ephemera

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File:Trade card for Esther Burney fan shop.jpg

The etymological origin of Ephemera ({{lang|grc|ἐφήμερα}}) is the Greek epi ({{lang|grc|ἐπί}}) – "on, for" and hemera ({{lang|grc|ἡμέρα}}) – "day". This combination generated the term ephemeron in neuter gender; the neuter plural form is ephemera, the source of the modern word, which can be traced back to the works of Aristotle.{{Cite journal |last=Young |first=Timothy G. |date=2003 |title=Evidence: Toward a Library Definition of Ephemera |journal=RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=11–26 |doi=10.5860/rbm.4.1.214 |s2cid=191348342 |issn=2150-668X|doi-access=free }} The initial sense extended to the mayfly and other short-lived insects and flowers, belonging to the biological order Ephemeroptera.{{sfn|Wasserman|2020|p=2}}

In 1751, Samuel Johnson used the term ephemerae in reference to "the papers of the day". This application of ephemera has been cited as the first example of aligning it with transient prints.{{Cite journal|last=Russell|first=Gillian|date=2014|title=The neglected history of the history of printed ephemera|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00766232&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA394113310&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs|journal=Melbourne Historical Journal|language=English|volume=42|issue=1|pages=7–37}} Ephemeral, by the mid-19th century, began to be used to generically refer to printed items.

Ephemera and ephemerality have mutual connotations of "passing time, change, and the philosophically ultimate vision of our own existence".{{Cite journal |last=Roylance |first=Dale |date=1976 |title=Graphie Americana: The E. Lawrence Sampter Collection of Printed Ephemera |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40858619 |journal=The Yale University Library Gazette |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=104–114 |jstor=40858619 |issn=0044-0175}} The degree to which ephemera is ephemeral is due in part to the value bestowed upon it. Over time, the ephemerality of certain ephemera may change, as items fall in and out of fashion or popularity with collectors.{{Cite book |last=Pecorari |first=Marco |title=Fashion Remains: Rethinking Ephemera in the Archive |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=9781350074774 |pages=4}} Comic books, for example, were once considered ephemera; however, that perception later faded.{{Cite book |last=West |first=Joel |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1151945452 |title=The Sign of the Joker: The Clown Prince of Crime as a Sign |publisher=Brill |year=2020 |isbn=978-90-04-40868-5 |location= |pages=31 |oclc=1151945452}}

As a conceptual category, ephemera has interested scholars. Henry Jenkins has argued that the emergence of ephemera, and the interest that some people show in collecting items that other people throw away, showcases the immaterial nature of culture arising in daily life.{{Cite journal|last=Anghelescu|first=Hermina G. B.|date=2001|title=A Bit of History in the Library Attic|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j105v25n04_07|journal=Collection Management|volume=25|issue=4|pages=61–75|doi=10.1300/j105v25n04_07|s2cid=60723329 |issn=0146-2679|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite book |title=From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels: Contributions to the Theory and History of Graphic Narrative |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2015 |isbn=9783110427660 |editor-last=Stein |editor-first=Daniel |pages=310 |editor2-last=Thon |editor2-first=Jan-Noël}}{{sfn|Stone|2005|p=7}} Rick Prelinger noted that when a piece of ephemera is preserved, and greater value is placed upon it, the object then arguably stops being ephemera.{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt45kdjb |title=Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media |date=2009 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-8964-013-0 |editor-last=Hediger |editor-first=Vinzenz |pages=51 |jstor=j.ctt45kdjb |editor-last2=Vonderau |editor-first2=Patrick}}

