ephemera

Roller Skating Party at The Axle

Here's a 1936 ticket to the Zeta Chi Sorority roller skating party held at the Arcadia Gardens. The Arcadia was originally built as a ballroom/skating rink around 1910. It was one of Chicago's most popular jazz dance halls.

A few decades later, in the 70s, I frequented a Chicagoland roller rink called The Axle. Does anyone else have fond memories of The Axle? Those Saturday afternoons at the Axle in Niles were bittersweet. The place was regularly packed with suburban tweens. Every hour they'd have a "couples" skate. Which meant, of course, asking a young lady to skate hand-in-hand a few times around the oily rink, while Styx Babe blared from the loudspeakers. More often than not, I'd skate over to a sweet, young princess who would shoot me down like a WWI Fokker pilot over France. But, oh, when she said yes! Sweaty palms. Heart-pounding glory. And maybe, just maybe, a peck on the cheek at the end of the song.

[Photo attribution: ticket image by vintageroadside.com]

Prince Charles Love Letter Before Diana

I found this letter on eBay.

In the auction listing, the seller writes, "...28 year old letter from HRH Prince Charles shows he was under great pressure in 1980 to find a wife and get married, and it seems whomever his family found would be suitable. In this seven page letter, written on official Windsor Castle paper, dated June 8, 1980, Charles writes to a girlfriend in Canada about his frustration with the press and not being able to sneak ladies into his hotel room - 'My new private secretary is horrified by the idea of ladies in hotel rooms during foreign visits'. He also speaks of marriage and divorce and his worries of making a mistake! He writes, 'I can see that I shall just have to get married as soon as possible and then all these people might relax a little....! I still think my solution of marrying a girl from each commonwealth county is the best one'. He continues, 'Don't worry-whatever happens I will make sure you are given early warning...' This letter from a man who, within a year, we are to believe, found, fell in love with, and became engaged to the woman he would spend the rest of his life with? Really! Diana was like a lamb unknowingly being led to slaughter in 1980. This letter comes with the original, hand written, postmarked envelope. He also complains about having another slate of annoying speeches. This complaint from a man who lives one of the most privileged lives in this world!. It is signed, 'with much love, Charles.'"

For in-depth coverage of Royal Ephemera, check out Jim Hanson's Royal Ephemera Newsletter.

To read my interview with Jim Hanson, click here.

Valuable Objects Fall from Old Books

eBay seller "tapestries" found this early photo of prize fighters inside of an old book. Things that tumble out of old books, such as this photo, are the stuff of legend.

Seasoned booksellers call them flyaways. I recently asked eBay booksellers to tell me about the flyaways they've found inside old books. Here's what some of them had to say:

imagine.ink: One of my most interesting finds inside a book were two envelopes addressed to Mr. Solomon Gray. One held a signed contract dated 1923 from a music publisher for sheet music written by Mr. Gray called "Quitting Blues." The other envelope held two copyright registration cards from the Library of Congress: one for "Quitting Blues" (1923) and the other for another song he wrote called, "Naughty, Naughty Mister Moon" (1922). I would love to find the actual sheet music for those songs to go along with this ephemera, but I haven't been successful.

bookbiz: A wonderful photo, about 3x5, of poet Robinson Jeffers standing in front of his house. The inscription on the back indicated that the photo's owner had taken it himself while visiting Jeffers. It was in an early printing of a Jeffers volume.

satnrose: I found an Abraham Lincoln mourning ribbon in an old Bible that I sold on eBay for over $400.

pk_nik: I found a love letter in a novel written in 1908, the letter was dated 1910 and it is so romantic.

fine.books: Two scraps from a manuscript of Isidorus Hispalensis' Etymologiæ; second half of the ninth century.

If you're in the market for a used book, or maybe a rare flyaway, check out these friendly eBayers, and tell them the ephemera blog sent you.

Painted River Stones and Other Collections

I'm alway curious to hear about unusual collections. So, I asked a few people who stop by regularly about their collections. Here's what they had to say:

Jafabrit: When I can I like to collect river stones to paint faces on. I like to confuse the viewer into wondering if it is the shape of the stone or the painting technique that has defined the features.

BrianZ: I collect primarily artist-signed postcards and vintage die-cuts, but anything that speaks to me is liable to wind-up in my collection. I enjoy the beauty, history and mystery surrounding the unlikely survival of these delicate objects. As their temporary custodian, I feel responsible for maintaining that survival and the unique perspective on vanished times only they can provide.

