ephemera

Paperclips and Other Threats

The paperclip. It looks harmless, but like its cousin the staple, this seemingly innocuous paper binder can cause irreparable damage to paper if left in place long enough.

Besides paperclips, in no particular order, here are the top destroyers of ephemera: Light, Heat, Humidity, Fire, Bugs, Water, Rubberbands, and Mice. These are the enemies, folks. To learn more about how to protect your paper, read an earlier post written by the Practical Archivist. To repair paper once it's damaged, check out: The Booklover's Repair Kit: First Aid for Home Libraries.

The first patent for paperclips was awarded to Sam Fay in 1867, but the first models that resemble today's fastener didn't arrived on the scene until 1877.  This may seem like useless knowledge, but if someone tries to sell you papers claiming to be antebellum, and they're held together with a paperclip--while not decisive--it should certainly raise doubts in regard to the age of the ephemera.

No paperclips were harmed in the writing of this post.

[Photo attribution: paperclip image by Tyler Howarth.]

What is Your Favorite Book?

What's your favorite book on the subject of ephemera? In a recent post, I discussed Maurice Rickard's watershed Encyclopedia of Ephemera: A Guide to the Fragmentary Documents of Everyday Life for the Collector, Curator and Historian. Now, I'd like to hear from readers about the books about ephemera that they find useful, fun, fascinating, and interesting.

If you'd like to write a review of a book that covers ephemera or an ephemera-related topic (anything is fair game--from books on baseball cards to stamps to postcards to junk store finds--even fiction that uses ephemera as a vehicle, such as The Swap), please leave a comment here, and I'll be in touch.

[Photo attribution: book love image by janetmck]

Vintage Fabrics Appeal to Artists and Collectors

When most collectors think about ephemera, vintage fabric doesn't normally come to mind. However, I think it deserves more attention from collectors, so today's post features an example, along with one of my patented useless anecdotal stories:

I once knew a fiber artist that worked almost exclusively with different types of fabrics and materials--from yarn to police caution tape. I was in awe of her work. At one exhibit that I attended, she unveiled an entire suit of armor made entirely out of standard rubber-bands. It took two men to lift it. Her genious knew no bounds. I often wonder what amazing masterworks she has produced since I lost touch with her a few years ago.

If you collect vintage fabric or use it in your art, like my old friend, please comment about it here, and perhaps, if you'd like, we can feature you in a future post.

To learn more about vintage fabrics, check out these books:

Vintage Fabric Style: Stylish Ideas and Projects Using Quilts and Flea-Market Finds In your Home

The Vintage Workshop Art-to-Wear

[Photo attribution: vintage fiber image by superminx.]

Flickr is for Ephemera Lovers

Undoubtedly, eBay is the best online resource for building an ephemera collection, but Flickr is the best place for social networking among ephemera enthusiasts. For those unfamiliar, Flickr is an online photo management and photo sharing application, which has evolved into a very active social networking site.

Here's the link to one of the largest ephemera groups on Flickr with more than 800 members sharing a more than 20,000 ephemera images. There are dozens of other Flickr groups also dedicated to ephemera. One of the most interesting is a group called The Modern Ephemera Society, which is dedicated to the collection of and archiving of modern ephemera--something I touched upon here. There are also groups that focus on specific ephemera by subject such as dance and gardening as well as by type (e.g., postcards, illustrations, posters, etc.).

In addition to posting several images from my ephemera collection on the site, I also participated in an exciting and fun Flickr-based photography project called A Day in the Life of Asheville, which dovetails with the work I'm doing on A Year In Asheville, my photoblog.

[Photo attribution: Fickr image by JaHoVil.]

Scrapbooking and Scrapbook Post Links

The wildly popular scrapbooking trend has saved a lot ephemera from the landfills. It's a topic that I've touched upon in a number of posts. Since I don't have a category dedicated to scrapbooks, a lot of those posts have flown under the radar. Click on the following links to read what I've written on the subject, especially as it relates to ephemera:

Scrapbook Author Jessica Helfand Discusses Scrapbooking

Scrapbook in American Life - Interview With Susan Tucker

Antique 19th Century Scrapbooks

Scrapbooking - Scrapbook Ephemera Synergy

Suggested reading for your scrapbooking pleasure:

First Bid - How to Register for eBay

For those of us who live on the Internet, it's hard to image that new people come online everyday. For instance, my mom. She's nearly 70, bless her heart. The other day she called asking me to place a bid for her on eBay. She didn't have an account, and she wasn't sure how to register for one. Which made me think that there were a lot of other people's mom's out there in the same boat. So, for those new to the Internet, or for those of you with a mom who needs hand holding, here's a simple, easy-to-follow tutorial on how to register for an eBay account:

1) Click here to register.

You’ll notice that the site is scgi.ebay.com - that’s because it is a secure site at eBay!

2) Enter your contact information.

Use a valid email address because eBay will be sending you a confirmation email.

3) Create your unique user ID and password.

If you select an account that is already registered, eBay will inform you by requesting you pick a new username. They'll even recommend a few.

4) Agree to the terms and click ‘Register’

Click the ‘Agree’ box.

5) Congratulations! You’ve registered an account on eBay! Now confirm it.

Log into your email and click on the link found in the message eBay just sent you. It really is that simple! Now, bid on something. I hope you win!

John Johnson Ephemera Collection Now Online

According to Library News for Arts, The John Johnson Collection, an archive of printed ephemera, is now available online via the databases page. Helen Clough writes:

The John Johnson collection offers unique insights into the changing nature of everyday life in Britain in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. There are high resolution images of posters and handbills for theatrical and non-theatrical entertainments, broadsides relating to murders and executions, book and journal prospectuses, popular topographical prints, and a wealth of different kinds of printed advertising material.