Categorising types of ephemera has presented difficulties to fixed systems in library science and historiography due to the ambiguity of the kinds of items that might be included.{{Cite journal|last=McDowell|first=Paula|date=2012|title=Of Grubs and Other Insects: Constructing the Categories of "Ephemera" and "Literature" in Eighteenth-Century British Writing|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/488252|journal=Book History|volume=15|issue=1|pages=48–70|doi=10.1353/bh.2012.0009|s2cid=143553893 |issn=1529-1499|url-access=subscription}} A piece of ephemera's purpose, field of use and geography are among the various elements relevant to its categorisation.{{Citation|last=Massip|first=Catherine|title=Ephemera|date=2020-10-01|url=http://oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190616922.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190616922-e-8|work=The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century|pages=168–188|editor-last=Watt|editor-first=Paul|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190616922.013.8|isbn=978-0-19-061692-2|access-date=2021-12-11|editor2-last=Collins|editor2-first=Sarah|editor3-last=Allis|editor3-first=Michael|url-access=subscription}} Challenges pertaining to ephemera include determining its creator, purpose, date and location of origin and impact thereof.{{Cite journal|last=Reichard|first=David A.|date=2012|title=Animating Ephemera through Oral History: Interpreting Visual Traces of California Gay College Student Organizing from the 1970s|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/471290|journal=Oral History Review|volume=39|issue=1|pages=37–60|doi=10.1093/ohr/ohs042 |issn=1533-8592|url-access=subscription}}{{Sfn|Weaver|2010|p=6}} Determining its worth in a present context, distinct from its perhaps obscured purpose, is also of interest.{{Sfn|Eliot|Rose|2019|p=634}}

The breadth of printed ephemera is vast and varied, often eluding simple definition.{{Cite journal |last=Russell |first=Gillian |date=2015 |title=Sarah Sophia Banks's Private Theatricals: Ephemera, Sociability, and the Archiving of Fashionable Life |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/584625 |journal=Eighteenth-Century Fiction |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=535–555 |doi=10.3138/ecf.27.3.535 |issn=1911-0243 |s2cid=162841068|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Stone |first=Richard |date=1998 |title=Junk mail: Printed ephemera and preservation of the everyday |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14443059809387406 |journal=Journal of Australian Studies |volume=22 |issue=58 |pages=99–106 |doi=10.1080/14443059809387406 |issn=1444-3058|url-access=subscription }} Librarians often conflate ephemera with grey literature whereas collectors often broaden the scope and definition of ephemera.{{Cite journal |last=Marcum |first=James W. |date=2006 |title=Ephemeral Knowledge in the Visual Ecology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42978851 |journal=Counterpoints |volume=231 |pages=89–106 |jstor=42978851 |issn=1058-1634}}{{Sfn|Eliot|Rose|2019|p=637}} José Esteban Muñoz considered the characteristics of ephemera to be subversion and social experience; Alison Byerly described ephemera as the response to cultural trends.{{Cite journal|last=Muñoz|first=José Esteban|date=1996-01-01|title=Ephemera as Evidence: Introductory Notes to Queer Acts|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/07407709608571228|journal=Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory|volume=8|issue=2|pages=5–16|doi=10.1080/07407709608571228|issn=0740-770X|url-access=subscription}}{{cite journal |last=Byerly |first=Alison |date=2009 |title=What not to save: The future of ephemera. |url=http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/legacy/mit6/papers/Byerly.pdf |journal= |pages=45–49}} Wasserman, who defined ephemera as "objects destined for disappearance or destruction", categorised the following as ephemera:{{sfn|Wasserman|2020|p=2, 236|pp=2–3}}

