'Antiques Roadshow' guest brings a bunch of old newspapers and gets a stunning appraisal for it

Any mention of artifacts to be appraised on “Antiques Roadshow” naturally makes one think of a painting, jewelry, or collectibles. But old newspapers are the last thing someone would expect to come across on the show. As opposed to playing cards and historic documents, newspapers are usually not valued at thousands of dollars. But a guest on "Antiques Roadshow" brought several editions of the Pittsburgh-based newspaper, the Saturday Visiter. It was founded by activist Jane Swisshelm around 1847, according to the guest. She also said that Swisshelm was one of the big reasons why women could own property in Pennsylvania.

“We’ve been taught that we can thank Jane for helping to pass legislation that women could then own property in Pennsylvania,” the guest said. The paper played a big role in helping to bring about that change, and it even had 6,000 subscribers. When the time came to put a price tag on it, the expert, Devon Eastland, said that it was worth $3,000 to $5,000.

One of the reasons that these editions are so valuable is the struggle that Swisshelm had to go through to get these papers to the masses. The 1800s were not a good time to be a woman, given how limited their rights were. Swisshelm wanted to change that, but the first challenge that she faced was with the printer. Neither one of them had worked with someone of the opposite sex before.

They removed the shutters from the windows so that people could see them work and not create any rumors about anything untoward happening. One of the reasons why Swisshelm was such a big proponent of women owning property was that she had lost what was rightfully hers. After her mother passed away, the property went to her husband. At the time, the two hadn’t divorced yet.

Swisshelm had to sue and eventually won her property back. After her divorce, she moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota 1857. Now, it is important to understand that she was an abolitionist as well. It was a year before Minnesota joined the Union as a free state, so even though it was all very fresh and slavery was still rampant in bits and pieces long after then. This did not sit well with the activist, and she started another newspaper there called the St. Cloud Visiter.

However, she got into a dispute in the press with a man who had come from a slave state and had brought some of the enslaved people with him. The dispute led to an angry mod trashing Swisshelm’s printer and throwing it into a river. Her work as a women’s rights activist is what makes her such an inspiring figure today.

When the guest learned of the value of her newspapers, she said that the papers had something more valuable. “That’s wonderful. But I think her words in these papers are even more valuable,” she said.