large amount of old newspapers discovered in old house

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RCO

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Collection of old wartime newspapers looking for a new home
Discovered in the pile, a story about heroic North Bay nuns who saved 24 nurses from a fire at St. Joseph's General Hospital

With newspapers screaming headlines like "BERLIN SPREADS DEFEAT ALARM" and "ROMMEL'S ARMY BUSTED," history buff Italo Servello of North Bay scans through hundreds of Toronto Star World War ll papers, fascinated by the tales being told.

Servello recently bought the 1940s era newspapers and magazines that were found stuffed into the walls of the "Flanagan House," a former trading post in Nipigon Ont.

Newton Flanagan had spent half a century as a Hudson’s Bay Company employee in the late 1880s.

The house was undergoing renovations when the treasure was discovered. An ad on Facebook was selling newspapers for $5 each.


"I have a huge interest in this," Servello told BayToday.

The seller brought four big, blue plastic bins full of newspapers, dropped his price, and dropped them off at Servello's Lakeshore Drive home.

Servello took them all because he was concerned the papers would be destroyed and unavailable for future generations to read. Already, a couple of bins of World War 1 papers had been taken to the dump by a worker who didn't realize their value.


"I want to take these and make them available to museums," he said.

The papers sold for 3 cents each, or 18 cents weekly.

Servello started going through the stash and was amazed to see the headlines, detailing major events of the war.

He even discovered in the pile, a story about heroic North Bay nuns who saved 24 nurses from a fire at St. Joseph's General Hospital.

Two Sisters of St. Joseph stayed at their posts inside the burning building until all the nurses in the residence were safely evacuated. (See photo gallery above)

The 3 a.m. fire destroyed the brick three-story building.


"They did their duty," said their Mother Superior.

Also in the bins are war-era Hollywood magazines in mint shape, one features movie star Maureen O'Hara on the 1942 cover.

Servello doesn't want to see these slices of history go to waste, and is hoping they can be displayed to the public in some way.

"If I throw them away, no one gets to see them, and where can you find this type of history...you can't."

He describes himself as a "history buff" and will keep some items for himself.

"But I truly believe they should be in a museum, or several museums across the country because this is really Canadian history. Some of these newspaper companies don't exist anymore.

"Just to read these articles from the 1940s, not just of the war, but daily life. It gave me a sense of what the world was like in those days."

Got an idea?

You can contact Mr. Servello at tonyvegas911@hotmail.com

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RCO

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a large amount of old newspapers were discovered in a building being renovated in Nipigon Ontario

according to this article the ones from ww 2 , which mostly seem to be the " Toronto star " but may include others were saved and purchased by someone from North Bay Ontario

unfortuently a large amount of even older papers ww 1 era were simply taken to the dump by a worked who didn't seem to even realise they had any value , as these ones be over 100 years old would likely be more rare than the 40's era ones

I enjoy flipping thru old papers but unsure as to there use or value now days
 

bottles_inc

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I don't think old newspapers unrelated to a specific famous event are very valuable, although people try to sell them for a lot. I've got a few dozen 1870s-1890s papers and I've spent maybe 20 bucks on all of them. I only buy them when I can get them for a reasonable price but I'll always buy them when the price is right. Some people who have no clue find a 1885 newspaper and go wow it's so old! 50 dollars I know what I have. But a collector of stuff from a specific period or event might pay a decent amount. A WW1 collector would certainly love to have those
 

East_Tn_Bottle_Guy

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My mom and dad bought a century farm with an old farmhouse (I'm assuming its also almost 100 years old) and found probably over 200 dog hunting newspapers from the early '80s. Obviously no where near as historical as those above, but still pretty cool. Also interesting article.
 

RCO

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I don't think old newspapers unrelated to a specific famous event are very valuable, although people try to sell them for a lot. I've got a few dozen 1870s-1890s papers and I've spent maybe 20 bucks on all of them. I only buy them when I can get them for a reasonable price but I'll always buy them when the price is right. Some people who have no clue find a 1885 newspaper and go wow it's so old! 50 dollars I know what I have. But a collector of stuff from a specific period or event might pay a decent amount. A WW1 collector would certainly love to have those

I find around here the only old newspapers I see are for famous events , like royal weddings or some other major event from the past , never see papers from average days

never really bought any myself , I would of enjoyed reading thru the ww1 era papers ( too bad there now in the dump ) but wouldn't of really wanted to spend big to get em
 

hemihampton

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I was just bidding on a really small 2 inch by 4 inch Beer Ad from a 1918 Detroit Newspaper. Think I bid $20 max. it got a rediculous over $111+ & I thought I could of bought the whole Newspaper the ad came from for probably $20 bucks along with another 10 Beer Ads in it? LEON.
 

ROBBYBOBBY64

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I find newspare inside old walls. Used of course as insulation. Never full but I love the old advertisement and for sale sections. Historical items such as these should be archived other than digitally.
ROBBYBOBBY64.
 

RCO

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I find newspare inside old walls. Used of course as insulation. Never full but I love the old advertisement and for sale sections. Historical items such as these should be archived other than digitally.
ROBBYBOBBY64.

a lot of our old newspapers are online and more seem to be added over time.

I'd imagine if a lot of people touched these papers they'd deteriorate quickly

its too bad they threw out the WW 1 papers by mistake those would of been even more interesting , I'd imagine full / clean WW 1 papers be hard to find now
 

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