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• air transport labels
• bank checks
• bingo cards
• bookmarks
• broadsides
• bus tickets
• catalogs
• envelopes
• flyers
• maps
• menus
• newspapers
• pamphlets
• paper dolls
• postcards
• receipts
• sheet music
• stamps
• theater programs
• ticket stubs
• valentines}}Further items that have been categorised as ephemera include: posters, album covers, meeting minutes, buttons, stickers, financial records and personal memorabilia; announcements of events in a life, such as a birth, a death, a graduation or marriage, have been described as ephemera.{{Cite book|last=Ann|first=Cvetkovich|author-link=Ann Cvetkovich|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1139770505|title=An Archive of Feelings|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8223-8443-4|pages=243|oclc=1139770505}} Textual material, uniformly, could be considered ephemera. Artistic ephemera include sand paintings, sculptures composed of intentionally transient material, graffiti, and guerrilla art.{{Cite journal|last=London|first=Justin|date=2013|title=Ephemeral Media, Ephemeral Works, and Sonny Boy Williamson's "Little Village"|url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6245.2012.01540.x|journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism|volume=71|issue=1|pages=45–53|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6245.2012.01540.x|issn=0021-8529|url-access=subscription}} Historically, there has been various categories of ephemera.{{Cite journal |last=Andrews |first=Martin J. |date=2006 |title=The stuff of everyday life: a brief introduction to the history and definition of printed ephemera |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/art-libraries-journal/article/abs/stuff-of-everyday-life-a-brief-introduction-to-the-history-and-definition-of-printed-ephemera/9DB2C34164B19D4C862818709AA79780 |journal=Art Libraries Journal |language=en |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=5–8 |doi=10.1017/S030747220001467X |issn=0307-4722 |s2cid=190490100|url-access=subscription }}{{Sfn|McAleer|MacKenzie|2015|p=150}} Genres may be defined by function or encompass and detail a specific item. Over 500 categories are listed in The Encyclopedia of Ephemera, ranging from the 18th to 20th century.{{Cite journal|last1=Altermatt|first1=Rebecca|last2=Hilton|first2=Adrien|date=2012|title=Hidden Collections within Hidden Collections: Providing Access to Printed Ephemera|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23290585|journal=The American Archivist|volume=75|issue=1|pages=171–194 |doi=10.17723/aarc.75.1.6538724k51441161 |jstor=23290585 |issn=0360-9081|url-access=subscription}}

{{blockquote|There is scarcely a subject that has not generated its own ephemera.|Rickards and, the librarian, Julie Anne Lambert}}

File:Young Temperance Volunteer's diploma.jpg

Commonly, printed ephemera is seen to not exceed "more than thirty-two pages in length", although some understandings are more broadly encompassing.{{Cite journal|last=Jung|first=Sandro|date=2020|title=Literary Ephemera: Understanding the Media of Literacy and Culture Formation|journal=Eighteenth-Century Life|volume=44|issue=2|pages=1–16|doi=10.1215/00982601-8218580 |s2cid=226064356 |issn=1086-3192|doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal|last1=Cocks|first1=Harry G.|last2=Rubery|first2=Matthew|date=2012|title=Introduction|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2011.634650|journal=Media History|volume=18|issue=1|pages=1–5|doi=10.1080/13688804.2011.634650|s2cid=220378257 |issn=1368-8804}}{{sfn|Russell|2020|p=3}}{{efn|A qualifier from the National Library of Australia, devised in 1992, virtually excluded material of more than five pages.}} Ephemera is chiefly observed as single page materials, with variance and repeat characteristics.{{Cite book|last=Harris|first=Michael|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/502389441|title=The Oxford companion to the book|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-957014-0|editor-last=Suarez|editor-first=Michael F.|chapter=Printed Ephemera|oclc=502389441|editor2-last=Woudhuysen|editor2-first=H.R.|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001/acref-9780198606536-e-0014?rskey=K7zf5P&result=3821}} The material usage of printed ephemera is very often minimal and much are without art, although a distinct design lexicon can be found in pieces.{{Citation|last1=Lambert|first1=Julie Anne|title=Ephemera, printed|date=2003|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t026405|work=Oxford Art Online|access-date=2021-11-28|last2=Rickards|first2=Maurice|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t026405 |url-access=subscription}} Early ephemera, functionally monochromatic and predominantly textual, indicates a greater access to printing from common people and later cheap photography.{{sfn|Suarez|Turner|2010|p=66–67}}{{Sfn|MacKenzie|1984|p=21}}{{Sfn|Eliot|Rose|2019|pp=635–636}} 17th century ephemera incorporated administrative elements and more visuals.{{Cite book |last=De Mûelenaere |first=Gwendoline |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1259587568 |title=Early Modern Thesis Prints in the Southern Netherlands: An Iconological Analysis of the Relationships Between Art, Science and Power |year=2022 |isbn=978-90-04-44453-9 |location= |pages=50–51 |publisher=Brill |oclc=1259587568}}{{Sfn|Suarez|Turner|2010|p=74}} Advertising and information are among the primary elements of ephemera; design elements, which are typically indicative of the period of origin, such as the Renaissance, likely changed in accordance to higher literacy rates.{{Sfnm|1a1=Stone|1y=2005|1p=6|2a1=Suarez|2a2=Turner|2y=2010|2p=66–67}}{{sfn|McAleer|MacKenzie|2015|p=145}}{{efn|Display typefaces were an advertising component present prominently in 19th-century ephemera.{{Cite journal|last=Osbaldestin|first=David Joseph|date=2020|title=The Art of Ephemera: Typographic Innovations of Nineteenth-Century Midland Jobbing Printers|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0047729x.2020.1767975|journal=Midland History|volume=45|issue=2|pages=208–221|doi=10.1080/0047729x.2020.1767975|s2cid=221055264 |issn=0047-729X|url-access=subscription}}}} The prose of ephemera could range from pithy to relatively long (~400 words, for example).{{Sfn|McAleer|MacKenzie|p=146|2015}} By the 19th century, color printing was present, as were vivid, creative, innovative and ornate design, due to the incorporation of lithography.{{Sfn|McAleer|MacKenzie|p=145|2015}}{{Sfn|Eliot|Rose|2019|p=636}} The modern ephemera of duplicating machines and photocopiers are chiefly informative. Ephemera's "generic legibility" was achieved through the use of visuals, a quality that was significantly democratised by ephemera.{{Sfn|MacKenzie|1984|p=21}}{{sfn|Murphy|O'Driscoll|2013|p=199}}

