My Newspaper & Magazine Collection
My collection spans 1945 to present day. My grandmother started the collection in 1962 with U.S. Scores Triumph In Space With World-Circling Flight. She and my dad added to the collection for the next 15 years. The last newspaper they collected was in 1977, commemorating Elvis’ death. In those 15 years they collected history — the assassinations of 2 Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr; Nixon’s resignation; man’s first step on the moon; and the death of a King (Elvis).
My first newspaper was U.S. Bombs Baghdad in 1991, when I was 12 years old. I’ve collected the vast majority of what’s catalogued here in real time, capturing moments that were historically significant, or just significant to my own history.
In recent years, I’ve purchased some newspapers and magazines to fill in other important moments, mostly from the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.
My collection is currently available for sale or donation to an individual or organization.
Design: Time Magazine Cover Series
More than any other magazine, TIME brings back past cover designs to indicate related events or stories. Below are a few that I’ve collected over the years.
The TIME Magazine “X” Series
TIME Magazine has placed a large red X over a person or thing the U.S. was glad to be rid of. The list includes dictators, fascists, terrorists, and the year 2020. The first time was on May 7, 1945, with Adolf Hitler. The second time was on August 20, 1945, when they placed a black X over the Japanese flag. This is the only one I don’t have. The third time wasn’t until April, 2003. The following X issues were in 2006, 2011, and finally 2020.
time magazine “cropped silhouette” series
TIME Magazing “Orange” Series
Minimalist drawings with only 3-4 colors to illustrate Trump’s mental state.
TIME Magazine’s “Oval Office” Series
A series of covers showing the situations surrounding the President.
TIME Magazine’s “ENOUGH” series
Powerful magazine covers calling out every mass shooting in the country by name, and showing the young faces effected by one of these shootings — all with one prominent word: “ENOUGH”
Design: History Changes Conventions
Some events are so significant they call for a significant change in design templates and patterns. Below are four events that changed the face of magazines and newspapers.
Left to right:
1963: The first and only time LIFE Magazine changed their masthead from red to black.
1969: The Atlantic Constitution changes their headline from black to red to commemorate the moon landing.
2020: The first and only time TIME Magazine changed their masthead to a word other than TIME.
2024: The New York Times Sunday Opinion front page was taken over for one short, bold Op-Ed.
Design: Misc Magazine Covers
Culture & Society: Celebrity, Tech & Cultural Events
Issues of Race
Elections
TIME Magazine
LIFE Magazine
New Yorker Magazine
New York Magazine
Newsweek Magazine
Miscellaneous Magazines: 1952 - 2025
The New York Times: 1975 - 2025
Los Angeles Times: 1991 - 2025
National Papers: 2011 - 2023
Regional Papers: 1963 - 2003
International Papers: 2015 - 2024
why I started collecting newspapers & magazines
Newspapers are printed on newsprint paper, which is cheap, thin, and disposable by design. The stories printed in newspapers are only meant to be relevant for 24 hours, to be replaced by tomorrow’s headlines. But every now and then, a story is more important than that. It’s only a snapshot, but eventually with greater context it’ll live on in books, films and taught in schools. But nothing can replace the way a story is told in the first 24 hours after something happens. Magazines give additional context over a week or month. If newspapers capture the facts, then magazines capture the emotion of a moment in time.
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After seeing Oliver Stone’s 1991 film “JFK” I became obsessed with Kennedy’s assassination. I was 12 years old, and I started reading books — 6 in total — about the odd people and mysterious occurrences surrounding the event, and the many conspiracy theories that came from them. It was around that time that my dad said to me, “you know, I think Grandma still has a box of some old newspapers.”
We found her collection, and that was when I started mine.
I loved that she had captured history in these boxes. And not a filtered, watered-down history — the actual historical moment. The knowns and the unknowns. The snapshots of a developing story.
I loved the different styles of headlines, and seeing how newspapers and magazines would change their standard design templates to emphasize the importance of certain events.
how to care for newspapers
Caring for newspapers involves keeping them out of direct sunlight from the moment they’re printed, and away from moisture, humidity and extreme temperatures. They also yellow and age if they touch other paper or material that isn’t acid-free. Today, I keep my collection in individual archival Polypropylene sleeves, in drawers lined with acid-free foam board and protected from dust by a sheet of plexi glass in each drawer.
Unfortunately, but understandably, that’s not how my grandmother’s collection was stored. They were in cardboard moving boxes in a garage in hot and humid areas like South Carolina, Texas, and Southern California. Cardboard is not at all acid-free. The fact that they’re not completely brittle and falling apart can only be attributed to the fact they stayed in those boxes and weren’t handled for decades.