The amateur newspaper occupies an unusual place in the history of journalism. An amateur journal is a periodical created to afford pleasure to its readers as well as to its editor and its publisher. The rage to publish, rather than profit, is the motive that most often induces people to become amateur journalists; and, throughout the history of the genre, most but not all amateur journalists have been juveniles. The Amateur Newspaper collection at the American Antiquarian Society consists of about 50,000 issues. There are more than 5,500 titles, from every state except Alaska and Hawaii, thus making the Society’s holdings among the largest and most extensive in the United States.