Various forms of printed ephemera deteriorate quickly, a key element in definitions of ephemera. Although broad, pre-19th century ephemera has seldom survived.{{Cite journal|last=Quirk|first=Linda|date=2016|title=Proliferating Ephemera in Print and Digital Media|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/663384|journal=ESC: English Studies in Canada|volume=42|issue=3|pages=22–24|doi=10.1353/esc.2016.0027|s2cid=164429601 |issn=1913-4835|url-access=subscription}} Much of ephemera was not intended to be disposed of.{{sfn|Eliot|Rose|2019|p=633}} Assignats saw widespread contempt on account of their low-quality, endangering their survival rate.{{Cite book |author=The Multigraph Collective |title=Interacting with Print: Elements of Reading in the Era of Print Saturation |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2018 |isbn=9780226469287 |page=131}} The temperance movement produced ubiquitous ephemera; some printed ephemera have had production quantities of millions, although quantifying the matter is often reliant upon limited yet vast approximation.{{Cite journal|last=Linley|first=Margaret|date=2019|title=The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century by Susan Zieger (review)|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/753358|journal=Victorian Studies|volume=62|issue=1|pages=125–127|doi=10.2979/victorianstudies.62.1.09 |s2cid=258100058 |issn=1527-2052|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|last=Russell|first=Gillian|date=2018|title=Ephemeraphilia|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/0969725X.2018.1435393|journal=Angelaki|language=en|volume=23|issue=1|pages=174–186|doi=10.1080/0969725x.2018.1435393|s2cid=214613899 |issn=0969-725X|url-access=subscription}}{{sfn|Pettegree|2017|p=79}}{{efn|Ephemera relating to beer, wine and drinking is vast and developed in accordance with drinking movements.{{sfn|Weaver|2010|p=41–50}}}} Such temperance ephemera was prominent enough to elicit contemporaneous sentimentality and disdain.{{Sfn|Zieger|2018|p=16}} By this point, ephemera was printed by various establishments, having likely become a major element of some.{{Sfn|Suarez|Turner|2010|p=66–67}}File:Marten Ephemera.jpg]]

