[New York]. [Newspapers]

Prospectus of a Commercial Paper, on a New Plan, to Be Established in New-York, and Called the New Universal Index Advertiser [caption title]

New York: [ca. 1860?]. Broadside, 15.75 x 9.75 inches. Old folds, some minor loss and chipping. Very good. Item #550

Rare broadside prospectus for the New Universal Index Advertiser, a business newspaper in New York. The Universal Index Advertiser promoted itself as a paper that focused on the interests of business above all else, without “those great names which have so violently agitated the American world.” The prospectus touts a novel new order of arrangement in which organization would follow the plan of “dictionaries, indexes, concordances…” and would classify its contents like such and organize its listing of commodities alphabetically by the commodity and then the name of the seller, rather than the other way around as had been done. Intended to be published daily, the paper would cost $12 a year; the bottom of the sheet is left blank for subscriber information.

Despite its grand claims to revolutionize the format of the newspaper, we can find no evidence that the Advertiser ever went to press. We do find a single copy of the broadside at the New-York Historical Society.

Price: $1,250.00