{"id":7046130,"date":"2026-08-24T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/wicked-magic-at-aas-past-is-present\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T14:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:00:21","slug":"wicked-magic-at-aas-past-is-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7046130","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWicked\u201d Magic at AAS \u2013 Past is Present"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-19816\">\n<p>\t<!-- .entry-header --><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The recent purchase of the <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Western Investor<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, an 1890 newspaper from Aberdeen, South Dakota, brought an unusual level of excitement to the newspaper office at the American Antiquarian Society. Despite sporting a slightly whimsical masthead, the paper appeared to be a standard, somewhat dull financial newspaper interesting only for researchers of bank and stock market history. A peek inside, however, revealed that the <em>Western Investor<\/em> was published by L. Frank Baum, nine years before he wrote <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19818\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19818\" style=\"width: 403px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19818\" src=\"https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-214x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"403\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-214x300.jpeg 214w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-731x1024.jpeg 731w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-768x1076.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-1096x1536.jpeg 1096w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-1461x2048.jpeg 1461w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/624129_0001-scaled.jpeg 1827w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px\"\/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19818\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Front page of the Western Investor. (<a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.mwa.org\/vwebv\/holdingsInfo?bibId=624129\">Catalog Record<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">A Google search and a few phone calls later, we learned the <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Western Investor <\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">published at least six issues from August 1890 to January 1891. The AAS copy is one of only two known surviving issues, and the only one held by an institution. As we dug further into Baum\u2019s life, we learned that his first foray into publishing occurred almost twenty years before the publication of his famous novel, as a sixteen-year-old amateur journalist. As luck would have it, AAS holds a previously uncataloged newspaper, the <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Stamp Collector,<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> which was written, edited, and published by a teenage Baum in Syracuse, New York in 1872. Two L. Frank Baum discoveries in a week! Maybe some of that \u201cWicked\u201d magic has come to AAS. <\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19819\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19819\" style=\"width: 429px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WBQMNA1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-19819\" src=\"https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WBQMNA1-205x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"429\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WBQMNA1-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WBQMNA1-698x1024.jpg 698w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WBQMNA1-768x1126.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WBQMNA1-1047x1536.jpg 1047w, https:\/\/pastispresent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/WBQMNA1.jpg 1376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px\"\/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19819\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Front page of the Stamp Collector. (<a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.mwa.org\/vwebv\/holdingsInfo?bibId=624350\">Catalog Record<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .entry-content --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- .entry-footer --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent purchase of the Western Investor, an 1890 newspaper from Aberdeen, South Dakota, brought an unusual level of excitement to the newspaper office at the American Antiquarian Society. Despite sporting a slightly whimsical masthead, the paper appeared to be a standard, somewhat dull financial newspaper interesting only for researchers of bank and stock market [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7046131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[56148,840,383,10542],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7046130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-history","tag-aas","tag-magic","tag-present","tag-wicked"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cWicked\u201d Magic at AAS \u2013 Past is Present - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7046130\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cWicked\u201d Magic at AAS \u2013 Past is Present - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The recent purchase of the Western Investor, an 1890 newspaper from Aberdeen, South Dakota, brought an unusual level of excitement to the newspaper office at the American Antiquarian Society. 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