Exploring Ephemera
The official blog from Ephemera Society with regular posts from collectors and researchers
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Forms of Death
Dennis DuncanRemember to Die… And bring this Ticket with you Dr Dennis Duncan is Associate Professor...
The Piano Girl
Julie Anne LambertAnother post on a single item of ephemera, this time bought at the Society’s Ephemera...
Coping with the heatwave – in the 1830s
Julie Anne Lambert© John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford: Lyceum box 1 (62) We recently...
Your Change with Thanks
Amoret Tanner– but nobody cared a farthing when its reign came to an end Amoret Tanner...
Fashion Plates of the Mid-Century
Malcolm WarringtonFashion prints from the 19th century are still moderately priced and offer a wealth of...
The Ephemera of Petroliana
Dan LocktonFigure 1. A selection of receipts, 1950s-1990s, from British petrol stations. Most of these brands...
Musings on Collecting the Present
Julie Anne LambertOne of my favourite quotations is this, from John Selden’s Table Talk (published posthumously in...
The Cruel, Comic, and Curious World of 19th Century Valentines
Malcolm WarringtonIn mid-Victorian England, the custom of sending valentines was widely understood as an exchange of...
The Ephemera of the Twelfth Cake
Julie Anne LambertFor centuries, the twelfth cake was a central part of English secular celebrations of Epiphany....
Hildesheimer & Faulkner
Malcolm Warrington“Christmas Cards.-‘Here we are again!’ as they come tumbling in, fresh from the hands of...
Dickens Playbills and Programmes
Julie Anne LambertIt was a pleasure on a recent visit to London to take in ‘Showtime’ at...
Michael Twyman (1934-2025): a personal tribute
Julie Anne LambertWith the passing of Professor Emeritus Michael Twyman, the printing and ephemera worlds have lost...
“Undies Without Coupons”
Malcolm WarringtonWho would have thought that a wartime parachute could find a second life as nightwear?...
Ephemera Books Plus
Julie Anne LambertWe are pleased to announce Ephemera Books Plus, a tool enabling you to explore your...
‘L’art est dans la rue’ at the Musée d’Orsay
Julie Anne LambertIf you have a chance to go to Paris between now and 6 July, don’t...
Paper Echoes : 1964 QSL Cards
Malcolm WarringtonIn an age before email, podcasts, or global digital streaming, one of the most thrilling...
Keen As Mustard
Malcolm WarringtonJeremiah James Colman was born in 1830 a few miles from the city of Norwich,...
The Dance Card
Malcolm WarringtonIn early Victorian England, the ballroom was a stage for courtship, social interactions, and the...
Apprenticeship Indenture
Malcolm WarringtonThis Indenture Witnesseth, That John Wood son of Richard Wood late of Honey Lane Market...
Francesco Bartolozzi R.A.
Malcolm WarringtonThe Ball at the Mansion House, April 17, 1775. Print made by Francesco Bartolozzi after...
Talking Turkey
Malcolm WarringtonAs we waddle through the wintry corridors of history, one feathered fellow has strutted its...
Amateur Theatricals
Malcolm WarringtonThe enchanting allure of 19th century private theatricals! Picture a time when families found joy...
The Bill Spike
Malcolm WarringtonThe Old File that will come at Christmas Victorian Christmas card published by Charles Goodall...
Copy Books
Malcolm WarringtonThis new series of copy-books has been specially planned to lighten the labour of the...
Bill of Lading
Malcolm WarringtonPrinted document with manuscript additions Nizza to Agde Transporting Lavender and Garlic waters 1782 197...
Mark of the Times
Malcolm WarringtonThe bookmark, placed between the pages of a book to mark the reader’s place, is...
RMS Queen Mary Maiden Voyage Covers
John SayersThe umbrella of ephemera shelters collectors with a wide range of specialist interests. Although they may find...
The Ephemera of Britain in Mourning
Amoret TannerAmoret Tanner, writer and collector, is a Founding Council member of the Ephemera Society. Here...
The Patent Journal – 1846
John SayersEphemera Society dealer Roger Knowles always has some interesting things at his stand when I...
Penrose’s Annual
Graham Hudson‘Book-plates’ first appeared in Penrose’s Pictorial Annual, Vol XIII, 1907-8 at which time the editor...
Boys of the Empire
John SayersI can’t pass by anything that speaks to me over many decades of history. So,...
Follies of February
Malcolm WarringtonIs it not time to acknowledge the Victorian comic valentine? A genre of British comic...
Illustrated History of Trade Cards
Malcolm ShifrinCornell University’s Illustrated History of Trade Cards: Highlights from the Waxman Collection Every member of...
Ephemera and Genealogy
John SayersI recently gave a talk to a Genealogy Society meeting, and Society members seemed to...
Collecting on a Shoestring: Till Receipts
Graham HudsonIt was after purchasing something at my local Cats Protection shop that I happened to...
40th Anniversary
Malcolm WarringtonForty years ago in a basement office in Fitzroy Square, London, England a group of...
Car Park Tickets
Malcolm WarringtonThis beautiful illustration captures the excitement and romance of motoring during the 1920s when car...
Ephemera Society Winter Fair 2011
John SayersWhether you’ve come from Canada – as my wife, Judith, and I did – or...
Notes From Across The Pond
John SayersJohn Sayers, Ephemera Society member and keen long-time collector of ocean liner ephemera, shares his...
Vintage radio at the 2011 Ephemera Society Easter fair
John SayersWhen the renovations to the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel on Southampton Row are completed, life...
Report from across the pond: Film Ephemera
John SayersToronto has two significant ephemera fairs during the year, and at each of them –...
In Praise of Ephemera Fairs
Edward LawEdward Law relates how a chance discovery at an Ephemera Societyfair has contributed to his...
Invasion!
Diana Mackarillby Diana Mackarill One of the early items in the Rickards Collection is a handwritten...
Mother Shipton
Graham HudsonGraham Hudson examines the imagery of Knaresborough’spremier tourist character, the prophetess Mother Shipton. Visiting the...
The Riddle of the Carte-de-Visite
Graham HudsonGraham Hudson exposes the other side of carte-de-visite photographs. Among collectors the term passes without...
Sic transit gloria cloacarum
Ian MaxtedThis paper is a revised version of the one published in THE EPHEMERIST, December 1990....