Richard Robinson has history at his fingertips: he collects newspapers. As curator of his own museum to journalism, Robinson stores innumerable multitudes of articles, editorials, comics, and commentaries. In an interview with the LA Times, Robinsion admits he’s a rare collector, due to the bulkiness of broadsheets, but assured the writer that newspapers are at least 25 times more fun than stamps or coins.

While I admit I haven’t the room for newspapers (although if I probably cleared out some of the other ‘junk’ I might find a little space), I can’t pass up a chance to pick up some timely newspapers, or their ephemeral cousin, the magazine. New publications are just that — new publications — and can rarely compete with their older relatives. That’s not to say print quality or the fineness of the paper are being compared; I’m referring to the contents. Collections of the printed word, whether a book or a screenplay or a newspaper, are meant to be read. Newspapers might be the most fragile of some, no doubt collectors do their best to keep their trasured items in as accessible a way as possible. At the very least, the most striking articles, those on the front page, are readily accessible.

On the morning of September 12th, 2001, eBay was flooded with new auctions for the freshly-printed newspapers, hot off doorsteps from around the world, announcing the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York. The news wasn’t new to the reader — most people saw the images and heard the stories, theories, and rhetoric on TV and radio the day before — but a newspaper is history recorded for posterity. Even in landfills, of which newspapers are a large percent of the volume, newspapers can last years before disintegrating. We see newspapers as a long-lasting record of history, as it occurs. The history books may get the big picture right eventually, but newspapers bring the snapshot view of news, as it happens, from a daily standpoint. Truman waving a Chicago Tribune reading “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” is embedded in everyone’s mind as an example of newspapers not quite fitting the truth, but that doesn’t stop them from commanding a premium today.

As the Newspaper Collectors Society of America explains in their “primer” on newspaper collecting, this value as a historical record is what drives the value of a newspaper. The historical significance needn’t be spot-on accurate (Robinson’s copy of a newspaper pronouncing the Titanic’s survival of the iceberg impact is worth $800), its connection to historically relevant events is what’s important. A newspaper I once owned — and, of course, parted with on eBay — discussing the JFK assassination mostly reprinted the wire stories and photos, but in one small corner occupied a interview with a local author who condemned Kennedy’s support for civil rights and basically said Kennedy got what was coming to him. In our desire for the Big Picture, the documentary viewpoint of collected aspects and focused down into an understandable solid, we often forget to notice the human aspects of history: the incorrect opinions, the era-appropriate assumptions based on class and society, the optimistic views of the future, and the unverified or undocumented facts reported as truths. An early 1960s ‘night life’ paper from Chicago can give an insight into the ‘discotheque’ movement, embodied by the new Whiskey A Go-Go, with their never-before-seen “go go dancers.” Hearing a politician’s early words might give a clearer idea of why they are who they are today. Someone with an interest in film might like to hear, right from the director or lead actor, what their unsure or optimistic thoughts are on their upcoming project — one that we might know now as a Star Wars, Schindler’s List, or Rocky Horror Picture Show. The news of the past, unclouded by hindsight, is a treasure to be appreciated.

In my experience, estate sales and auctions are a good source for the “common” historical newspapers: Kennedy assassination (either of them), man walking on the moon, various elections, sports victories, and, of course, 9/11. While they are not particularly rare, they are a starting point for a larger collection (and, of course, isn’t that where collections always go?) eBay, online auctions, and ephemera swap meets are sources for rarer, obscure, or otherwise more desirable examples of newspapers. Newspapers printed over the past century tend to be printed on a high-acid paper which is also reactive to light, causing brown and brittle pages, but those older than Victorian times are mostly printed on a rag-based paper which retains its like-new quality much longer. Modern papers, in the interest of decomposition, are not designed as a permanent record, but with proper care newer papers can be kept in near-new quality for as long as possible. the Newspapers Collectors Society recommends storing newspapers flat, and I can attest that newspapers stored folded to tend to break apart along the stress of the fold. Because newspapers come from many sources, in many editions, there is plenty of opportunity to focus on a single event or topic without exhausting opportunities too quickly. Any collector with an interest in history would be neglectful to ignore newspaper articles from their favorite times.