealogy and treasure hunting. (My first book, "How To Find Buried Treasure", published in 1976, was on the use of newspapers in treasure hunting research.)

And there will be more!

So look at my small initial offering. If you like what you see, make a bookmark and dial in now and again. We think you'll be glad you did. Remember: "when you know our name, you know our address".

-Jim@jimlyons.com

Jim Lyons Retirement Notice, September 1997

E. W. Lyons Memorial

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(Answers to Quiz Questions)

1 - 1896, in Athens
2 - World War I
3 - The Central Pacific and the Union Pacific.
4 - The building of the Panama Canal.
5 - June 25, 1950
6 - Wilber and Orville
7 - It's designation as our national anthem was approved by President Herbert Hoover on March 3, 1931, 116 years after it was written.
8 - Henry J. Kaiser (the Kaiser and the Henry J.) and Ransom E. Olds (the Oldsmobile and the REO).
9 - Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
10 - Wipers
11 - Bell had a metal detector and used it in a failed attempt to locate the bullet in the assassinated president's body. It failed because the bed the president was lying on, unbeknownst to Bell, contained metal intersprings.
12 - They were privately issued substitutes for coins during the coinage shortages of the Civil War, and were made by encasing government postage stamps of various denominations (1¢ to 90¢) in a metal shell with a clear mica face. Issuing companies placed their advertising on the backs. They are popular - if somewhat expensive - collectibles today.
13 - Pennsylvania.
14 - Virginia Dare, born Aug 18, 1587 in Roanoke colony. Shortly thereafter the entire colony - baby Virginia among them - disappeared, never to be seen again.
15 - 1903.



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