Welcome back to another edition, a belated edition, of the Homefront Digest. This month I wanted to talk about collecting newspapers from the war years. In the era before television, news reels and newspapers were the major ways in which important information about current events was disseminated. The corner newspaper boy would call out, "Extra... Extra... Read all about it !! Japs lose 4 carriers at Midway!! Extra... Extra...". And a war weary public scoured the newspaper for news of what was going on overseas and at home.

Newspapers were ubiquitous and from the smallest of circulations to the monstrous circulations of Chicago and New York, there were literally thousands of different papers. And since the war lasted about 3 1/2 years not counting the period of 9/1/39-12/6/41, this means that there were about 1200-1300 days of reportable news. If you estimate 1000 different newspapers in the USA that makes the total number of potentially collectible newspapers at 1,200,000 not counting Extras and PM editions!!!

So where to begin and more importantly WHY to begin??? When I began collecting WWII homefront, I started by accumulating a large volume of wartime newspapers. My thinking was this... Homefront America did not exist in a vacuum. It was spawned from a complex series of worldwide political events. And these events were all interdependent on one another. And they occurred in a certain order which was easily catalogued by a date; a date that was imprinted on every newspaper. Thus newspapers in my opinion form an infrastructure within which we can think about WWII and the events that occurred and help to give us some structure to the collecting of homefront memorabilia. Let me give a concrete example of this point. The removal of Mussolini in 1943 chronicled in newspapers across the world helps us to date any anti-axis collectible that shows an X across Mussolini's face. We know that any postcard, blotter or poster that is not dated but features an X across Mussolini's face and often says One Down Two To Go, dates to no earlier than 1943. I display these antiaxis collectibles with a newspaper that boasts the banner headline "Mussolini Ousted". The newspaper builds the framework and the collectibles fill it in the spaces.

Newspapers then, ground our collections in time. But where to begin? The answer is anywhere you darn well want and can afford. Fortunately newspapers remain one of the best values in Homefront collecting. Most newspapers can be obtained for 5.00-25.00 each. And you get a real bang for the buck. They are good sized and display very well for the small amount of capital invested. I decided to burn the candle on both ends so I started hoarding the Pearl Harbor and VE/VJ Day papers first. Then I worked in through the major events including Roosevelt's death, the major campaigns including D-Day, and meetings to get broad overall coverage of the war.

When valuing WWII newspapers the creme d' la creme are the big banner headlines. These provide the biggest bang for the buck in terms of displayability. They clearly bring the highest dollar. The other factor is the event. D-Day and Pearl Harbor papers probably top the list as the highest dollar because they are the most sought after. Fortunately these were the ones also saved the most along with VE and VJ Day and this helps to keep their costs in the solar system.

Condition is the third most important factor determining cost/value. Papers are very fragile and if not stored properly can deteriorate severely. The spine or place where the paper was folded is subject to the second most damage with the outer vertical margin taking the biggest hit. A paper with a nice spine and clean vertical border is a jewel indeed.

I stumbled across an old lady who was going into a nursing home. Her husband had died in the 1950's after surviving service in the South Pacific. She produced 12/8/41, 5/8/45 and 8/15/45 papers from the Bakersfield Californian that were mint just like the day they were printed. She said when her husband left and returned they were neatly folded and tucked away in a dresser drawer until 1999 when I obtained them for 45.00 each. It's very unusual to find them this nice.

Newspapers are very sensitive to all the things we talked about in the Homefront Digest column titled Preserving Homefront Collectibles. Bugs, light, moisture, heat etc. A newspaper decomposes readily if not stored correctly.

I store my newspapers shrinkwrapped. This prevents bugs, moisture and trauma and blunts the light exposure. The downfall is that you can't readily open the paper up and read it. But my experience is that there is enough coverage on the banner headline page to justify the wrapping. In this manner, you can stand them up, deal 'em like cards, put them in milk crates... heck whatever and you don't risk hurting the paper. The other drawback is at 3.00 to 4.00 each it gets expensive. And the time it takes to shrink wrap them by hand is even worse. On a good day I can do one in 20 minutes by hand. That is a really large time investment.

I tend to buy newspapers in big lots except for the rare pictorials or big event big banner heavy hitters. I find that these lots come up quite a bit and are most common covering periods of 1945. I think because the tide was turned and the banners so uplifting that everyone started to save them prior to the inevitable victory. If you can find a pile of papers from April 1945 to VE Day, they are probably the most spectacular to read. Reading about Patton's march to Berlin, destruction of Hitler's Berchtesgaden, the encircling of Berlin, etc. makes for truly sensational reading and a fabulous display. The shipping can get expensive so better to buy in lots than onesies or twosies...

Some of the Victory papers are really terrific. They sport headers in color with Victory in large letters and are just dazzling. These are some of the most sought after. Also some of the New York Pictorial papers are stunning with large color pictures of MacArthur or other heroes. Two other groups of papers are worthy of mention. The Hobo News was a small New York City newspaper, sort of an underground affair, with fantastic anti-axis covers. They were printed on very fragile paper so few survived and are SERIOUSLY collectible. I have about 10 and I'd buy 'em all day long if I could. Their slogan was, "A Little Fun To Match The Sorrow". They were full of pranks and cartoons; real uplifting and fun. The other interesting group of newspapers come from areas where the enemy occupied the area but allowed the newspaper to be published to pacify the indigenous population. The best known of these are the Guernsey newspapers. This was an island off the coast of England occupied by the Germans. It's interesting to read what was written with knives stuck in their backs as they wrote. Undoubtedly there are secrets in the text. Im sure historians have tried to decipher these. Some great papers also came out of the Pacific Islands occupied by the Japanese. As a group these are very interesting and while not technically homefront were worthy of mention here.

Also be on the lookout for wartime Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss was a cartoonist for PM magazine and many issues of PM magazine feature Seuss's fabulous wartime cartoons. There were newspapers at many of the airbases in the U.S. and these are also sought after. Finally, don't forget Stars and Stripes which had some really great patriotic issues after the A Bombs were dropped. So as you can see there are all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies to collect even within the area of homefront newspapers. There are some very large newspaper collectibles shops back east with a newsletter and have sources for all kinds of papers and collecting supplies. A quick search on the net should yield them.

In summary, newspapers form a framework of time within which homefront collectibles can be placed. The most collectible are the major events that have banner headlines and the few specialty papers mentioned above. Newspapers are very sensitive to all environmental pathogens. Shrinkwrapping seems to alleviate most problems with storage. Newspapers are a chronicle of an amazing period of recent world history and are a tuly precious addition to any homefront collection.

Thanks for coming again to the ww2homefront.com's Homefront Digest. We look forward to seeing you on time next month with another spotlight on some unique aspect of the world of World War II Home Front.

Until then.... Remember Pearl Harbor!!!!!