For those of you in Pennsylvania, you may want to head on over to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission auction will begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow (Saturday, March 6, 2010) at Ziegler Auction Co., 1550 Sand Hill Rd., Hummelstown, Pa. Doors will open at 7 a.m. for a preview of items.

The auction catalog contains 1,600 items in 500 lots gleaned from seven of 26 museums and historic sites across the commonwealth.

According to http://www.philly.com

“Then there are the model trains – some handmade to scale – and real railroad memorabilia that are generating regional interest, said Jay Ziegler, owner of the auction house: Box after box of American Flyer trains, tracks, transformers, and miniature accessories for model railroad layouts, and a mysterious oversize model of a truss bridge.

There are plenty of railroad ephemera: miniature soaps, matchbooks, and equipment plates, brochures announcing the first Metroliners circa 1975, a handful of 1980s-era SEPTA signs, and train schedules for long-gone lines, including one for the Reading Co. noting a regular stop at the George School.

Railroad historians say rail-related collectibles have long been popular, particularly in Pennsylvania.

“Pennsylvania is a railroad state in every sense of the word,” said Maryland-based railroad historian John Hankey. “Even if people are not riding trains anymore, they are still connected to them.”

As I have an interest in both Ephemera and model trains etc. I am really sorry that I can not make this sale… but for those of you in the Pennsylvania area… and not snowed in… you might want to take a look at this auction.

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

Have a look at my eBay Ephemera store
or at my Bonanzle Booth
or at my Zen Cart

I’ve even got an eBay Auction site for collectibles

Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, Ephemera Network

Jeff Kisseloff is an author from New York, having written five history books, three of them oral histories.

• You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manahttan From the 1890s to World War II
• The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920 to 1961
• Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest From the 1960s

In the course of researching these books, he came across a lot of original material- and he is now in the process of sharing it on the Internet  via his blog.

I spent quite a bit of time wandering around his pages and found much of it quite interesting – from an Ephemera point of view.

This for example is an application for membership in the Workers Party of America… which Jeff tells us was actually the above-ground unit of the Communist Party USA formed after its leadership was forced underground in the 1920s by the then goon squad, also known as the Justice Department — ironically.

How about this Spiro Agnew record album entitled “Spiro’s Greatest Hits”?  It was not music… but rather some of Spiro’s speeches about which Jeff says “he does offer a delightfully delicious delicacy of draconian drivel on a number of topics then on the lips of everyone in 1968 and 1969, such as  student demonstrators (“impudent, elite snobs”) and of course, the liberal press, those “nattering nabobs of negativism” (who were also, “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”).  “The Speeches that Stirred America”.

And finally, how about this one.  It’s a station card sent out by WNBT.  Apparently stations sent these cards out every week to every person who owned a TV set in New York. There were so few sets out there, they kept a list of everyone who owned one.  Pay particular attention to the date of this card – December 7, 1941. The date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

There are a number of other interesting bits of Ephemera on Jeff’s blog… and I am sure over time he will be posting more.  Take a wander over to the Kisseloff Collection blog and have a look for yourself.  I know I enjoyed it.. perhaps you will as well.  And while you are there, have a look at Jeff’s other blog about a fellow named Phil Rosner… a fellow who fought a good fight in the Austrian Anti-Fascist Resistance.  There’s a bit of Ephemera there as well.

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

Have a look at my eBay Ephemera store
or at my Bonanzle Booth
or at my Zen Cart

I’ve even got an eBay Auction site for collectibles

Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, Ephemera Network

The Recent Antiquarian Acquisitions at the Lewis Walpole Library blog features new additions of early materials to the Lewis Walpole Library’s collection. This blog is still a work in progress and visitors should expect stylistic, format, and content alterations through the near future. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Perusing  through the site I found any number of interesting pieces of Ephemera… such as the letter shown to the left.  Written in 1789 it accompanied a copy of  Horace Walpole’s Postscript to the Royal and Noble Authors in London.  In case you don’t know who Horace Walpole was (as I didn’t) he was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician in England.

The Lewis Walpole Library is a research library for eighteenth-century studies and the prime source for the study of Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill. Its collections include significant holdings of eighteenth-century British books, manuscripts, prints, drawings and paintings, as well as important examples of the decorative arts. Housed in an historic frame house in Farmington and given to Yale by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis and Annie Burr Lewis, the Lewis Walpole Library is a department of Yale University Library, open to researchers by appointment.

While not entirely Ephemera related,  it’s worth a visit.

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

Have a look at my eBay Ephemera store
or at my Bonanzle Booth
or at my Zen Cart

I’ve even got an eBay Auction site for collectibles

Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, Ephemera Network