In “Yesterday’s Papers,” the first song on “Between the Buttons,” an early 1967 studio album released by The Rolling Stones, songwriter Mick Jagger’s lyric asks:

“Who wants Yesterday’s Papers?” [1]

Contrary to Jagger’s reply (“No one in the world”), there is growing interest in yesterday’s papers. Recently, the Ardsley Historical Society arranged for the digitizing of several copies of The Ardsley Sun (covering the years 1957-8) and The Masterson Press (years 1963-1966). They can be found under the searchable database link under the Archives section of the Ardsley Historical Society website. [2]

Few sources are as important as newspapers in writing about local history. As has often been observed: 

Not only will you find that newspapers mirror the daily life of the people of the community, but the older ones are "rich in accounts of travel, adventure, expansion, and festivity, as well as in discussions of national and local politics, and in abstracts of speeches on all the great issues of the day.”  

November 22, 2023, is the 60th anniversary of the 1963 assassination in Dallas of then-President John F. Kennedy. [3] While our newspaper collection doesn’t contain the Masterson Press issue published after that tragic event, the following Letter to the Editor from Ardsley School District resident Mrs. Ray Johnson appeared in the December 13, 1963 issue:

Notably, the letter refers to the term “Americanism.” Although seldom heard, the concept remains the subject of vigorous academic debate. So what is “Americanism?”  As one scholar has observed:

Americanism is a wide abstraction with a complex—if contested—meaning. It’s part political philosophy, part culture, part moral virtue, part attitude. Defined most broadly, Americanism is that political philosophy which identifies and defines the way of life and moral character most unique to the people of the United States of America. 

Americanism is a curious concept that has no foreign counterpart. It suggests that the American identity is defined and shaped by an idea, an “ism,” or an ideology. No other nation has anything quite like it. We may speak of a French, an Italian, or a Persian culture, but there is no French-ism, Italian-ism, or Persian-ism. [4]

Similarly, the letter asserts the importance of displaying the flag to strengthen America’s moral fiber.  However, as historian Woden Teachout notes in her book, “Capture the Flag,” 

The story of the American flag is a story of a nation in search of itself. It has been the locus of bitter conflicts over the meaning of what it means to be an American, claimed by both racists and revolutionaries; immigrants and nativists; by the right and left. It has been hoisted, waved, burned, shot, spattered with tobacco juice, and stopped underfoot. [5]

On September 12, 1962, in a speech at Rice University’s stadium in Houston, Texas, President Kennedy, standing next to an American flag, boldly declared that America would choose to go to the moon. [6] Why, the moon, he asked? His answer - not because it will be easy, but because it will be hard. [7]

Eight years later, the front page headline of the July 21, 1969, late city edition of The New York Times read as follows.

Toward the bottom of the page, which was solely dedicated to the lunar landing urged by Kennedy at Rice University, a blurry picture of the unfurling of the American flag appeared:

One can undoubtedly learn a lot from reading yesterday’s papers.

Endnotes:

[1] This psychedelic-tinged nugget from the Stones is more a lovelorn pop ballad than a statement on the news business, but its lyrics reflected the centrality of the image of reading the daily paper at the time: “Every day means the turn of a page / Yesterday’s papers are such bad news / Same thing applies to me and you.” https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-rolling-stones/yesterdays-papers Several months later in June 1967, The Beatles would release “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” in which at least two of the tracks, "She's Leaving Home,” and “A Day in the Life,”  the latter often being considered one of their most important compositions and which opens with “I read the news today, oh boy,” had their genesis in newspaper stories. 

[2] The Masterson Press primarily reported on Ardsley, Edgemont, and Hartsdale, and occasionally Elmsford and other parts of Greenburgh.  Courtesy of his son Mark, here is the background of Bert Wilson Masterson, 1912-81 and the Masterson Press. “He was a newspaper and wire service guy from his high school days writing college sports news freelance as a stringer with United Press.  He was hired at age 20 in Kansas City as a writer on the wire service (1932). He was Bureau Chief in Chicago before coming to NYC in 1957 to work on international research and development for the company. In 1957 he bought a house at 32 Dalewood Dr. in Hartsdale. Around 1960 he purchased a weekly newspaper and printing business at 15 Wilson St, Hartsdale, located a block east of four corners.  He operated the business for a short period. Made a change to publish one paper covering the same towns and villages without the presses and printing business. He named the paper The Masterson Press, Inc.  It was a one man show with Masterson doing the writing, ad sales, paste up and contracting for printing in Irvington. The basement of the family home became the business office.  The paper focused on local issues and politics.  Editorials written to a very literate audience addressed issues of the times from the Vietnam War to the School Mergers and the many controversial issues that local and state governments deal with (or don't). The paper was published at various frequencies due to health issues.  The editions I have range from 1963 to 1968.  Not sure when it stopped as I left for college in August 1968.  He continued for several years before moving in 1976 to Wichita, Kansas. After discontinuing The Masterson Press, he worked at Greenburgh Town Hall for Nick Russo, Supervisor.  He was active consulting Mr. Russo on his political campaigns before taking the job.  He worked to help pay my college costs at Wichita State. In Wichita he was active in journalism..  He also taught journalism classes on a grant at the three local universities for a period of time.  Those institutions are Wichita State, Newman Univ and Friends Univ. He died in bed with a story in the typewriter in 1981 at age 70.” (email to author from Mark Masterson, 9/25/22)

[3] The 24 hours before Kennedy’s assassination and the historical significance of November 22 in American history was discussed in the Timepiece. The Quarries of History  

[4] Defining Americanism Notably, the Russell Sage Foundation has undertaken an effort to update its 2004 study on 21st Century Americanism. https://www.russellsage.org/awarded-project/twenty-first-century-americanism

[5] Woden Teachout, Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism (New York: Basic Books, 2009)

[6] https://news.rice.edu/news/2012/jfks-1962-moon-speech-still-appeals-50-years-later

[7] Some have argued the speech at Rice was the highwater mark of muscular Americanism (based on a perception of the national government as a force for good by ending the Great Depression, winning World War 2 and building the interstate highway). The Covid-19 pandemic with its epic battles over masks and vaccines and the events of the January 6 insurrection reveal the collapse of a previous era’s general consensus on what being an American is.