Organizing an Ephemera Collection: Some Principles
Katherine J. Adams

In 1984 I decided to create an Ephemera Collection to give special attention to the paper ephemera housed in the Barker Texas History Center. A regional historical research repository at the University of Texas at Austin, the Barker Center acquires, preserves, and makes available for research recorded information documenting the historical development of Texas, the Rocky Mountain West, and the South. As with books, serials, maps, newspapers, photographs, sound recordings, and manuscript and archival collections, ephemera is actively collected at the Barker Center as a valuable source of information.

The quantity of ephemera at the Barker Center is voluminous. Broadsides, handbills, song sheets, invitations, election tickets, announcements, dance programs, bumper stickers, menus, and other items have been acquired since the university began building its historical collections shortly after opening in 1883. Most ephemera was and is obtained as part of library or manuscript collections. In recent years, however, pieces have been avidly sought and acquired for their own merits.

I made several false starts in trying to design an ephemera collection. Initially I erred on the side of product at the expense of process, designing elaborate descriptive and retrieval systems that proved too time-consuming to produce, inappropriately detailed vis-à-vis the contents of the collection, or wholly impractical for patrons to use. One prototype, for example, featured item-level description by multiple subject/format access points; another employed a software program to sort and retrieve ephemera using keywords. Perhaps these early efforts are best forgotten.

Since then I have developed a collection that l believe balances need (to control and to provide access to ephemera) and resources (staff time, equipment, etc.). For the purpose of this article, I have organized my thoughts on designing this collection into the following principles that other repositories may find useful as they grapple with how to organize their own ephemera collections.

• Ephemera is easily and adequately described in terms of its physical format.
  Therefore, organize and describe the contents of the collection by format: what something is, not what something is about.
• Ephemera is voluminous, and it varies in informational quality.
  Therefore, create a collection that can control and describe ephemera in the aggregate (Menus) or, when appropriate, in the particular (Bills of fare from steamships and packets on the Mississippi River, ca. 1870s); not all ephemera merits individual description.
• Time to manage an ephemera collection is limited.
  Therefore, design a collection that can be administered easily and with the help of clerical staff; be practical in all things.
• Embrace institutional practice.
  Therefore, develop a collection that can take advantage of any descriptive work that already exists in your repository.

Format: The Collection Vocabulary

The materials in the Barker Center’s Ephemera Collection are organized and described by format rather than subject because ephemera falls into distinct categories based on physical characteristics and because a format-based organization offers a practical means of organizing the center’s large quantities of ephemeral materials. Repositories that have subject ephemera collections (i.e., focusing on medicine, the theater, tourism, etc.) can also use this vocabulary to organize ephemera on a specific topic.

The format terms and their definitions used in the center’s Ephemera Collection are listed in a collection vocabulary derived, in the main, from an excellent thesaurus compiled and edited by Helena Zinkham and Elisabeth Betz Parker: Descriptive Terms for Graphic Materials: Genre and Physical Characteristic Headings.¹ Designed to serve graphic materials, Descriptive Terms for Graphic Materials also applies to ephemera because many types of ephemera are illustrated (such as advertising cards or carriers’ addresses). I found this thesaurus enormously useful, and I am very grateful to its authors; their efforts made mine possible.

I selected terms from the thesaurus that represented types of ephemera in the Center’s collections. I supplemented those terms with a few of my own (for example, "Prospectuses") and adapted others to meet special Barker Center circumstances (see, for example, "Broadsides"). I do not regard this modified vocabulary as final; new terms will be added as the center’s Ephemera Collection demands. If the Barker Center ever owns any rewards of merit, for example, that term will be added to the vocabulary and a file for rewards of merit created.

The following is a complete list of the terms and definitions that currently make up the vocabulary for the center’s Ephemera Collection.

Advertisements: public notices of the availability of goods or services through purchase or other means.

Advertising cards: cards issued to be given away by merchants, sales agents, or others to advertise and promote the sale of their goods or services. May also have been enclosed with products, such as bread, cigarettes, and coffee, as a premium. Usually, cards bear seller or product name and a pictorial representation of the service or product. Picture may also be unrelated, such as a colorful bird scene on a local stationer’s card.

Advertising mail: advertisements distributed or intended for distribution by mail.

Display cards: advertisements on cards made for use on a counter or in a window, lobby, or other commercial setting; larger than advertising cards.

Announcements: small notices announcing special events and occasions that are generally noncommercial, such as weddings, exhibitions, conferences, fundraisers, etc. See also: Advertisements, Programs, and Prospectuses.

