Do you remember when the circus came to town? When the President came to town? When Elvis came to town? Even people that can’t remember are enchanted by the thought. Those days and those people may be gone, but small souvenirs linger on; the brightly colored posters, the stark and patriotic pamphlets, the ticket stubs that are frail from being clutched in excited hands. If you can close your eyes and imagine each momentous event, then you can see why people collect ephemera.
One meaning of ephemera is “something fleeting.” The other meaning of ephemera is “things designed for temporary use.” These things—tickets, check stubs, pamphlets, and posters—though designed to be temporary are ironically sometimes all that remains of important people, places, and events. Owning a piece of ephemera is literally like owning a piece of history.

Ephemera includes advertising materials, checks, bookmarks, brochures, cards, labels, letters, posters, tickets, photos, maps… Many people include baseball cards in the category, others say even publications like newspapers and magazines are ephemera as they represent bygone days.
If you are interested in collecting ephemera, or are already collecting, you can find pieces of ephemera hidden on cluttered tables at garage sales. They remain preserved under the glass of locked displays at antique malls.

For each type of ephemera, there is a dealer that specializes in it, and collectors that are looking for those dealers. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, modern technology is our link to the past. The Internet has made ephemera collecting easier than ever. You could scout a hundred estate sales and never find a rare program from the 1919 World Series, but type the words into a search engine and over 100 results will show you the way to the Holy Grail of your collection.

Alana Morgaine
Alana’s Books And Magazines
Our Ephemera

If you were to ask the question, “What is ephemera?” the answer you would get would depend upon who you asked. A researcher, archivist, librarian, collector and a dealer would all have different opinions about what constitutes ephemera. Ephemera is usually discarded quickly unless there is sentimental value attached.

If you look in a common dictionary, ephemera is defined as printed and written matter that is transitory. Examples of these are baseball or trade cards, tickets to a concert or a sporting event, greeting cards and postcards as well as a wealth of other materials that were created with a short term life in mind. Catalogs, store receipts and church programs are all considered ephemera as are personal letters.

The word ephemera is derived from the Greek word “ephemeral”, and it means things that last no more than a day. In our modern world, we create tons of ephemera on a daily basis. Ephemera is becoming recognized among scholars as a way to research and track popular culture through the ages. They are just finding out what collectors have long known, that ephemera contains important information about the daily routines and lives of the people who have come before us.

Collectors find worth in pieces of paper that were meant to be thrown away. A concert ticket can

recall memories of a youth that has long passed. A store catalog can contain goods and products that were considered the “must haves” for their time and the printed ads and posters can give us a peek into what our great-grandparents considered vital and meaningful at that time in their lives.

Ephemera is finding its niche among those who study social sciences. There was a survey that was done a few decades ago that identified 39 ephemera categories. They ranged from circulars for advertising to calendars of universities. Ephemera was once prized more by collectors than serious researchers and scientists, but more scholars are realizing the wealth of information that ephemera can offer. Ephemera is truly a window to the past of the common people as well as that of the elite and those who shaped history.
Alana Morgaine

Our Souvenir Ephemera
Alana’s Books And Magazines