The mid-15th century has been identified as the origin of ephemera, following the Printing Revolution. Ephemera, such as religious indulgences, were significant in the early days of printing. The first mass-produced ephemera is presumed to be a variant of indulgences (~1454/55).{{sfn|Pettegree|2017|p=81}} Demand for ephemera corresponded with an increasing scale of towns whereupon they were commonly dispersed on streets.{{sfn|Suarez|Turner|2010|p=68}} Ephemera has functioned as a substantial means of disseminating information, evident in public sectors such as tourism, finance, law and recreation and has "aided the proliferation of print media as an exchange of information".{{Cite journal |last=Grisham |first=Leah |date=2019 |title=The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century by Susan Zieger (review) |journal=Victorian Periodicals Review |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=210–212 |doi=10.1353/vpr.2019.0011 |issn=1712-526X |s2cid=166259579|doi-access=free }}{{Sfn|Stone|2005|p=6}} In their times, ephemera has been used for documentation, education, belligerence, critique and propaganda.{{Cite journal |last1=Newman |first1=Ian |last2=Russell |first2=Gillian |date=2019 |title=Metropolitan Songs and Songsters: Ephemerality in the World City |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/747834 |journal=Studies in Romanticism |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=429–449 |doi=10.1353/srm.2019.0034 |issn=2330-118X |s2cid=214209212|url-access=subscription }}{{sfn|McAleer|MacKenzie|2015|p=143}}{{Cite journal |last=Holmes |first=Nina |date=2019 |title=Maternal subjects: representations of women in Irish government health ephemera, 1970s-1980s |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2019.1610667 |journal=The History of the Family |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=707–743 |doi=10.1080/1081602X.2019.1610667 |issn=1081-602X |s2cid=182539276|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Berger |first1=J M |last2=Aryaeinejad |first2=Kateira |last3=Looney |first3=Seán |date=2020 |title=There and Back Again: How White Nationalist Ephemera Travels Between Online and Offline Spaces |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2020.1734322 |journal=The RUSI Journal |volume=165 |issue=1 |pages=114–129 |doi=10.1080/03071847.2020.1734322 |issn=0307-1847 |s2cid=216228863|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Craske |first=Matthew |date=1999 |title=Plan and Control: Design and the Competitive Spirit in Early and Mid-Eighteenth-Century England |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1316282 |journal=Journal of Design History |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=187–216 |doi=10.1093/jdh/12.3.187 |issn=0952-4649 |jstor=1316282|url-access=subscription }}{{Efn|Soon after, political propaganda arose as a category of ephemera.{{sfn|Suarez|Turner|2010|p=78}}}}

Lottery tickets, playbills and trade cards have been among the most prominent ephemera of eras, such as the Georgian and Civil War eras.{{Cite journal|last=Russell|first=Gillian|date=2015|title="Announcing each day the performances": Playbills, Ephemerality, and Romantic Period Media/Theater History|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/741580|journal=Studies in Romanticism|volume=54|issue=2|pages=241–268|doi=10.1353/srm.2015.0024|s2cid=162589631 |issn=2330-118X|url-access=subscription}}{{sfn|Bellows|2020|p=159–160}} Panoramic paintings were a far-reaching class of ephemera, few remaining as a result.{{Cite book|last=Teukolsky|first=Rachel|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198859734.001.0001/oso-9780198859734|title=Picture World: Image, Aesthetics, and Victorian New Media|date=2020|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-885973-4|edition=1|pages=100, 357|language=en|doi=10.1093/oso/9780198859734.001.0001}} Junk mail is a contemporary example of prominent ephemera.{{Sfn|Stone|2005|p=6}} Ephemera's mundane ubiquity is a relatively modern phenomenon, evidenced by Henri Béraldi's amazed writings on their proliferation.{{Sfn|Iskin|Salsbury|2019|p=119}} Ubiquitous descriptions of printed ephemera have extended back to the 1840s and by the turn of the century, a time in which a deluge of ephemera had become commonplace, "readers [were] defined by their relationship with print ephemera".{{Sfn|Zieger|2018|p=14}}{{Cite journal |last=Fraser |first=Alison |date=2019 |title=Mass Print, Clipping Bureaus, and the Pre-Digital Database: Reexamining Marianne Moore's Collage Poetics through the Archives |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/745755 |journal=Journal of Modern Literature |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=19–33 |doi=10.2979/jmodelite.43.1.02 |issn=1529-1464 |s2cid=213899584|url-access=subscription }}{{Sfn|Eliot|Rose|2019|pp=472–473}} Discussing an increase in ephemera by the mid-19th century, E.S Dallas wrote that new etiquette had been introduced, thus "a new era" was to follow, espousing the impression that authorship and literature were no longer hermetic.{{Cite book|last=Fyfe|first=Paul|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732334.001.0001/acprof-9780198732334|title=By Accident or Design: Writing the Victorian Metropolis|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-873233-4|pages=165|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732334.001.0001}}