Pete Anderson: I'm a casual (formerly avid) collector of paper advertising ephemera of old Chicago-area breweries and other Illinois companies. Years back, I even toyed with the idea of starting a

business that sold framed originals of advertising ephemera and other Illinois-focused pictures--primarily etchings from old atlases--under the name "Images of Illinois". I never got any further with it than registering the name with the state and acquiring a dozen or pieces before my focus shifted elsewhere. I might still revive the idea someday, maybe during a moment of boredom once I'm retired.

If you have an unusual or unique collection, leave a comment and tell us about it. In the future, maybe I'll do a whole post devoted to your items.

First Grader - Collage Artist - Isabel Dreher

Isabel Dreher is a first grader from New Hampshire who has a creative streak that presents itself in all areas of her life--from her clothing, to her love of all things artistic, to her imagination. Since Isabel has begun to incorporate ephemera into her collage work, I asked her mother, Tonya Dreher, a photographer and editor, to share some of Isabel's work here. As loyal readers know, a big part of what I'm trying to accomplish with the ephemera blog is to show how ephemera is used and enjoyed by people--artists, researchers, genealogist, writers, historians, etc.--with a wide variety of interests. Isabel is a prime example.

Isabel's mom says, "She usually starts with a canvas or piece of cardboard and paints the background with acrylics. Then she pulls out my bins of vintage 'stuff' which includes old photographs and schoolbooks, sheet music, maps, wrapping paper, postcards, letters, and tons of other do-dads. Sometimes she has a theme in mind, like a Valentine collage and other times she just cuts out what she likes. She arranges everything and uses a glue stick to paste the pieces on. Then she goes over it all with gel medium, which gives it a finished look. I often give her 'new' materials to do crafts with as well, but she is really drawn to the 'old' things. She likes the way the old magazines smell and we often talk about the people in the photographs and what their lives might have been like – which I think inspires her a bit.

Tonya recently asked Isabel why she liked doing collage with vintage materials and this is what she said: "I liked puzzles when I was little and now I like to fit all the old pictures and shapes together to make a new picture - And it's always different. I like using really old things that have been in a box for a long time, and I like the photos from the olden days."

Spoken like a true lover of ephemera. Welcome to the world of old paper, Isabel. And thanks for sharing your work on the ephemera blog. To see more of Isabel's work, click here.

If you're someone who uses ephemera in your art, research, or work, please send me an email. I'd like to hear about what you're doing with ephemera, and possibly feature your endeavors here.

Lincoln Slavery Letter Expected to Set Auction Record

On April 3, 2008, Sotheby’s New York will offer for sale Presidential and Other American Manuscripts from the Dr. Robert Small Trust. Highlighting the collection is Abraham Lincoln'sheartfelt and emotional reply to a “Children's Petition to the President asking him to free all the little slave children in this country,” from 1864, which at an estimate of $3/5 million is expected to become the most expensive Lincoln manuscript ever sold. Additionally, the collection provides an interesting perspective on politics today, addressing issues such as: foreign policy, war, acrimony felt between candidates, and even the exhaustion of long campaign tours. The collection, which is estimated to bring $7.9/11.9 million, will be on public exhibition in Sotheby’s galleries from March 29-April 2, 2008.

Here's Lincoln's reply:

Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do it.

Antique Map of Paris

This hand-colored map of Paris and Environs is a copper plate engraving dating to 1855.

I've always been fascinated by maps, and I think of all the gifts I've given, the one that was the most appreciated was a book of old maps that I gave to my Aunt one year.

The love of maps must run in my family. While visiting my uncle recently, he showed me an antique map of my grandmother's home town in Austria. His map was produced around the same time as this mid-19th century map of Paris, which covers the Seine valley in a roughly 30 mile radius of Paris.

There's something about gazing at maps that I enjoy. They're one of the things that makes the world of old paper such a fascination.

Genealogy Research - The Family Tree

This interesting and beautifully drawn family tree--representing several generations of a Cuban family from the 19th century through 1953--reminds me of how woefully little I know of my own family's genealogy. Sadly, I can't even draw a family shrub, let alone a whole tree like this one.

The intersection of genealogy research and ephemera is one we've touched on in previous posts like these:

Genealogy Research Tips

Genealogy Orphaned Ancestors

Subscribe to my feed to make certain you don't miss out on future posts related to genealogy (or any of your other favorite ephemera-related topics).

