If one of your ephemeral interests is in Posters, you will want to take a look at this article in Smashing Magazine. The intro reads as follows:

Before the era of globalized entertainment made movie posters look the same in every country, Polish artists were creating their own versions for the internal market. What resulted was a whole school of artists trained in the art of the poster. This article presents a short historical look at how this movement was born and how it developed, form its art-related beginnings at the end of the 19th Century to the golden era of the film posters throughout the 20th Century.

The article is not all that long, with numerous sections. What is extensive is the number of posters shown. They have amassed a huge collection of colorful and interesting posters.

Two posters that caught my eye are the one shown on the left… It has the caption “1955 – “One Sunday Morning”, Poland 1953. Directed by Andrzej Munk” so obviously is related to a play… and the one shown on the right with the caption ““El Dorado”, US 1967. Directed by Howard Hawks” and starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. Two of my favorites!

The article ends with a conclusion that reads:

Posters are very important in the Polish culture. During the Communist regime they were probably the only colorful things one would see in the streets.

Having lived in China for a while, I can agree that colorful posters “were probably the only colorful things one would see in the streets”. While that changed rapidly over the years that I was in and out of China.. there are still many remnants that remain today. Not so much in the main cities like Beijing and Shanghai.. but get out into the rural areas and you can still see a lot of these old, torn and ripped posters on the side of buildings and other structures.

Anyway, have a look at Smashing Magazine.. and at the hundreds of posters they have shown.

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

Have a look at my eBay Ephemera store
or have a look at my eBay Auction site
(Due to travel, there may not be any items listed at this point in time)

Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, Ephemera Network, Polish Posters, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum

I ran across what appears to be a new Ephemera site today… entitled as the headline above… “Historical Ephemera“. Given that the site still seems to be in the early stages of construction (note the incomplete footer) I’m not entirely sure where it’s headed… but I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it.

The above image is one of the current postings… it’s entitled “Niblo’s Garden” and we are told that

“Niblo’s Garden was built in 1828 and Niblo’s Theater in 1834 and was located in New York on the Northeast corner of Broadway at Prince Street. The house was built by William Niblo as part of an entertainment complex that included an outdoor garden, an open air saloon, and eventually the Grand Saloon, or Theater.”

There is a lot of information on the site.. although it appears a bit disorganized to me. Each time you click on a prior article or reference, a new item come up at the top of the page (a rotation?) and the article you are looking for is below it. Confusing to say the least.

Reading the “About Me” page – actually it’s the “About HE” (Historical Ephemera) page we learn that

“Historical Ephemera is a project designed to present ephemera from a variety of historical sources. … This project is a collaborative effort completed by students in a graduate class on digital history at North Carolina State University, spring semester 2009.”

This poster on the site also caught my eye .. with it’s interesting caption: “Enemy Ears are Listening”. You are referred from there to a whole load of WWII posters with captions like “Loose Lips Sink Ships” and “Keep It Under Your Stetson”. How about this one: “Free Speech Doesn’t Mean Careless Talk” or finally “Keep Mum Chum.”

As I said, I am not sure where the site is going.. or if it is going at all, as it is appears to be a University class project… but in any event, it’s worth a look. They have uncovered a lot of very interesting Ephemera!

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

Have a look at my eBay Ephemera store
or have a look at my eBay Auction site
(Due to travel, there may not be any items listed at this point in time)

Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, Ephemera Network, Historical Ephemera, North Carolina State University

An interesting article recently appeared in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/arts/design/28archives.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

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

Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, New York Times, Time’s Up

Unfortunately I’ve not been in England in several years.. but next time I go, I will definitely visit The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising which is located in the Notting Hill section of London.

The Museum was opened by and is managed by consumer historian, Robert Opie, who at the age of 16 saw the need to record the history of the products around us.  He has built the collection to all aspects of daily life – toys, magazines, technology, travel, souvenirs, fashion and design.  He comments on the site:

‘When the thousands of pieces of our social history are assembled into some giant jigsaw, the picture becomes clearer as to the remarkable journey we have all come through’.

It’s interesting that over the years he has built the sponsorship of the Museum to include such well known brands as Kellogg’s, Cadbury Trebor Bassett, Twinings, pi global, Vodafone, McVitie’s and Diageo… many or most of which are European brands.  He also has a number of what he calls “Brand Sponsors” such as Nestlé, United Biscuits, Marks and Spencer, Premier Foods, Tate and Lyle. (again, a number of European brands).

The current exhibition at the Museum is to celebrate the 250 years of Guinness.  The exhibition highlights the very best of Guinness advertising, from posters and TV commercials to drinks trays and beer mats. He tells us that it was the genius of a Mr. John Gilroy with his menagerie of zoo animals that became the memorable face of Guinness posters.

An exhibition in January was sponsored by a company called Tesco, a UK-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain, and focused on the topic “Waste Not Want Not”. It looked at how, during the war years, Britain had to conserve on everything from energy to commodities and raw materials… and the lessons learned from that. Of course recycling paper was a part of that… and Ephemera was certainly a part of the exhibit.

There are not a lot of pictures on the Museum site, but a blog entitled “Ragged Roses” did a review of the Museum recently… and you can see several of her picture from the Museum on the blog by clicking here.

Will I see you in England for an upcoming exhibition?

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.
or have a look at my eBay site

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Packaging, Advertising, Kellogs

Thanks for visiting!

I haven’t either… but I certainly enjoy looking at her Ephemera collection on Flickr.

Since she appears to be in France.. and I speak very little French, Patricia (that seems to be her name) eludes me on exactly what her collection consists of or its origin. It would appear that perhaps she is part of, or an owner of, an advertising agency called Eureka (agence eureka) but I’m not sure of that.

What I am sure of is that she has hundreds and hundreds of items of Ephemera on Flickr. If you look at her upload rate (available on Flickr) you’ll see that she added 2100 images in the month of February 2009 alone! That alone is amazing to me!.

Due to limited space, and of course respecting her copyrights, I have only shown a few of her items here.. but I urge you to go over to Flickr and have a look at her extensive collection.

The starting point appears to be here .. http://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/ and from there you can look at her collections, sets, etc.

Have you found any other extensive Ephemera sets on Flickr? Perhaps you’d like to share them with us? Send me what you’ve found and I’ll look to putting it into an upcoming blog article. And by the way, if you are fluent in French, I’d love to learn more about Pilllpat’s collection!

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, Flickr, French Ephemera, Agence Eureka

Thanks for visiting!

I’ve mentioned the Ephemera Assemblyman before.. and I am continuously going back to Joel’s site to see what he has uncovered of late.

I don’t know much about him other than that he is a student in Davis, CA. UC Davis perhaps?

Today I found a wonderful collection of some 15 “Slovenian Event Posters” on his site. The one to the left particularly caught my eye, perhaps because of the lovely smiles on the faces of the children.

His site tells us that this was from a Soft Drinks Exhibition in Ljubljana back in 1954. At that time of course Slovenia was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It gained its independence in 1991 and is now part of the European Union.

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It’s located in the center of the country and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants. It’s the cultural, scientific, economic, political and administrative center of Slovenia.

It’s worth noting that this is NOT the personal collection of Joel… but rather his uncovering of the massive collection at the fantastic Digital Library of Slovenia.

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, Slovenian Events, Ljubljanat, Ephemera Assemblyman