Application forms

Badges: devices indicating support of a cause, attitude, achievements, or membership or participation in a society or group. Ephemera Collection will include printed or photographic badges; badges in plastic, metal, or fabric are in the Artifact Collection.

Ballots: sheets of paper, cards, or other devices used to cast a vote or to announce a slate of candidates.

Bookmarks

Broadsides: single-sheet public notices that are usually printed on only one side; often chiefly text and meant to be read unfolded. They provide information, news, commentary, proclamation, or other announcement or advertisement. Primarily posted but also distributed by hand. Larger than advertising cards; usually less pictorial than posters; more extensive text than signs. All broadsides housed in the Barker Center are described individually; see the three card catalog files labeled "Broadsides" or consult reference staff.

Bumper stickers: see Stickers

Calendars: tabular registers of days according to a system, usually covering one year and referring the days of each month to the days of the week.

Cards: pieces of thin paperboard, stiff paper, or other material, which are flat, usually small and rectangular, and designed to convey messages or other information; includes calendars of events.

Advertising cards: see Advertisements

Business cards: small cards that bear name and often address of a business or other organization and its representative. Usually lack illustration except for a logo or emblem.

Campaign cards: cards, issued individually or in sets, which bear a caricature or cartoon. Popular in 1850s-1900. Term does not include postcards.

Dance cards: cards on which names of dances and dance partners may be written.

Display cards: see Advertisements

Membership cards

Sentiment cards: cards printed with a word or a brief phrase of love, friendship, or other feelings. The size of visiting cards.

Visiting cards: small cards bearing a person’s name (and sometimes an address) that are presented when making a social call or visiting. May have a portrait, scene, or decoration; may be accompanied by an envelope.

Caricatures: cartoons which portray in a critical or facetious way an individual or group, or a figure representing a social, political, ethnic, or racial type. The effect is usually achieved through distortion or exaggeration of the features or form. See also: Cartoons

Carriers’ addresses: verses in broadside or pamphlet format, presented at the start of a new year by newspaper carriers to request a gratuity.

Cartoons: humorous, satirical, or ridiculing images executed in broad or abbreviated manner. See also: Caricatures

Catalogs: enumeration of items arranged systematically with descriptive details. May have prices.

Commercial catalogs: catalogs issued by businesses and individuals offering products for sale to retailers or the public. Specialized catalogs, such as those for Christmas orders and seeds, are included.

Exhibit catalogs: catalogs of items on display in art, museum, or other exhibitions.

Certificates: documents containing certified statements of ownership, membership, fulfilled requirements, legal status, etc.

Envelopes: flat, usually paper containers, as for mailing a letter. Typical illustrations include patriotic themes or business advertisements; introduced for common use in the 1840s.

Greeting Cards: cards sent or given on special occasions; usually bearing messages of good will. Includes birthday cards, Christmas cards, Easter cards, New Year’s cards, and valentines.

Handbills: small single-sheet notices, usually unfolded; may be printed on both sides; intended for wide distribution by hand, mail, or other means. Most handbills are located in the Broadside Collection.

Invitations: requests to be present or to participate.

Keepsakes: works produced to mark the occasion of a gathering or event; given or sold to those in attendance and not usually otherwise available. Includes souvenir programs and souvenir viewbooks.

Labels: slips of paper, cloth, or other material affixed or meant to be attached to something for identification, description, or decoration. See also: Stickers

Letterheads: sheets for writing letters which include printed headings, such as the name and address of a person or organization, or an illustration.

Lottery tickets: slips of paper or cardboard which represent chances for winning a prize in a lottery.

Menus: lists of the dishes that may be ordered in an eating establishment or that are to be served at a banquet or other occasion.

Placemats

Premiums: items available without charge or at less than the usual price with the purchase of a product or service, or as a result of a subscription or membership. May be packaged with the product or available through a coupon.

Price lists: enumerations of costs for goods or services; on one or several sheets, and, if longer, usually lacking descriptive details.

Programs: brief, usually printed outlines of the order to be followed, of feature(s) to be presented, and of person(s) participating in a public exercise, performance, or entertainment. This category of ephemera has been divided into the following subdivisions:

Athletic programs: programs for sporting events, demonstrations, and competitions.

Meeting programs–organizational: programs for meetings of members of formal organizations (such as women’s clubs, patriotic societies, and professional associations) at which members come together to reaffirm goals, conduct business, and hold special events, such as reunions, conferences, or banquets.

