Nineteenth Century Re-Use of Newspaper

Hints for Amateurs on ordering seeds, from “The Gardening World”, 1898

Tea Basket & Dressing bag on sale from Drew & Sons, advertised in “The Queen, the Lady’s Newspaper”, undated.

A box of vintage newspapers in the herbarium

Story in which a worm helps a dissatisfied bluebell, from The Sunday School Standard, USA, undated

From “The Queen, The Lady’s Newspaper” dated June 27, 1885

To Sugar Refiners – For Sale, the patent for Papier-mache sugar moulds

French homework, dated February 11th 1826

Paper was precious and expensive in the mid 19th century, when many of our herbarium specimens were collected and pressed.  Some collectors re-used newspaper or letters as mounting paper for their pressed flowers.

We always keep a sheet of vintage newspaper once the plant specimen has been remounted onto new acid-free paper.  Above are some of the delightful examples of adverts, stories, and articles we have discovered while working on the collection here at the Manchester Museum.

There are many more, for a future blog post.