The Honor Roll of The Ephemera Society honors those who have contributed the most.

The Maurice Rickards Award is our highest honor. It was created to recognize involvement in the world of ephemera and ephemera studies. It is intended to be a very special and prestigious award granted only to strongly deserving candidates. Candidates for consideration must have made outstanding contributions to the field over a substantial period of time, and demonstrated pronounced engagement as a collector, dealer, researcher, teacher, institutional curator, and/or conservator.

It was created in 1985 to honor Maurice Rickards, the extraordinary man who founded The Ephemera Society of England and helped to establish our own Ephemera Society of America. Rickards, along with several other Englishmen and American Calvin Otto, had founded the Ephemera Society of England in 1975. Rickards was a guiding force behind numerous conferences and fairs, and published widely. His massive book Encyclopedia of Ephemera was published in 2000.

Recipients of the Rickards award are recognized with a large, specially cast silver medal.

Recipients of The Maurice Rickards Award:

1985      Maurice Rickards
1986      Robert Staples & Barbara Charles
1987      Georgia B. Barnhill
1988      Rockwell Gardiner
1989      Barbara Rusch
1990      John Grossman
1991      Deborah Smith
1997      Samuel Murray
1998      Stephen Paine
1999      Blair & Margaret Whitton
2000      Marcus McCorison
2002      Calvin P. Otto
2003      Peter Jackson & Valerie Jackson Harris
2004      John C. Dann
2005      Jay Last
2006      William H. Helfand
2008      Diane DeBlois & Robert Dalton Harris
2010      Jonathan Bulkley
2012      E. Richard McKinstry
2013      Philip H. Jones
2014      José Rodriguez
2016      Nancy Rosin

The ESA Reward of Merit was created to recognize individuals for outstanding service / contributions to the Ephemera Society, or for dedicated participation in the field. A Reward of Merit designation does not exclude any recipient from possible future Rickards award consideration. Recipients receive a hand-lettered ESA Reward of Merit certificate, and a lapel pin.

Recipients of our Reward of Merit:

Jean Berg
Jeffrey Carr
David Cheadle
Scott DeWolfe
John Dilg
Evie Eysenburg
George Fox
Joseph Freedman
Jack Golden
Arthur Groten
Matthew Isenburg
Stuart Kaplan
Barbara Loe
Alfred Malpa
Stephen Miller
Emily Davis Mobley
William Frost Mobley
Henry Raine
Carol Resnick
Stephen Resnick
Brian Riba
Nicholas Ricketts
Nancy Rosin
John Sayers
Will Shortz
Bruce Shyer
Ronald Stegall
Frank Wood