The folks in the 1800s used the newspaper as one way to communicate about lost belongings, with notices looking for items ranging from lace veils to spectacles to animals. Check out a few below:
A Happy Reunion
Mrs. Flossy DeGrange lost her canary, “bright with top-knot on head and black tip on wings” and placed a lost ad in the May 24, 1886 edition of The News, offering a reward for its return to her North Market Street home. Four days later, the paper announced the canary’s safe return to Mrs. DeGrange “through the kindness of Messrs. Kussmaul Bros.”
Little Girl Lost
This heartbreaking ad in an 1854 issue of The Baltimore Sun was surrounded by others trying to locate a misplaced breastpin and a terrier pup:
“LOST CHILD. — A small girl, five years old, named MARY SLOAN, strayed away from her home on the corner of Forrest street and Hull’s lane, on yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, at 1 o’clock. She was dressed in a green frock, striped apron and morocco gaiters. Any person knowing of the whereabouts of said child will confer a great favor on her much distressed parents by returning her to them as above.”
Down on His Luck
Seems like this man’s luck went from bad to worse when he lost his cash in Frederick in 1884:
“LOST. By a poor laboring man, a roll of bills, on court street, about noon today, amounting to about $20. The finder will be liberally rewarded by returning the same to Capt. J.S. B. Hartsock, or this office.”
Sources: The Baltimore Sun, February 6, 1854; The News, May 19, 1884, May 24, 1886 and May 28, 1886
Bygone Maryland 
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