In 1998, librarian Richard Stone wrote that the internet "can be seen as the ultimate in ephemera with its vast amount of information and advertising which is extremely transitory and volatile in nature, and vulnerable to change or deletion". Multiple academics have described digital ephemera as being possibly more vulnerable than traditional forms.{{Cite journal|last=Hammond|first=Catherine|date=2016|title=Escaping the digital black hole: e-ephemera at two Auckland art libraries|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/alj.2016.10|journal=Art Libraries Journal|volume=41|issue=2|pages=107–114|doi=10.1017/alj.2016.10|s2cid=191357158 |issn=0307-4722|url-access=subscription}} Internet memes and selfies have been described as forms of ephemera and various modern print ephemera features a digital component.{{Cite journal |last=Callaghan |first=Holly |date=2013 |title=Electronic ephemera: collection, storage and access in Tate Library |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0307472200017843 |journal=Art Libraries Journal |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=27–31 |doi=10.1017/s0307472200017843 |issn=0307-4722|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Govil |first=Nitin |date=2022 |title=Keanu's late style: the ubiquitous art of short-form celebrity |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2022.2063402 |journal=Celebrity Studies |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=214–227 |doi=10.1080/19392397.2022.2063402 |s2cid=248289457 |issn=1939-2397|url-access=subscription }} Commonly printed ephemera increasingly only manifests digitally.{{Cite journal|last1=Deutch|first1=Samantha|last2=McKay|first2=Sally|date=2016|title=The Future of Artist Files: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26557039|journal=Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America|volume=35|issue=1|pages=27–42|doi=10.1086/685975 |jstor=26557039 |s2cid=112265150 |issn=0730-7187|url-access=subscription}} The Tate Library defines "e-ephemera" as the digital-born content and paratext of an email, typically of a promotional variety, produced by cultural institutions; similar in nature, monographs, catalogues and micro-sites are excluded, per being considered e-books. Websites, such as those of an administrative nature, have seen description as ephemera.{{Cite journal|last=Slania|first=Heather|date=2013|title=Online Art Ephemera: Web Archiving at the National Museum of Women in the Arts|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/669993|journal=Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America|language=en|volume=32|issue=1|pages=112–126|doi=10.1086/669993|s2cid=58248647 |issn=0730-7187|url-access=subscription}}{{cite book|last=Bardiot|first=Clarisse|year=2021|title=Performing Arts and Digital Humanities: From Traces to Data|publisher=Wiley|volume=5|pages=26|isbn=9781119855569}} The likes of Instagram feature accounts dedicated to displaying graphically designed ephemera.{{Cite magazine |last=Lange |first=Alexandra |date=2015-03-24 |title=Instagram's Endangered Ephemera |url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/instagrams-beautiful-ephemera |access-date=2022-05-21 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}

