What does history look like?

On November 5th, the day after the US general election, people were lined up to buy…newspapers. Yes, after waiting in line to vote, people wanted a keepsake to document the outcome of our historic election. I never would have predicted this (which is why no one puts me in charge of anything that is supposed to make money).

Apparently, the newspaper biz did anticipate this, but even so, newsstands ran out of papers. This story in the LA Times is pretty representative of the coverage I’ve seen from other sources.

History still looks like paper. For many, it’s something you can hold in your hands. I heard interviews with people who talked about passing the newspapers on to children and other relatives. With all of the talk of the death of newspapers and the book, it’s interesting to observe moments like this.

If you are interested in seeing what front pages from around the world looked like on November 5th, check out this resource from Newseum. Thanks to John Kupersmith for providing the link to this.

One Comment on “What does history look like?”

  1. And, of course, they are now for sale on eBay. At the moment, there’s one “collectible” version of the Washington Post for that day that’s going for (wait for it…) $15,000.

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