Weird and Wonderful Newspapers From a Century Ago
Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021.
The other day I shared a collection of some of my favorite strange and delightful findings in the Library of Congress’s sprawling database of historic American newspapers. But there are many more worth sharing that I didn’t include. Like this 1908 Seattle Star story about a mind-reading machine, which I wrote about last year:
Or this marvelous collection of images from the San Francisco Call in 1902—they had a guy act out the different faces of the man in the moon! (I wrote about that one before, too.)
“The old Man of the Moon,” the newspaper wrote, “is really the most sympathetic party outside of the world.”
About the Author
Adrienne LaFrance is the executive editor of The Atlantic. She was previously a senior editor and staff writer at The Atlantic, and the editor of TheAtlantic.com.