Five steps to an old issue
A short guide on the home page: the imprint, the date, the spelling, the ads and recording your source.
Collections
Collections
A collection is a ready-made path through the magazine. Each one has three pieces worth reading in order, and each is put together for a particular reader: someone opening an old issue for the first time, someone looking for traces of their family in old periodicals, and someone with a stack of yellowed newspapers at home. Pick the path that fits you and start with the first card; links at the bottom of each page will point you to the other sections.
Sometimes a single item in an old newspaper tells you more about a family than a whole photo album.
How this section works: collections group the magazine's sections around a single reader's goal. They contain only our own material, with no outside offers and no tips on where to get old publications.
For first-timers
Three steps that will make an old issue stop feeling baffling.
For family historians
How to look for traces of relatives in old periodicals and record what you find carefully.
Where to find old issues
Libraries, digital collections of periodicals and local history collections, plus how to search by year and issue number.
Old issues (in Russian)
Ads as a source
Our topic on private ads and notices, which is where you are most likely to find townspeople's names, addresses and occupations.
Who signed the pieces
How to tell an author from a pen name or an editorial byline when you come across an item that carries your family name.
For keepers of a bound volume at home
Gentle handling for paper that is already decades old.
Storage rules
Light, moisture, acidic paper, and the reasons you should never laminate an old newspaper or mend it with tape.
Paper conservation workshops
What kinds of sessions show you how to handle fragile pages, and how to check a listing ahead of time.
How illustrations were printed
A table of telltale signs to help you describe the pictures in your volume and roughly place an issue in its period.
Related reading
- Articles
The magazine's six topics, from how an issue is built to caring for a bound volume, plus our article catalog.
- History
The Russian spelling reform and how the look of the magazine page gradually changed.
- Analysis
What makes up an old newspaper page, and how to tell from the print itself how an illustration was made.
- Old issues (in Russian)
A note on an archived address: where to find old magazine issues and how to read them.
- Home
A magazine about reading old newspapers and magazines: how an issue is built, old spellings, finding issues and caring for a bound volume.
Sources
- Retropressa editorial materials
- Library guidelines on storing paper documents
Facts about the Russian spelling reform come from reference materials; everything else is described in general terms, without reference to specific publications. Check reading room, exhibition and lecture hours with the organizers.