The 
Lewis Songer Masthead Collection

FRIEDSAM MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Archives

Editorial Policies and Mottos

Comments on the collection

A bit about the collector

For more mastheads in the Friedsam Library collection we have the Harry W. Lynch Masthead Collection.

Other Links

Where possible, links to the current web site of  newspapers used as examples in these pages are included.  

Many of the papers are no longer being published, or have not established a web presence.  In the latter case, contact information is supplied where available.  

For those which have ceased publication a possible end date is noted.

About the Lewis Songer Masthead Collection

Lewis Songer began his unusual collection as a schoolboy in 1948.  He started collecting newspapers until his mother suggested removing his bed and substituting a hammock in his bedroom. He realized then that space was a real consideration and switched his collecting efforts to just the newspapers' mastheads. 

Mastheads include information about the newspapers they appear in.  This is usually the name, place of publication, date of publication, circulation data, subscription rates and often editorial policy.  They take a variety of shapes and sizes.

The collection includes over 5,000 items, with newspapers from all 50 states and 20 other countries.  A number of papers are found twice in the collection with their mastheads coming anywhere between 14 and 50 years apart.  Over 125 university and 100 Catholic diocesan newspapers are found here.  There are mastheads spanning the country from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Times.  Ethnic newspapers from Croatian, Chinese, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish, and other groups; business and labor publications; school papers; and military newspapers are also represented.

It's important to remember that the materials in this collection were brought together over more than half a century.  Many of the publications represented here no longer exist.  Some of them combined with other newspapers, others simply went out of business.  For the remaining titles, it's very likely that the current masthead is markedly different than the one Songer collected over the years.  This combination provides the Lewis Songer Masthead Collection with a unique view of later 20th century publishing history.