The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 20, May 12, 2002, Article 8

EPHEMERA COLLECTING

  The following is an excerpt from "Ephemera Collecting -
  A Growing Field, Hard to Define"  by John C. Dann.  The
  excerpt first appeared in AB Bookman's Weekly, Clifton,
  New Jersey, U.S.A., in the issue of March 16, 1998.

  "It was just 18 years ago, in 1980, that the Ephemera Society
  of America came into existence and the first Ephemera Show
  was held. The organization has prospered and the show has
  become a widely anticipated fixture of the collecting world.
  Even the phrase "ephemera," a somewhat equivocal term used
  to describe "a thing" essentially indescribable with a single
  word, has come to be widely understood and accepted by
  collectors, dealers, and librarians.

  The Ephemera Society of America borrowed the term from the
  British Ephemera Society, which was formed in 1975. As
  understood by enthusiasts, the essential elements of
  ephemera seem to be:

  1. "the stuff" of which the field is made was originally
     produced for some immediate, practical purpose, with
     no thought that it would be saved or preserved (having
     an ephemeral existence);

  2. it tends to fall between the cracks of traditional
      collecting fields and librarianship (not books, not "art"
      in the formal sense, not manuscripts, not antiques);

  3. in its vast and fascinating diversity, it documents
      everyday life, particularly that of average men and
      women in the past, perhaps more effectively than
      traditional collectibles."

  http://www.ephemerasociety.org/article-dann.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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