Meeting programs–non-organizational: programs for meetings of persons not associated with one or another on a formal basis who assemble for a specific purpose, such as to acquire training or to honor a person or to commemorate an event.

Music and dance programs: programs for performances and recitals by singers, musicians, bands, dancers, etc., including operas, concerts, and ballets.

Playbills: programs for plays or theatrical entertainments.

Religious programs: programs for religious services.

School programs: programs for school activities relating to enrollment, curriculum, or graduation; entertainments or other performances (school plays, sports competitions, etc.) are located under other appropriate subdivisions.

Souvenir programs: see Keepsakes

Prospectuses: a preliminary statement, usually printed, issued by promoters of an enterprise, the publisher of a literary work, or the administration of a school or college, intended to give advance information and to arouse interest and support.

Schedules: lists showing times of departure and arrival and scheduled stopping points between two terminals.

Scraps: die-cut decorations, usually am-bossed chromolithographs printed in sheets from which each scrap can be broken off to paste on calling cards or greeting cards, album pages, or other places. Popular from the mid- to late 1800s; many made in Germany. Wide variety of designs including flowers, animals, children, ships, and famous people.

Signs: lettered boards or other displays used to give directions or information, to identify a place of business or a public facility, or to give warning or direction. Usually textual or symbolic rather than pictorial.

Song Sheets: single-sheet verses without musical notes, usually printed on one side of letter paper and frequently illustrated with colored headpieces of battle scenes, portraits, vignettes, views, and other decorations. Popular beginning 1850s and intended for use by those for whom the tune was familiar but the words were new.

Souvenir Viewbooks: see Keepsakes

Souvenirs: see Keepsakes

Stationery: materials on which letters and similar communications are typed or written. Also see: Greeting Cards

Stickers: self-adhering messages or designs on slips of paper that are gummed or otherwise treated to adhere to a surface; includes bumper stickers. See also: Labels

Tickets: slips of paper, cardboard, or other materials used for admission or passage. See also: Lottery tickets

Quantity and Quality

When Maurice Rickards, who organized the Ephemera Society in London in 1975, described ephemera as "a huge corpus of miscellaneous papers ... most of them destined at some stage for the waste-bin," he touched on a truism about his subject: that there is a lot of it.² It is also true that ephemera varies in informational quality; simply put, for most repositories not all (or even most) ephemera collected merits individual description.

I felt it critical to address these issues of quantity and quality when designing an ephemera collection, especially since in practice I have only limited time to devote to collection processing. Specifically, I wanted to be able to cope effectively with quantity without sacrificing the benefits of quality item-level description when it was warranted.

To do this I created two levels of description for each physical category (format) of ephemera: the "generic," which applies to most ephemera in a category, and the "specific," which applies to those select pieces of ephemera in a category whose informational content merits detailed description. Generic descriptions are very brief (Menus–non-Texas) and allow many items to be quickly organized and described. Specific descriptions, on the other hand, are quite detailed, extending even to the individual item. These descriptions require much more time to prepare, but serve to give special attention to what is judged the most valuable ephemera in a collection. Both categories can be used as often as needed and are tailor-made to fit the contents of each physical category.

The following description for the format "Menus" in the center’s Ephemera Collection indicates that the collection currently houses seven file folders of menus, four of which are generic categories containing menus differentiated solely by date or whether or not they document a Texas eating establishment. Files five through seven are more closely focused, describing specific groups that I felt warranted more elaborate description.

Menus: lists of the dishes that may be ordered in an eating establishment or that are to be served at a banquet or other occasion.

Box 1: Contents

File 1: Miscellaneous menus, Texas, pre-1900

File 2: Miscellaneous menus, Texas, 1900-1949

File 3: Miscellaneous menus, Texas, 1950-current

File4: Miscellaneous menus, non Texas

File 7: Menus from Doering Hotel Coffee Shop, location unknown, 1930-1931

A second category, "Song Sheets," contains one generic file and three specific files. In contrast to the treatment in "Menus" in which specific files describe closely focused groups of this format of ephemera, the specific files under "Song Sheets" describe materials at the item level.

Song Sheets: single-sheet verses without musical notes, usually printed on one side of letter paper and frequently illustrated with colored headpieces of battle scenes, portraits, vignettes, views, and other decorations. Popular beginning 1850s and intended for those for whom the time was familiar but the words were new.

