American Newspaper Repository

It was founded in 1999 by the author Nicholson Baker when he learnt that the British Library was disposing of its collection of historic American newspapers.

He cashed in his retirement fund to successfully bid for the collection at auction.

These include first printings of work by numerous famous authors such as H. L. Mencken, Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, Robert Frost and Rudyard Kipling.

The collection is an excellent archive of high quality rotogravure photographs which appeared in these periodicals.

Other unusual formats include the first crosswords, needlepoint patterns, sheet music and full color reproductions of paintings of the period.