Ephemera articles and stories that will
educate, inspire, and delight!

In an earlier blog, I made the point that the “separate hobbies” of collecting paper, stamps, postal history, prints, and antique objects are often—perhaps always—part of the same historical trail, one encompassing hobby. Some folks chose to focus in one or another aspect, others collect a bit o…

So many kinds of interesting ephemera, so little time. I find match scratchers, a useful thing to have on hand back in the day of ubiquitous wooden matches, to be pretty interesting. There are all sorts of ceramic and other pottery match scratchers (also called match strikers) out there; tho…

Holiday and other greeting cards in the United States developed throughout the 19th century, but by the first decade of the 20th century, the industry was dominated by postcards designed and printed in Germany. That ended with the outbreak of WWI. During “The War To End All Wars” (yeah, right…

Early American paper money is separated into two categories: colonial currency, issued by the individual colonies as early as 1690 and continental currency, issued from 1775 until 1779 by the newly formed Continental Congress. The paper bills issued by the colonies were known as “bills of credit…

One of the basic human needs is to have a roof overhead to protect from rain, sleet, snow, high winds and wildlife looking to nest. In new construction, roofing structure (lumber) is installed, topped off with some all-important waterproof sealant . . . tiles, slate, shingles, asphalt, tin, iron…

By and large, many folks think of the Victorian Era as a period of straight-laced, repressed conformity. But it was not, in any of a dozen different ways. One of the most wonderful things about Victorian graphics is the abundance of unexpected and totally delightful, off-the-wall fantasy concept…

The cultural past as codified in history books might be likened to the bare, standing steel framework of a skyscraper: we can see the broad outline, but not yet the myriad details which make the building come alive. Many a piece of printed ephemera that has somehow survived the vicissitudes of T…

One of my favorite types of 19th century printed ephemera are small handbills, printed by local job printers, and handed out around town to announce some immediate performance or sale, often enough touting some event to be held that very evening. These handouts commonly featured bold wood type t…

I am ancient enough to well remember the days when goods and services were delivered to the home . . . ice, coal, milk, dry cleaning, firewood, fuel oil, kerosene—even doctor care. Our family doc made visits to the house whenever anyone was too ill to visit his office (which was located in his o…