Box 1: Contents

File 1: Miscellaneous song sheets

File 4: Miscellaneous 19th-century Texas song sheets

The level of detail used for both the generic and specific files is arbitrary; it should simply be sufficient to describe the ephemera. If at a later date more detail seems warranted, add it. When the acquisition of new ephemera creates new groupings, create them.

Practical Management

I have only limited time to manage an ephemera collection. I rely, therefore, on format-based organization and access, and I limit in-depth description to help expedite processing. I also use the following procedures to save time.

Labeling: For quick production and to minimize retyping in case materials need to be shifted, storage boxes (standard documents boxes) are labeled only by format (i.e. Invitations) and box number (Box 1, Box 2). Files are labeled simply File 1, File 2, etc., with no additional information. Description (generic or specific) of the contents of a file is only found in the printed (typed) guide to the collection.

Sorting/filing: Incoming ephemera is sorted by filing it directly into a set of files identical to the generic files in the Ephemera Collection. This can be done by a clerk. I review these files periodically, removing ephemera that warrants in-depth (specific) description and leaving the remainder for the clerk to file directly into the generic files in the collection. I describe and store the ephemera I have culled, updating the collection guide with the new (specific) descriptions.

Collection guide: I produce a printed guide to the Ephemera Collection using Microsoft Word on a Macintosh SE. Each format (Invitations, Menus, Tickets, etc.) has a separate page(s) in the guide, so that updating required amending and printing out the fewest pages. New pages are filed as produced.

Institutional Practice

As a practical measure the center’s Ephemera Collection accommodates existing Barker Center collections and descriptive systems. In other words, it builds on existing institutional practice.

For years the Barker Center has organized and described its many broadsides by year of publication. Access is by cards filed chronologically. This arrangement follows the lead established by three important checklists of Texas imprints, each of which arranges its entries chronologically: Streeter’s Bibliography of Texas, 1795-1845; Winkler’s Checklist of Texas Imprints, 1846-1860; and Winkler and Friend’s Checklist of Texas lmprints, 1861-1876.³ It is an arrangement that works for us and is one we continue, even for broadsides issued after 1876.

Broadsides, of course, are a form of ephemera and rightly belong in the center’s Ephemera Collection. Rather than adding the hundreds of broadside descriptions to the Ephemera Collection, however, I simply refer users to the separate card file describing broadsides. The result is that this physical category of ephemera is fully described (to the item level), albeit by a slightly different finding aid.

The Barker Center also routinely removes ephemera from archival and manuscript collections when it is not closely associated with the creator or subject of its host collection. This ephemera joins the Ephemera Collection. In some cases, however, ephemera possesses an important association with its collection and deserves special (even item-level) description as ephemera. For these cases I am currently assessing the practicality of using the Ephemera Collection as a mechanism by which collection association is retained and detailed description is given.

Tentative plans are to do this by establishing personal ephemera collections. Such collections (i.e. the John Henry Brown Ephemera Collection) will be mini-collections of ephemera that are listed separately at the end of the guide to the Ephemera Collection. Each personal ephemera collection will use the same format vocabulary and levels of description as the main Ephemera Collection. An introductory statement to each collection will briefly describe the scope and content of the host manuscript collection from which the personal ephemera collection is drawn. The inventory to the manuscript collection will note that materials from the collection have been separated to the Ephemera Collection.

In Summary

To create an ephemera collection, acknowledge that ephemera is an important source of information that warrants organization and description. To design an ephemera collection, be guided by the knowledge that ephemera is well suited to organization by physical type and that it lends itself to varying levels of description. Strive to develop a collection that is practical and flexible.

References

¹ Helena Zinkham and Elisabeth Betz Parker. Descriptive Terms for Graphic Materials:

Genre and Physical Characteristic Headings (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1986).

² Maurice Rickards, Collecting Printed Ephemera (New York: Abbeville Press, 1988): 14.

³ Thomas W. Streeter, Bibliography of Texas, 1795-1845, 2d ed. (Woodbridge, CT:

Research Publications, 1983); Ernest W. Winkler, ed. Check List of Texas Imprints, 1846-1860 (Austin. TX: Texas State Historical Association, 1949); Ernest W. Winkler, and Llerena Friend, Check List of Texas Imprints. 1861-1876 (Austin. TX: Texas State Historical Association, 1963).

Katherine J. Adams is assistant director of the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. She manages the center’s 140,000-volume rare book library and its Ephemera Collection and is editor of Barker Texas History Center Newsletter.

The Ephemera Society acknowledges with thanks the editor of Louisiana Libraries for granting permission to reproduce this article from Volume 53, Number 2, published in Fall 1990.