I found a 21 year old receipt from the grocery store my in laws used to shop at. My mother in law passed away 7 years ago, and I love having a receipt for her Diet Coke.
I was surprised at the huge lit. on marketing history. I was lookign through somethign and the image at the top caught my eye..and it's a seed catalog.
Ephemera creeps into my postcard collection occasionally. Here is a watch case advertisement from about 1883 that I've added to my lunar postcards: https://www.instagram.com/p/CdoRnlQOabL/
I think it is wrong to include postcards as that is a special area of collection. But a lot of the events were "paper" so I guess included postcards. have you been to the Newberry ephemera collection?
Yes, deltiology is right up there with philately as a structured (well, relatively structured) discipline. I need to get back down to the Newberry this summer. Postcards and ephemera would be a good excuse.
That is what I thought, and though both Ephemera societies include them as under their umbrella they focus more on other thigs. I was surprised that match books aren't mentioned. I knew lots of people who collected them...before smoking was banned.
I used to write letters every day to lots of people with stamps in the mail. When I moved offices I sent much of my non-personal correspondence to an archives and from time to time a scholar will let me know how helpful that was as they did some research. However, since using e-mail I don't even think about saving what I write or receive.
Bibliophemera. You have an Award from the Ephemera Society of America! Now there goes my evening scrolling through your bog. I will be getting my library history class ready for fall and all the students are your ardent fans.
Thank you for your kind words. An incentive for me to add more content to my blog. I like to call my primary philatelic interest postal librariana. I got started collecting library postage stamps but a huge part of my collection are envelopes, called covers by philatelists, that have been sent by or to libraries. Envelopes are normally one of the most ephemeral items in our society. Most people dispose of them routinely. Philatelists collect them because of postal history. I collect them because of the interface of library history and postal history. Interestingly some archival institutions don't value envelopes, only their content, and are willing to sell them to collectors. I think this is wrong.
I found a 21 year old receipt from the grocery store my in laws used to shop at. My mother in law passed away 7 years ago, and I love having a receipt for her Diet Coke.
Erinophemera.
So if the study of ephemera is finally coming into its own and recognized as a legitimate, scholarly endeavor, shouldn't we rename it "significa"?
I was surprised at the huge lit. on marketing history. I was lookign through somethign and the image at the top caught my eye..and it's a seed catalog.
Ephemera creeps into my postcard collection occasionally. Here is a watch case advertisement from about 1883 that I've added to my lunar postcards: https://www.instagram.com/p/CdoRnlQOabL/
I think it is wrong to include postcards as that is a special area of collection. But a lot of the events were "paper" so I guess included postcards. have you been to the Newberry ephemera collection?
Yes, deltiology is right up there with philately as a structured (well, relatively structured) discipline. I need to get back down to the Newberry this summer. Postcards and ephemera would be a good excuse.
That is what I thought, and though both Ephemera societies include them as under their umbrella they focus more on other thigs. I was surprised that match books aren't mentioned. I knew lots of people who collected them...before smoking was banned.
We bought at a sale many volumes of a turn of the century Boston newspaper. So much fun to open up to a random page.
Makes me wonder what today's "ephemera" might be.
I am afraid we will mainly have electrons.
Maybe handwritten letters will come into retro vogue again, just like turntables and records.
I still try to write handwritten notes for condolences, but I ought to expand my letter writing.
I have such bad, childish handwriting, though. I never mastered script!
I'm a reader of collections of letters. Orwell's are amazing: https://www.amazon.com/George-Orwell-Life-Letters/dp/0871404621
I used to write letters every day to lots of people with stamps in the mail. When I moved offices I sent much of my non-personal correspondence to an archives and from time to time a scholar will let me know how helpful that was as they did some research. However, since using e-mail I don't even think about saving what I write or receive.
This is the kind of stuff I love pawing through in thrift stores and antique shops. Magazine pages and menus, especially.
I include ephemera in almost all of my library philatelic exhibits.
https://libraryhistorybuff.blogspot.com/2010/08/library-ephemera.html
Bibliophemera. You have an Award from the Ephemera Society of America! Now there goes my evening scrolling through your bog. I will be getting my library history class ready for fall and all the students are your ardent fans.
Thank you for your kind words. An incentive for me to add more content to my blog. I like to call my primary philatelic interest postal librariana. I got started collecting library postage stamps but a huge part of my collection are envelopes, called covers by philatelists, that have been sent by or to libraries. Envelopes are normally one of the most ephemeral items in our society. Most people dispose of them routinely. Philatelists collect them because of postal history. I collect them because of the interface of library history and postal history. Interestingly some archival institutions don't value envelopes, only their content, and are willing to sell them to collectors. I think this is wrong.