"that's my wise girls"

Late one afternoon, when they had been sliding and were coming home warm and breathless, Mrs. Boast said, "Laura, come over to my house a minute." / Laura went with her and Mrs. Boast showed her a tall stack of newspapers. She had brought all those New York Ledgers from Iowa. / "Take as many as you can carry," she said. "When you get them read, bring them back and get some more." -By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 22, "Happy Winter Days"

I always wondered why Mrs. Boast had those stacks of New York Ledgers, and why Ma didn't seem to object to them.

The New York Ledger, first published by Robert Bonner in 1855, was one of the earliest and most successful storypapers. Storypapers, also called "six-cent weeklies," were weekly newspapers that featured an array of serialized stories, poems, humor, fashion, and current events intended for the entire family. These papers enjoyed enormous circulation. By 1870, the New York Ledger claimed an audience of 377,000 readers. With columns devoted to love, marriage, and baby care, the Ledger catered to a predominantly female readership. Its serialized stories focussed heavily on romance (domestic and historical) and its illustrations included many images of women. Format: 8 pages, with a front-page illustration (sometimes signed by the artist and/or engraver) and additional images inside each issue. Last issue published in 1898.

Although you can't tell from the ornament photo, each of the little newspapers in the stack has a different cover from an actual New York Ledger and is an uncut 8 pages printed on newsprint. I used the same "back" page from an 1879 issue of mine, but (shhhh) the other interior images are cover scans as well. You can't really tell the size of the ornament from the photo, but the front pages are 2.5 x 4 inches; you can actually read the headlines and date on each issue!
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:34 PM