Until now the materials in the John Johnson Collection in the Bodleian Library had remained largely hidden to scholars and researchers, although a printed catalog of the 2001 John Johnson exhibition was released under the title, A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera from 1654 to 1860s in the John Johnson Collection.

As I've stated many times in the past, ephemera has a multitude of applications to researchers, artists, and scholars. The move to make the John Johnson collection available online will benefit those working across a broad range of academic disciplines and ephemera collectors, as well as the general public, who would not otherwise have access to these amazing examples of old paper.

Children's Picturebook Collector's Reference Library

According to Stan Zielinski, an expert on children's picture books and co-author of the Children's Picturebook Price Guide, the following references and guides are essential for anyone interested in starting or growing a children's picture book collection:

Children's Picturebook collecting:

American Picturebooks from Noah's Ark to the Beast Within

Price Guide and Bibliographic Checklist for Children's & Illustrated Books for the Years 1880-1970

Children's Picturebook Price Guide, 2006-2007: Finding, Assessing, & Collecting Contemporary Illustrated Books (Fin)

For general book collecting:
First editions, a guide to identification: Statements of selected North American, British Commonwealth, and Irish publishers on their methods of designating first editions

If you plan to collect Dr. Seuss:
First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books

If you plan to collect Maurice Sendak:
Works of Maurice Sendak, 1947-1994: A collection with comments

If you plan to collect Little Golden Books:
Collecting Little Golden Books: A Collector's Identification and Price Guide (Collecting Little Golden Books)

Read my interview with Stan and his wife Linda.

eBay Creates eMiracles for Buyers

When it comes to eBay, their size and scope has had some unintended consequences, but not all of them are bad. In fact, the sheer size of eBay has led to a phenomenon that I've dubbed "eMiracles". These are one-in-a-million finds, whereby buyers find items on eBay that had been lost or damaged and thought impossible to replace. Several years ago, I wrote of being a party to this type of eMiracle in a post about the 1958 Ohio University Homecoming Queen. If it happened to me, I assumed it was happening others, too. To find out, I asked eBay sellers if they've had a similar one-in-a-million experience, and here's what some of theme had to say:

thelmasstuff: My mother was stationed in Biloxi, MS, when she was in the Army in 1943-45. She was an avid collector of advertising stuff: fans, trinkets, paper, etc. She spent a lot of time in New Orleans. When I listed some of this in the past year, I had a lot of people who had family business scrapbook items that were lost in Katrina. They were thrilled to find items related to their parents or grandparents businesses on eBay.

martinisandmore: I had a Pheasant Cocktail Shaker just a few weeks back that I listed, expired, and I was going to hold off listing for a while when I had time to burn. A few days later I got an email from some guy wanting to know if I would still sell it. He told me his Grandfather had just passed away and one of his fondest memories was watching the guy mix his martini in the same brand shaker. I put it out there for him with a buy it now no pics etc... sent him the item number and gave him expedited shipping. He got it by the wake and him and his family shook up some martinis and toasted the guy with one of the extra shakers I had.

arrowbooks: This is a great eBay story. A friend of mine's father was a TV director with a long career, but he had also acted in just a couple of movies as a young man. My friend found a poster for one of his films (an obscure early 60s beach extravaganza) that had his name prominently featured, and she really wanted to get it for her dad for Christmas. Well, she bid vigorously, but one other bidder just bid way over her head. She was really disappointed until she visited her dad at Christmas and he showed her the poster, saying "Look what I got on eBay! Can you believe it!?!"

trinkettrauma: I sold a wedding Mr. & Mrs. Bugs Bunny statue made by Austin. The lady that won it said that her and her husband had one exactly like it that they had displayed on their wedding day. Unfortunately, they later dropped it and ruined it. They are huge Bugs Bunny fans and had been looking for another one for a long time.

The Making of a Collector - Lex10 Guest Post

A guest post by Lex10:

What do I collect? The things that juiced my childhood brain. It, if memory serves, stems from me being about three years old and seeing a tin top--the kind you pumped with a twisted stem to make it turn (in a closet that was a Christmas present that I wasn't supposed to see). There was this ombre' rainbow on the box that was so vivid that I went mad to have it. My sister, who was nine years older than me, prevented me from getting to it, and ushered me out of the room. By that time the damage, so to speak, was done.

But in order to not be difficult, let me mention three things that I have recently collected, that don't stem from the above description, that may be of interest:

The first is a book I'm making from one of the thin Moleskines. It's called "You Look Pretty" because that was my Fortune Cookie fortune one day. For some reason, my drawers in my office were full of fortunes I had saved and I have now begun to paste them into the book. It's compelling matching it up with the quadrille. I plan to index it to make a fortune telling tool out of it a' la the I Ching. (Synchronicity n' all.)

The second was something I documented on GlyphJockey: Champagne muzzles. I love in particular the detail the Spaniards will go to decorate this thing that will go right into the gobbidge. While regular bottlecaps hold no interest (Three Stooges Beer, Red Stripe, Rolling Rock and K cider are the only ones I like) these things are like secrets - hidden under the foil like a greeting from the bottle to me.Pop-fizz-sip.

Lastly, books. I inadvertently have become a collector of books. I have a first edition of James M. Cain's Serenade, a signed (although probably by one of his paid impostors) Andy Warhol book, and a signed by Edward Gorey bought at a remainder sale at a library for half a buck. I've got an impractically big library that is pretty damn eclectic.