
Browse Original Newspapers
View all Newspapers from the 1600s & 1700s collectibles »"The Swedish Intelligencer" by Butter and Bourne...

One of the earliest 17th century newspapers you will find...

One of the earliest 17th century newspapers you will find...

English Civil War newsbook with much military reporting...

Early newsbook by the "press agent" of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell...

Rare report of the taking of a fort in Wilmington, Delaware...

Rare issue of the Oxford Gazette... Death toll from the Great Plague...

Rare issue of the Oxford Gazette... Death toll from the Great Plague...

Report on the death toll from the Great Plague of 1666...

Rare reference to both the Great Fire & the Great Plague...

Ship from Boston has tobacco, sugar and beaver...

Collectible 1600s & 1700s Newspapers
“History is never more fascinating than when it’s read from the day it was first reported.”
It might not be your first thought, but newspapers from the 1600s and 1700s are very similar content-wise to modern newspapers. Early newspapers contained reports on wars, natural disasters, listed items for sale, and published death notices. Sound familiar? Newspaper content hasn’t changed drastically in 300-plus years. It is interesting to read accounts from this era and realize how similar we modern folk are to our ancestors. It seems that people at their core are mostly the same, and to this day, want to read news covering similar topics. That being said, some aspects of newspapers definitely have changed.
What has changed are the dimensions (smaller then, larger now), the number of pages (fewer then), paper quality (higher quality rag linen then), and the format. Newspapers of this period typically had an inflexible format, meaning that if page three was dedicated to foreign news, even if the most amazing foreign event occurred, it would appear on page three, not page one—period.
Due to the time it would take to typeset and print an issue, breaking news of major events would often be printed on a separate sheet called an “Extra” or an “Extraordinary” that was delivered with the daily issue or sometimes was not distributed until the following day.