Ephemera:

Ephemera is a broad term used to describe items of paper that were created for use in a short time span and meant to be thrown away after one or two uses. Items generally put into the ephemera category of collecting would be sheet music, posters, stock certificates, post cards, cigarette cards, magazines, catalogs, and the like.
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Saturday, October 17, 2009

New York World's Fair









The 1939 World's Fair was held in Flushing Meadows, New York and was the largest World's Fair of all time. Madeline must have been quite impressed with the exhibits as she collected many brochures as she made her way around the fair. (I actually attended the Montreal World's Fair in 1967, but collected nothing as I went with my mother.) I just reached into the box and came up with this. Madeline was just a few years older than I was at my World's Fair experience. I'm sure she enjoyed the House of Jewels exhibit. I never pass a jewelry store window display without thinking of her. She always insisted we stop and admire the jewels, even if we would never wear them. She actually donated two diamonds from a family ring for my engagement ring. So in a way it is very fitting that the first memory I posted is about jewelry.


Of the five jewelers listed in the exhibit program, only three are in business today--Tiffany, Cartier, and Black, Starr & Frost-Gorham. However, Black, Starr, & Frost-Gorham only has a store in CA and closed their NY store. Marcus & Co closed in 1962 and Udall & Ballou closed their doors on Dec 24, 1949. A Udall & Ballou gold compact was recently listed on Ebay for $1998.












1 comment:

  1. Ann. I'm not sure you got my comment about the "House of Jewels" brochure but would be delighted to hear from you. Here's my address.
    w1mathews@aol.com Bill Mathews NYC

    ReplyDelete