Ephemera, Archives, and Another View of History

Abstract

In September 1992, 1 made a presentation on "Acquiring, Describing, and Making Ephemera Available at the National Archives of Canada" at the Society of American Archivists' Annual Conference in Montreal.It was part of a session on "Ephemera in Archives," with two other speakers who dealt with different aspects relating to ephemera; the first about dealing with users, and the second about using ephemera in exhibitions from an historian's perspective.'The session was lively and interesting.and provoked a certain amount of interest in a little-discussed topic.Since that presentation, I have thought a little more about the nature of ephemera, its definition and meaning within the larger context of archival theory and practice, and in relation to how archivists can attempt to define "records of enduring archival value."Comments and critiques made to me by two colleagues in the profession, George Brandak of Special Collections at the University of British Columbia.and Brian Murphy of the Manuscript Division of the National Archives of Canada, have also provided me with valuable insights, many of which are noted and included here.I would like. in the next few pages, to reflect both on the presentation I made in 1992.and to explore some ideas about ephemera and archives.In the 14 March 1992 Toronto Globe & Mail, an article entitled "Stuff: History in a Dustbin" appeared, which offered fascinating insights into the world of ephemerists.It described the formation in 1975, in England, of the Ephemera Society by a few like-minded collectors, lead by a man named Maurice Rickards.Since 1975, the Ephemera Society has blossomed into a 1,000-member organization, operating monthly bazaars, publishing a quarterly newsletter called The Ephemrrist, and generally championing the cause of ephemera c ~l l e c t i n g .~ A separate entity, the International Ephemera Council, with links to spin-off societies in Australia.Canada, the United States, and elsewhere around the world.has also been founded.The Ephemera Society of America and the Ephemera Society of Canada, founded in 1980 and 1989 respectively.boast more than a thousand members; both organizations publish quarterly newsletters and hold annual conferences as well as authorized sales gatherings.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 13 citations exist upstream.