Before every newscast, the Channel 6 announcer reminds us we are watching “Oklahoma’s Own, in HIGH DEFINITION.” Woohoo. I’m thinking by now, everyone is pretty square with that concept. Hearing it, I am personally reminded of the Quinn-Martin productions back in the day, when the announcer solemnly pronounced “The FBI…in COLOR.” Oh, to clarify: THE FBI was a television program back when television was carved on stone tablets and pitched onto the front lawn. One of the Roman gods was probably director or set assistant. Good guys always won. In color.

Boom. Wow. In Color. Of course, the announcer had to TELL us we were watching color television, because in the black and white age leading up to it, we had no idea what that weird spectrum was we were witnessing. Oh. COLOR! That’s IT!

Me: Color? Oh, yeah! COLOR! That rainbow thing! Right on our television.”

And then – technology happened.

Me, years later: Oh, yeah! HIGH DEFINITION! That’s why I only see half of the meteorologist! Maybe I should get a new TV.

Believe it or not, there was a time before television. Before radio, even. People had to sit around in the dark and play with mudpies. They liked it. They LOVED it.

I’m kidding there. People wanted to be entertained just the same in the olden days, so they went down to the park on Sunday after church and listened to speakers orate (or orators speak, if you prefer). There were bands, a la John Phillips Sousa. Picnics. There were tournaments for watching paint dry and the rising and falling of the thermometer.

Then there was the Harper’s Weekly magazine. During the US Civil War, photography was in its infancy, and the newspaper relied on engravings to pass images along to their readers, (ie. Downloaders…). The paper was a connection to the outside world. Most people at the time would never travel outside their own county. Very few Americans would cross the Atlantic Ocean, or even dip their toes in it, for that matter. You can click on any image for a larger view of what your great-great-great-grandparents waited to receive at the mailbox.

Harper’s Weekly was the window to the world in HIGH DEFINITION. Unfortunately, my telephone-camera is closer to Civil War technology than iPhone, and does not deliver the crisp lines included in the Harper’s graphics. The volume I’m currently rebinding is from the year 1861, which – you recall – is the time of the US Civil War.

Matthew Brady was an early photographer during that time. A famous one, later in history, for his Civil War images. Lithographers working for Harper’s would be handed an M. Brady photograph and would create a lithographic plate (read that, draw freehand, using the photo as a model) that could be reproduced in the paper. The detail is simply incredible.

Many of these magazines are currently purchased and cut up, sold as individual images on sites like eBay. During the Civil War era, families saved their subscription copies and had them bound up – at the end of the year – in a hardback volume that they could keep for years and years, and look back upon in their leisure time. Believe me, compared to our soccer, Little League, PTA, TV prime time, and commuting schedules – they had plenty of leisure time. Just no GameBoys, et al.

When I’m finished, I plan to teleport the restored book back in time, so some family can have a window on the news of the current war, fashion, and upcoming works of fiction.

Or maybe, I’ll hand it back over to the fellow who asked me to rebind it.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
122 South Main Street
Broken Arrow, OK!