Digital ephemera is of comparable nature to printed ephemera, although it is even more prevalent and subject to altering perceptions of ephemera.{{Sfn|Iskin|Salsbury|2019|p=125}}{{Sfn|Wasserman|2020|p=236}} Holly Callaghan of the Tate Library noted a proliferation of "e-ephemera"; an increased reliance upon this form of ephemera has engendered concern, with note to later accessibility and a difficulty to those outside of the intended recipients.{{Cite journal |last1=Russell |first1=Edmund |last2=Kane |first2=Jennifer |date=2008 |title=The Missing Link : Assessing the Reliability of Internet Citations in History Journals |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40061522 |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=420–429 |doi=10.1353/tech.0.0028 |jstor=40061522 |hdl=1808/13144 |s2cid=111270449 |issn=0040-165X|hdl-access=free }}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jUXEAAAQBAJ |title=The New Art Museum Library |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=2021 |isbn=978-1538135709 |editor-last=Nelson |editor-first=Amelia |pages=51 |editor2-last=Timmons |editor2-first=Traci E.}} Citing ostensibly infinite digital storage, Wasserman said that the category, ephemera, may cease to exist, its contents having been ultimately preserved.{{Sfn|Wasserman|2020|p=231}}

file:Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases - British Ministry of Health.jpg

Ephemera has long been substantially collected, both with and without intention, presevering what may be the only remaining reproductions.{{Cite journal |last=Slate |first=John H. |date=2001 |title=Not Fade Away |url=https://doi.org/10.1300/J105v25n04_06 |journal=Collection Management |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=51–59 |doi=10.1300/J105v25n04_06 |issn=0146-2679 |s2cid=57187993|url-access=subscription }}{{Sfn|Stone|2005|p=13}} Victorian families pasted their collections of ephemera, acquiring the likes of scraps and trade cards, in scrapbooks whereas Georgian curators thoroughly archived ephemera.{{Cite journal|last=Snyder|first=Terry|date=2014|title=Spectacular Ephemera|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/trajincschped.24.1-2.0101|journal=Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy|volume=24|issue=1–2|pages=101–109|jstor=10.5325/trajincschped.24.1-2.0101 |issn=1052-5017}}{{sfn|Field|2019|p=81}} It was a private endeavour, with little outward cultural presence, although an eminent interpersonal function.{{sfn|Zieger|2018|p=2}} Cigarette cards were widely collected, by-design.{{Cite journal|last=Salmon|first=Richard|date=2020|title=Consuming Ephemera|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/764107|journal=Criticism|volume=62|issue=1|pages=151–155|doi=10.13110/criticism.62.1.0151 |s2cid=235488621 |issn=1536-0342|url-access=subscription}}{{sfn|MacKenzie|1984|p=17}}{{efn|In an overview of ephemera, Rickards and Lambert wrote that the specification of cigarette cards as collectable means they should not be classified as ephemera, though rarely is this distinction acknowledged.}}

Contemporarily, institutions have attempted to preserve digital ephemera, although problems may exist in regards to scope and interest.{{Cite journal |last=Doster |first=Adam |date=2016 |title=Saving Digital Ephemera |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24604193 |journal=American Libraries |volume=47 |issue=1/2 |pages=18 |issn=0002-9769 |jstor=24604193}} Ephemera has been considered for curation since the 1970s, due in part to collectors, at which point societies, professional associations and publications regarding ephemera arose.{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Kai Alexis |date=2016 |title=Digitizing Ephemera Reloaded: A Digitization Plan for an Art Museum Library |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/688732 |journal=Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=329–338 |doi=10.1086/688732 |issn=0730-7187 |s2cid=113743222|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Haug |first=Mary-Elise |date=1995 |title=The Life Cycle of Printed Ephemera: A Case Study of the Maxine Waldron and Thelma Mendsen Collections |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4618482 |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=59–72 |doi=10.1086/wp.30.1.4618482 |issn=0084-0416 |jstor=4618482 |s2cid=163616019|url-access=subscription }} Although ephemera is a global occurrence, interest is chiefly present in Britain and America.{{Sfnm|1a1=Weaver|1y=2010|1pp=34–35|1p=2|2a1=Blum|2y=2019|2p=xix}} Ephemera collections can be idiosyncratic, sequential and difficult to peruse.{{Cite journal |last=Bashford |first=Christina |date=2008 |title=Writing (British) Concert History: The Blessing and Curse of Ephemera |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/232019 |journal=Notes |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=458–473 |doi=10.1353/not.2008.0023 |issn=1534-150X |s2cid=162396585|url-access=subscription }}

