Ephemera Journal, Volume XIII

Janus, the Roman god of doorways, is reported to have had the power to look both outwardly and inwardly at the same time. The fact is that most of us are not blessed with such omni-directional vision. The contributors to this issue of The Ephemera Journal, however, seem to share this Janus-like ability to focus on one aspect of their world and see something else at the same time.

They share with the rest of us the ability to accept the ordinary surface view, but then, unsatisfied, they're always looking under the carpet searching for more.

Like Richard McKinstry, many of us have marveled at the robust output of the mid-19th-century printer Charles Magnus. Rich McKinstry had seen hundreds of the lettersheets, patriotic envelopes, broadsides, city views, maps, rewards of merit, sheet music, even valentines that the German-born Magnus produced during his 50-year career in the U.S. What he hadn't seen was the kind of scholarship that such a prolific job printer like Magnus should have generated. So, instead of being satisfied with the superficial, he dug more deeply into Magnus's background to see what else a fresh eye might see.

The same kind of questioning fuels Gretchen Sorin's scholarship, but her quest to search below the surface was, this time, very personal. Unknown to her as a child, her family had taken advantage of the guiding hand that steered many African Americans through rejection and even the very real threat of danger as they traveled through the Jim Crow era -- The Negro Motorist Green-Book. Little known now, even to African Americans, Sorin has taken a fresh look at the publication that lasted for decades and helped Negro travelers maintain their dignity and sense of well being in a still hostile nation.

Somewhat like the others, Erika Piola embarked on one journey and found herself compelled to follow one of the side roads she had discovered along the way. While cataloging a collection of Civil War ephemera for The Library Company of Philadelphia, she was fascinated by the scope and variety of stationery sundries that focused on women and children. The ephemera she was cataloging became primary sources that allowed her to examine the ways in which women and children became involved in the war being fought by their fathers, brothers, and uncles.

When Richard Sheaff gets his teeth into a solitary, obscure piece of ephemera he is likely to toy with it like an English bulldog, for years if need be, pulling, chewing, growling, and feinting until he's teased more context out of it than anyone thought possible. That's what he did with a singular piece of paper that had been printed by Boston's first wood engraver, Abel Bowen. From that singular scrap he has gathered other amazing pieces that flesh out the successful business relationship between Bowen and Boston' first hat maker, Thomas Stearns.

We can be thankful that people like these exist who are willing to look beyond the obvious to coax little-known realities from printed ephemera

--Eric Johnson, Editor

Ordering Information:
Available for $18.00; $15.00 to members of the Ephemera Society; plus $3.00 for postage. Order from the Ephemera Society of America, PO Box 95, Cazenovia, NY 13035 or visit the online store.

Members $15.00 Non-members $18.00