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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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Vintage Postcards


I discovered this very old postcard album today.  It belonged to Madeline's mother-in-law, Mary Cullen.


It is very thick and as I opened it I realized that the pages are not holding up well.  Also, many of the postcards had fallen out and some pages held a big stack of cards like the photo above.  I briefly looked through and pulled out some to show.  There are so many postcards that I will have several postings about them.  There are many themes--patriotic, religious, holidays, scenic, and industrial. 
The timeframe for most of these is early 1900's.  Enjoy!

Since summer is about to start I'll start out with a beach scene. 


This next series is still inspiring today.  Madeline loved anything with a flag on it.





The above card was written by Mary's sister Elizabeth, telling her that a long letter was coming.




Postage for these cards was one cent.



This next series of cards was very amusing to me.  I call it "Hammock Love"!  I love how the cards tell a story.





And here is another series of similar cards.  I wasn't sure of the order for these, so I hope I got it right.  I call this "Love in the Meadow".






The last group are miscellaneous cards. 





I can't tell from the postcard what city this is, but maybe the great San Francisco fire?


Snow sounds pretty good right about now.  It's 90 outside.


Interesting picture.  Again, no info on back.  What is the significance of the "x"?

More to come . . .
















Back at It!

This is a project of love, but it is a huge undertaking.  There are many boxes in our garage that need to be taken inside and sorted.  The problem with that is I always find something right away that I am fascinated by and sit down to look through.  Then an hour later there are dogs to walk, or laundry to be done, or meals to make.  And it may be a month before I get back to the box.  I don't ever want to feel that this is a chore and I know Madeline would never want me to feel that way, either.  So from time to time when I feel I need to take a break from this project I will not be updating the blog.  I hope those who enjoy these memories will understand that this is an ongoing project and I so appreciate your visits.  I am a strong believer in preserving our past as a way of improving our present and future. 

I'm ready to roll again and hope you will enjoy the amazing treasure I discovered today.  Thanks for your interest and support.