Collecting Paper, Pieces of History-Collecting Ephemera

Ephemera is defined as printed or handwritten materials that show the day-to-day life of people. The first collected pieces of ephemera were advertising trade cards. These brightly colored and well designed cards were the result of advances in the printing world.Chromolithography, the new process of printing in color as well as die cutting and embossing gave the world a reason to collect these little art cards. Following advertising trade cards, the penny postcard, greeting cards, and die cuts became equally as popular. To encourage people to collect often printers would do series of cards. 

During the Victorian era, almost every family saved ephemera in scrapbooks. These scrapbooks were filled with beautifully designed and colored visiting cards, mourning cards, menus, dance cards, lithographs, bookplates, and prints. and newspaper clippings were kept for their beautiful graphics or for nostalgic reasons. Magazines and newspapers kept the popularity going by hiring skilled well-known illustrators to fill their pages with color illustrations and advertisements that would be cut up and pasted into beautiful scrapbooks. 

The Ephemeral Society of America was formed in the 1980's to help collectors price and collect all of the vast collections of miscellaneous papers, paper-related objects and advertising piece. Some collectors specialize in one type of ephemera such as Halloween postcards or advertising trade cards. Some pick an era of time or a subject matter, such as railroad ephemera. With the rise of online auction sites more ephemera is on the market than ever before.