Collector has big plans for old newspapers

By Becky Bosshart

Sunday, March 1, 2009 | midnight

As crunchy chips of yellowed, historic newspapers flake off onto the table, Gordon Grove, of Seven Hills, talked about his hopes for a future newspaper exhibit.

Grove is a collector. It started with sports cards in his youth. He became disenchanted with them when the market wasn't supporting the reported value. He switched to an even more uncertain item that is threatened by extinction in the digital age: newspapers.

Just as the future of this medium is uncertain, so are Grove's plans, especially in a city that doesn't have a great history with museums.

"I got into the historic newspaper business because I found no one really does this," he said while showing his wares inside a library conference room. He wanted space to spread them all out. "Every time I start showing my papers, I hear from people who have just never seen these before."

Grove turned the pages of a New York Times' 1939 newspaper, chronicling World War II, with dangerously frayed peels at the fold. He has an 1865 Harper's Weekly that published the 13th Amendment. He's got disasters. Wars. Anniversary issues of wars. The fog leading up to war. And advertising. There's a New York Sun "birth of TV" ad that ran on April 29, 1939. Grove found this newspaper, like much of his collection, at an estate sale. He bought it for $1.

Grove's collection of 415 historic newspapers is stored in eight bins inside a climate-controlled storage facility.

"I'm hoping to sell the 'birth of television' ad so I can open my own newspaper museum in Las Vegas," he said.

Grove said that he's talked to a famous auctioneer Christie's and the Newseum in Washington, D.C., about that ad. He's always watched a lot of "Antiques Roadshow." He's hoping it's one of a kind and will fetch about $500,000.

"I don't know, that seems like an awful lot of money," said Mella Harmon, curator of history with the Nevada Historical Society in Reno. Its collection includes microfilm and original newspapers dating back to Mark Twain's Territorial Enterprise. "I find that hard to believe. But it is amazing to me the things that people find collectible."

David Millman, director of the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas, said Grove's newspapers probably won't find a home at the museum. He said Grove's collection isn't pertinent to Nevada, because it mostly contains national papers that don't emphasize Nevada news.

Perhaps there are people who will want to look at yesterday's news to escape today's disasters. But Grove's collection isn't all doom and gloom (though some will argue that bad news is good news). He also has the New York Times cover of President Obama's inauguration. About 53 percent of Americans were happy with that outcome.

"There are people who find newspapers a fascinating medium," Harmon said. "They are fun to read. They were created to be eye-catching. As for the number of people who might go look at an exhibit on newspapers, I don't have a sense of that."

Grove, who has worked as a security officer for about 20 years and now works at the El Cortez Casino downtown, is optimistic that his collection, which starts in 1865, will draw people.

But he admits the city hasn't had much luck recently: Mayor Oscar Goodman's proposed mob museum drew bad press. The $47 million Nevada State Museum at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve still needs $6 from donors to build exhibits. Then there's the contemporary art museum downtown. Or the lack of it, since the privately funded project was put on hold earlier this month. And just last week Las Vegas Art Museum board members decided to close the city's fine art museum on Saturday. The board chairman cited a lack of public support. Officials are discussing what will become of the museum's collection.

Grove doesn't want to part with his papers. He sold one London Shield for $20, and that was because the customer really wanted it.

"All I need are the frames," he said. "I will open my own leased space, probably in the Neonopolis (the art center downtown). So many people are fascinated by history. People will stop in and spend time reading them."

Industry trends show readers going to the computer. But Grove said readers will always be interested in seeing the print editions, and maybe even pay $5 to walk through a room of framed historic front pages. After all, he still reads his print paper, the New York Times which he sneaks at Starbucks.

Will he read this paper, and keep this article in his climate controlled vault?

"Yes, he said. "It's my first interview."

Becky Bosshart can be reached at 990-7748 or [email protected].