INFORMATION CIRCULAR 1
                                            (Revised 1958) 


                      THE  LIBRARY  OF  CONGRESS

                         CONSTITUENT SERVICES
                  SERIAL & GOVT PUBLICATIONS DIVISION




                          Ulster County Gazette

                             January 4, 1800

The Ulster County Gazette was established May 5, 1798, at Kingston,
New York, by Samuel Freer and Son.  It was a weekly supporting the
Federalist Party.  Publication continued until 1803, when the title
was changed to Ulster Gazette and the publisher was Samuel S.
Freer, the " Son" of the earlier partnership.      
     Reproductions of the issue for January 4, 1800, are well known
to librarians and dealers in old books through the great number of
reprints that are scattered over every part of the country.  There
are more than seventy such reproductions, often differing from each
other only in minor details.  Almost every private owner of one of
these honestly believes that he has an original copy.  At the same
time, only a few original copies of other numbers of the same paper
are in existence.
     The reproduction of the issue of January 4, 1800, began during
the first half of the nineteenth century, perhaps as early as 1825. 
These early reprints were made in smaller numbers, and, as regards
the paper and type used, represent a somewhat more careful
imitation of a newspaper printed in 1800 than do those of later
years.  The Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia saw the
beginning of the wholesale output of the reprints.  At least one
printing firm had a regular contract for supplying them and they
were sold on the Exposition grounds by the armful as historical
souvenirs.  In 1877, a centennial celebration at Kingston, New
York, offered a similar opportunity.  Since then various
enterprising individuals have continued to flood the market with
cheap and poor reproductions.  Most of the reprints from 1876 to
date are in clear, modern type and are on machine-made paper,
calendered, thin, and brittle.  The commercial value of the
reprints is very small.
     Librarians watched many years for an original, but it was not
until November 1930 that the first was found.  This is now in the
files of the Library of Congress.  Another original is now in the
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.  These are
the only originals known.     
     Owners of copies should apply the following tests:

    1. It should be printed on the "laid" paper used in 1800,
hand-made from rags, soft, pliable, and rough in textures
    2. Besides the slender parallel chain lines which appear
throughout, 1 1/16 to 1 3/16 inches apart, this paper should have
as watermark a double fleur-de-lis measuring 3 1/8 by 1 15/16
inches.
    3. Title in italic capitals should measure 6 15/16 inches in
length.
    4. The abbreviations "Vol." and "Num." in the date line should
be printed in capitals and small capitals.
    5. Print should show the blurred edges of hand-inked, hand-
press work.
    6. Second column on page 1 should measure 2 7/16 inches in
width between rules.
    7. The old-style "s" should appear frequently as in the words
"Published" and "Ulster" in the heading and in the words
"President", "House", "Representatives", and many more in the text.
    8. The last line of page 1, column 1, should read "liberal    
execution of the treaty of amity,".     
    9. One full-length mourning slug should appear on page 1,      
column 2; 2 full-length and 5 short slugs on page 2; and 2   
full-length slugs on page 3.
    10. Mourning rules should be used between columns and across
top and bottom and along outer edge of pages 2 and 3.
    11. The "Last Notice" on page 3, column 2, concerns "the      
estate of Johannis Jansen" and should be signed by                
"Johannis I. Janson, Executor."








                                                      GPO 944171 

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