A recent post about War Rationing Ephemera got me interested in researching a bit more about items from the Second World War.  Another post I made about Florida related ephemera led me State Archives of Florida where I discovered a number of wonderful Ephemera items… such as this “Sniff Kit” poster.  It  was “Approved and Recommended by the Office of Civilian Defense and the Chemical Warfare Service of The U.S. Army”

Text on the document reads (in part):

The Sniff Kit is designed to provide an easy and safe method of identifying the five principal gases used in chemical warfare. The case is made of wood and pressboard, covered with serviceable quality of saddle tan fabric. It contains five bottles with ground glass stoppers, charged with the following contents:1. An imitation of Mustard Gas (HS)
2. An imitation of Phosgene Gas (CG)
3. An imitation of Chlorpicrin (PS)
4. An imitation of Lewisite (MI) or (M-1)
5. An imitation of Tear Gas (CN)

Each bottle is labeled with simple information describing the physiological effect of the active gas; first aid steps for treating victims; field neutralization methods; the U.S. Army symbols, and the popular names to aid in memorizing them.

The price of each kit was $5.00 prepaid to any point in the USA and were sold by the Northam Warren Corporation of Stamford, Connecticut.

You can see more of the Florida Archive’s Collection of World War II ephemera by clicking here.

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

Tom
Click here to see my current Bonanzle items
or
Click here to visit my storefront.

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Florida, Sniff Kit

Being a Floridian, you can understand my interest in Florida related Ephemera.

I was surprised this afternoon when I came across the State Archives of Florida and their “Florida broadsides and other ephemera, 1800-2000″.

This online collection consists of more than 200 broadsides and forms of paper communication from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

While originally initiated by state librarian and archivist Dorothy Dodd as a broadside collection, it has since grown to encompass all sorts of printed ephemera from advertisements and announcements to political cartoons and campaign posters. This online collection represents only a small portion of broadsides and ephemera found in the Florida Collection of the State Library of Florida.

The collection is broken down into about 15 different subject such as:

• Politics and Government
• Slavery and Race Relations
• Health and Safety
• Culture and Education
• Military and Veterans
• Hotels and Motels

and other very interesting subjects.

The Library also does a good job of informing the visitor as to just what “broadsides” and “ephemera” are.

Florida Memory, which is the name of the overall collection for the State Archives has a large number of special collections and databases, some of which we will report on in future blogs.

One of the ones we are particulaly intrested in exploring a bit further is entitled “World War Service I Cards”.  As my father was a World War I Veteran, I have a special interest in this collection.

If you are interested in the Florida Broadside and Ephemera collection, you can find it here.

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

Tom
Click here to see my current Bonanzle items

Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Florida, Broadsides