ESA eNews #23
Arthur H. Groten M.D., Editor

SOS one!!!
ESA's information booth at the American Philatelic Society's annual conference needs volunteers, Richmond, Virginia, August 12, 13, 14, 15. There's a large show with internationally-based stamp dealers, many with ephemera. Even if you can help for an hour or two, our president Art Groten and Diane DeBlois will be really grateful! Contact: agatherin@yahoo.com.

SOS two!!!
More donations are needed for the benefit auction planned for our annual conference and fair in 2011. Each item or group should be worth $100 and come with a description. Send to SusieJohnson, Box 95, Cazenovia NY 13015-0095. Receipts for tax deduction purposes are distributed after the auction.

Regional Ephemera Event:
Sunday, October 4, all Society members are invited to a behind-the-scenes tour of Winterthur museum and library (the mid-year Board meeting will be the next day; Allentown fair is the day before). Space is limited to 25. To reserve a spot, contact administrative director Susie Johnson: info@ephemerasociety.org. More information in Ephemera News that you'll receive next week.

Ephemera in Print:
Board member and treasurer John G. Sayers's article on souvenir objects mailed with a tag, "Mailer  Madness: The novelty of collecting ... novelties" appeared as the cover to Northeast Antiques May 2010.

Former board member Wayne Morgan sent an article from Toronto's Globe and Mail, May 21, announcing that the University of British Columbia library had acquired the artist and writer Douglas Coupland's archive of objects and ephemera. Ralph Stanton, head of rare books and special collections imagines much scholarly interest: "It is quit a coup for us. He's in the Canadian intellectual tradition starting from Harold Innis through to Marshall McLuhan." Wayne points out that a change over the years is that virtually every artist retrospective exhibition now includes ephemera surrounding the artist.

Board member Molly Harris's article "Good Grief Said Charlie Brown. The Business of Death in Bygone St. Paul" was published in the Spring issue of Ramsey County History -- illustrated with ephemeral "funeralia."

Former board member Kit Barry has published a fine record of his Ephemera Archive for American Studies collection of farm machinery ephemera in a CD-ROM format that allowed him to include 400 color images, an interview with a farmer who used horse-drawn equipment until the 1940s, and music.
http://www.kitbarryephemera.com

Ephemera on Line:
As part of his doctoral dissertation in American history at George Mason University, Dan Gifford has started a website to explore postcards: www.postcardwhisperer.net

Ephemera Challenge:
Inspired by the Archives of American Art in DC's exhibit of ephemera found by the staff, the eNews will highlight an item of interesting ephemera found by a member on one particular day. Molly Harris' idea for a title is: "Today's Ephemera, Tomorrow's Flotsam." I don't have a piece of actual ephemera to commemorate today, but here's an image of trompe l'oeil ephemera, sighted on a truck on Interstate 80 near Salt Lake City, Utah, February 24, 2010.

Ephemera in University Collections:
Travel Posters at the Boston Public Library: http://www.bpl.org/news/exhibitions/away_we_go.htm

British posters, particularly for the Underground, at Yale (through August 15):
http://ycba.yale.edu/exhibitions/exhibition_current.asp

Syracuse University Library's Special Collections Research Center now has a formidable research collection in the history of plastics:
http://sumagazine.syr.edu/2010spring/orangematters/universitytreasures.html

Ephemera at Sea?
Anne Stewart O'Donnell alerted us to a call for historians put out by Sixth Star cruise line out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida -- who want to sign up guest lecturers for their ships. www.SixthStar.com