Seussville - Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

To celebrate Theodore Geisel birthday, I'm featuring this signed, hand-drawn, original illustration of the good doctor's famous, subversive cat. Do I need to say his name? Must I say his name? Say who? Say what? The Cat in the Hat!

In a previous post, I mentioned my fondness for all things Seuss. I owe my love of reading to Dr. Seuss. And by extension, my career.

Ephemera in Britain and America 1720-1920 - Author Interview

Graham Hudson is secretary and a founding member of the British-based Ephemera Society and a frequent writer on aspects of ephemera and printing history. In the following interview, we discussed his watershed book, Design and Printing of Ephemera in Britain and America 1720 - 1920.

ephemera: Your book is really the essence of what this blog is about, Graham. By design, I dance around the topic quite a bit, but your book really speaks to the heart of the subject. What inspired you to write Design and Printing of Ephemera in Britain and America 1720 - 1920?

Hudson: Working as a designer myself, and as a teacher of graphic design, I am conscious of just how much design always has been influenced by three things: the purpose it is to serve, the fashions and culture of its time, and no less by the technical means available for its production. This is how I have introduced design to my students, and it’s what I find so fascinating about printed ephemera, where the effects of these three factors can often be seen so clearly.

ephemera: Those are some of the things that fascinate me about ephemera as well. What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while putting this book together? How did you overcome these challenges?

Hudson: Until comparatively recently books on printing history have concentrated on the history of books, largely ignoring other areas of printing and design. Thus, finding evidence of just how those old printers actually went about designing their ephemeral work was a major challenge. To find the answers, I had recourse to primary sources: early printers’ manuals and trade journals. There was also the ephemera itself of course. Looking at an engraved trade card or a colored music cover with a designer’s eye can, I think, reveal something of the thinking of the person who brought it into being.

ephemera: What are your favorite chapters in the book? How do they enrich the reader’s experience?

Hudson: I conceived the book as a whole, but if pushed I will choose chapters 6 and 7, which deal with nineteenth-century Artistic-printing. Here current advances in technology combined with an aspect of culture and fashion – the Aesthetic movement – to bring about a wholly new approach to letterpress print design, one in which color and complexity of layout were characteristic. America led the way, but it was British printers who took the lead in the 1890s with their development of the Leicester free style. It is only now that the quality of some of the work produced in this period is being recognized, both by collectors and designers.

ephemera: What surprised--or delighted--you the most as you wrote the book. What does it tell us about life in Britain and America during this time period?

Hudson: It became so clear to me just how much ephemera provides an insight into the lives of our ancestors. It was an eye-opener to find the trade card of a London ‘night man’ showing his workman carrying the contents of a privy to one of his ‘new invented Machine Carts’. Today we take indoor sanitation for granted. Then there are American ‘hidden-name’ cards, calling cards of the 1880s on which the bearer’s name is concealed beneath a chromolithographed scrap. These were unknown in Britain, where the formalities of calling on friends and acquaintances were governed by strict conventions. Here a decorative card would have been unthinkable. What became clear to me as during research, however, were the similarities in the design of the ephemera of our two countries. Yet this is not so surprising, for Colonial printers imported British type and equipment and took instruction from the same manuals, and this relationship continued through the first half of the nineteenth century. Even so, ideas were subsequently to travel in both directions. After the Civil War, American founders created new decorative typefaces and these were imported into Britain; yet developing the expertise to effectively design with these new faces depended on printers seeing each others’ work, and the first scheme of specimen exchange that successfully achieved this was wholly devised and administered from Britain with the idea then being taken up in America.

ephemera: This is such compelling content. I'm sure a lot of people interested in ephemera will want to know more. Who is your target audience for the book? What will they learn from it?

Hudson: My fellow ephemera collectors in Britain and America, and all who are interested in design history per se. To collectors the book will give further insights into the nature of the material in their collections; and, more widely, readers will see just how important ephemera is in the history of graphic design. There are aspects of design history quite outside the sphere of book production, and which can only be understood in the context of ephemera.

ephemera: Thanks, Graham. This is one of the more important interviews we've done on the blog, and I'm sure ephemera collectors will be excited to read your comments.

The British Library (ISBN: 9 80712 349048); Oak Knoll Press (ISBN:9 781584 562245)