While surfing the net today I ran across an interesting blog called “Morbid Anatomy – Surveying the Interstices of Art and Medicine, Death and Culture“. I’ve not investigated the site fully, but what caught my eye was a reference to The Evanion Collection.

In 1895 the British Museum purchased a rich and fascinating collection of 19th century ephemera formed by Henry Evans (1832-1905), a conjuror and ventriloquist, who performed under the stage name “Evanion”. During the course of a long career, he took every opportunity to amass a large collection of material relating to Victorian entertainment and everyday life. Harry Houdini, who described the collection as “full of priceless treasures”, later acquired many of the items relating to magic. These are now in the possession of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The British Library owns approximately 5,000 items from Evanion’s collection. These fall into two main categories – popular entertainment, and everyday life – and include posters, advertisements, trade cards and catalogues.

As the paragraph says, the collection is currently at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas which is in Austin.

There are many many pieces of Evanion Ephemera viewable on a LiveJournal blog located here. I’ve only included a few in this article.  Take a look at them all by clicking the above link.

The Morbid Anatomy blog is part of the Proteus Gowanus Interdisciplinary Gallery and Reading Room in Brooklyn, New York. The Library houses the ever-growing collection of books, catalogs, photographs, articles and artifacts used as source material for the ongoing Morbid Anatomy study.  Sounds interesting.. but clearly nothing I know anything about… nor intend to delve into anytime soon.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom
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Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Morbid Anatomy, Evanion Collection, University of Texas

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The Annual “International Ephemera Fair and Conference” is coming up soon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Old Greenwich, CT  The dates are March 20/21/22, 2009.

Their advertising says that:

“Over 90 truly superlative, internationally prominent Exhibitors from across the United States, Canada, England, and Europe will convene for a fabulous weekend of Conferences, Exhibits, Discussions, an Auction, and the finest Paper & Ephemera Show to be found under one roof!”

Their website also says that they will have everything including Posters, Catalogs, Valentines, Postcards, Pamphlets, Broadsides, Tickets, Invitations, Autographs, Sheet Music, Letterheads, Manuscripts, Trade Cards, Photographs, Playing Cards, Political Campaign items and much, much more.

Shown here are just two of the items they are displaying on their website.  It’s not clear if these items will be available at the show.. but they are nonetheless interesting items.

The Conference is on Friday, March 20th from 10am-9pm and on Sunday, March 22 from 9-11am. The Fair will be on Saturday, March 21st from 10am-5pm through Sunday, March 22nd from 11am-4pm.

They also have an appraisal session, run by a John Bruno, on Saturday, March 21st from 12:30-2pm where they charge $5 per item appraised.  Here is a bit of info on John from The Ephemera Society of America:

John Bruno comes to ephemera by way of dealing antiques. He and his wife, Tina, are the owners of Flamingo Promotions, a business that annually manages 25 antiques and collectibles shows on Long Island, Manhattan, upstate New York, and New Jersey. The lion’s share of their shows are conducted for the benefit of community and non-profit organizations.

John and Flamingo Productions are the organizers of this show.

So if you are going to be anywhere near Greenwich Connecticut in mid March, this may well be a show you should attend.  I’ve not been personally.. but from everything I’ve read, it promises to be quite interesting.

If you have attended this show in the past – or any of Flamingo’s other shows – we’d all like to hear from you – a brief report about their shows, attendance, quantity and quality of items etc.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom
Take a look at my current Bonanzle items or
Visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Flamingo Productions, John Bruno, International Ephemera Fair

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