Articles

bush cheney 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 >>

  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 >>

         
Willie in the Well
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 article >>

  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 article >>

         
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 >>

  Stamp Dealer mag 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 >>

         
King Gambrinus
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 >>

 
Jewish Welfare Board ship
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 >>

         
presses
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 >>

  letter 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 >>

         
Jumbomania
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 >>

 
engraved social stationery
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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News Archive

E. Richard McKinstry, past president of The Ephemera Society of America, dozens of articles of interest for ephemerists that appeared in the Northeast Journal of Antiques & Art. If you aren't hooked on ephemera yet, read these and other Ephemera Society news to find out what all the fun is about!


Exhibits

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.

911 exhibit
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.

japanesque exhibit
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.

dolls exhibit
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.

LLA We have been given permission to reproduce a number of articles on ephemera originally published in the Louisiana Library Association's LLA Bulletin. Go to the articles >>
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