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Political Ephemera
By Moira F. Harris
Every four years one form of ephemera is spotlighted: political ephemera and memorabilia. Presidential campaigns, conventions, and elections bring attention to what is produced by the campaigns and by others either in favor of the candidates or against them. Read
article >> |
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Ephemera and
Exhibition Design: Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World
by Barbara Fahs Charles
Nearly 20 years ago, in 1986, Robert Staples and I
received the Maurice Rickards Award for our creative use of ephemera
in museum exhibitions. Read
article >> |
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Willie in the Well
By Dick Sheaff
The other day, looking at a set of common trade cards got me to thinking about several things. One was the rich imaginations of Victorian card makers, who often created wonderfully exaggerated - sometimes quite bizarre - images. Read
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A Century of Paper Puts the 'Fizz' in Coca-Cola
By Phil Mooney
It makes sense that the world's most popular soft drink has
generated tons of ephemeral paper since its debut in 1886.
Phil Mooney, director of the Coca-Cola archives, guides readers
on a comprehensive tour of Coca-Cola history on paper. Read
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STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT: 27th Annual Ephemera Society Fair
and Conferences March 9 - 11, 2007
By John G. Sayers
For the collector or designer addicted to dramatic, high-quality
material, this year's edition of the Ephemera Society of America's
annual International Fair and Conferences ("Ephemera
27") was a massive 'fix.' Download
article as PDF >> |
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Reprints of the "Paraphilately Page" from The
American Stamp Dealer & Collector Magazine
By Art Groten
Art Groten's "Paraphilately Page" has been appearing
on page 40 of the ASDA's (American Stamp Dealers Association) The American Stamp Dealer & Collector magazine
since its first issue. Read
more >> |
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Gambrinus, The King of Beer, and Brewery Ephemera
By Moira F. Harris
Companies have brand icons that they protect fiercely by under trademark laws. Industries may have icons using versions of a traditional image. For example, Bacchus and his bunch of grapes represent wine and the growing of grapes. His counterpart, Gambrinus, is not only the spirit, but the King of Beer. Read more >> |
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Jewish Welfare Board Postcards
By John G. Sayers
There's a series of postcards that is an interesting cross-collectible for those interested in one or more of (i) postcards (ii) Judaica, (iii) military history, (iv) First World War, or (v) ocean liners. Read more >> |
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Heavy Metal Ephemera: The Resurrection of Two Social Engraving Presses
By Nancy Sharon Collins
This is the story of a 5-year journey in search of an engraving proofing press. Once ubiquitous in small print shops throughout the country, these presses were used to impress small engraved monograms, logotypes and other elements into stationary, envelopes, calling cards, folders and the like. Read more >> |
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1884 Dating Service
By Diane DeBlois
Two 1884 letters from a Utica, New York traveling salesman to a "Miss Lola" are evidence of epistolary "dating" via some sort of 'personals' advertising. Read more >> |
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Colorful Circus Paper Traces the Spread of 'Jumbomania'
By Deborah Walk, Jennifer Lemmer, and Marcy Murray
Despite its featherweight, printed paper from the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art exerted enough power back in the 1880s to ignite and sustain enthusiastic public interest in a beloved 13,000-pound curiosity named Jumbo. Read more >> |
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Engraved Social Stationery
By Nancy Sharon Collins
The engraving of social stationery has long been a small but vital industry originating in Western Europe, and subsequently practiced in the Americas and in the more affluent countries of the far East. Social stationery played a symbolic role in the literature of socially conscious writers... Read more >> |
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Image Therapy Boosted by Ephemera
By John G. Sayers
Three years ago I was approached about providing images for the Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital in Toronto for a new program they were launching - Image Therapy. It was based on the premise that familiar images can help slow down the effects of Alzheimer's disease. Read more >> |
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The First Cruise Around the World
By John G. Sayers
Ephemera -- written and printed letters, documents, etc. -- is the key to primary source research on many historical events. In this case, it's incontrovertible evidence of the first true Around-the-World cruise. The cruise began in October of 1909 on the Hamburg-American Line ship, the SS Cleveland. Read more >> |
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Gazetteer Advertising
By Diane DeBlois
New York State genealogy and local history of the 19th century owes a great deal to Hamilton Child, a compiler and publisher based in Syracuse. His most prolific output was in conjunction with the 1870 census, but he began his county histories and directories earlier than that. As well, he branched out into other areas of New England. Read more >> |
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Sunbonnet Babies
By Molly Harris
At ESA 30 and at every postcard show dealers arrange their stock so that one spot is reserved for Sunbonnets. Ever since the early twentieth century when Bertha Corbett of Minneapolis first drew her bonnet-wearing girls they have been a favored collectible. Milady and her daughters had long worn hair-concealing headgear, but what Bertha Corbett drew, in response to a challenge, was different and quickly popular. Read more >> |
The Ephemera Society's online exhibitions provide examples of ephemera
both old and new. Some exhibits highlight a particular event; others
will span a type of ephemera for decades or centuries depending
on the subject matter.
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The Aftermath of
9/11 – Healing
On September 11, 2001, Michael Ragsdale, a videographer at Columbia
University’s Center for Biomedical Communications, realized
he was in a unique position to document many of the responses
of New Yorkers to that terrible day. Both on and off the job,
he gathered flyers, posters, pamphlets and other ephemera covering
the full range of the post 9-11 experience in New York City. |
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Japanesque
Trade Cards
With the opening of Japan to trade in 1854, the American
market was flooded with goods from the Far East. Later on, exhibits
of Japanese goods at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 in Philadelphia
and the success of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The
Mikado as well as New York’s exhibit The Japanese Village,
both in 1885, exposed more Americans to Japanese wares and design. |
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Dolls as Advertising
Gimmicks
Dolls were one of the most common design motifs on 19th-century
trade cards. In combination with attractively-dressed, winsome,
children, they helped project a Victorian ideal of domestic
beauty and tranquility to the consumer of the new Middle Class.
Choosing such a design to promote a product all but guaranteed
the trade card's inclusion in ubiquitous parlor scrapbooks. |
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