Multiple scholars articulated a connection to the past, such as nostalgia, as a key motivation for ephemera collecting.{{Cite book|last=Giannachi|first=Gabriella|url=http://mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7551/mitpress/9780262035293.001.0001/upso-9780262035293|title=Archive Everything: Mapping the Everyday|date=2016|publisher=The MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-03529-3|pages=76|language=en|doi=10.7551/mitpress/9780262035293.001.0001}}{{Cite journal |last=Burant |first=Jim |date=1995 |title=Ephemera, Archives, and Another View of History |url=https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12105 |journal=Archivaria |language=en |volume=40 |pages=189–198 |issn=1923-6409}}{{Sfn|Weaver|2010|p=135, 188}} Such a connection has been described as evocative and atmospheric; the memory as collective and cultural; the nostalgia as populist and the ephemera associated with melancholy.{{Cite journal|last=Mussell|first=James|date=2012|title=The Passing of Print|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2011.637666|journal=Media History|volume=18|issue=1|pages=77–92|doi=10.1080/13688804.2011.637666|s2cid=161174759 |issn=1368-8804}}{{Sfn|Stone|2005|p=13}}{{Sfn|Wasserman|2020|p=230}} Aesthetics, academic advancement and existential ephemerality have also been seen as motivation.{{Cite journal |last=Tschabrun |first=Susan |date=2003 |title=Off the Wall and into a Drawer: Managing a Research Collection of Political Posters |journal=The American Archivist |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=303–324 |doi=10.17723/aarc.66.2.x482536031441177 |jstor=40294235 |issn=0360-9081|doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal |last=Raine |first=Henry |date=2017 |title=From Here to Ephemerality: Fugitive Sources in Libraries, Archives, and Museums: The 48th Annual RBMS Preconference |url=https://rbm.acrl.org/index.php/rbm/article/view/293 |journal=RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage |language=en-US |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=14–17 |doi=10.5860/rbm.9.1.293|doi-access=free }}

The study of print ephemera has seen much contention; various viewpoints and interpretations have been proposed from scholars, with comparisons to folklore studies and popular culture studies, due to the invoking of "remembrance and echoed retellings" and contending that which is more prestigious, respectively.{{Cite journal |last=Randall |first=David |date=2004 |title=Recent Studies in Print Culture: News, Propaganda, and Ephemera |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=457–472 |doi=10.1525/hlq.2004.67.3.457 |issn=0018-7895 |jstor=10.1525/hlq.2004.67.3.457}} Literature around ephemera concern its production, varieties: trade cards, broadside ballads, chapbooks, almanacs, and newspapers; scholars predominately examine ephemera post-19th century due to greater quantities thereof.{{sfn|Suarez|Turner|2010|p=68}}{{Cite journal |last1=Vareschi |first1=Mark |last2=Burkert |first2=Mattie |date=2016 |title=Archives, Numbers, Meaning: The Eighteenth-Century Playbill at Scale |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/645398 |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=597–613 |doi=10.1353/tj.2016.0108 |issn=1086-332X |s2cid=151711494|url-access=subscription }} A significant amount of scholars have been collectors, archivists and amateurs, particularly at the inception of ephemera studies, a now burgeoning academic field.{{sfn|Russell|2020|p=3}}{{Cite book |last1=Sèbe |first1=Berny |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9780429029363/decolonising-europe-berny-s%C3%A8be-matthew-stanard |title=Decolonising Europe?: Popular Responses to the End of Empire |last2=Stanard |first2=Matthew G. |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=9780429029363 |pages=201 |doi=10.4324/9780429029363 |s2cid=216189182}}{{sfn|Iskin|Salsbury|2019|p=118}} Digitisation of ephemera has provided accessibility and spurred renewed interest, following the "few writings" present at the start of the 21st century.{{Cite journal |last=Hadley |first=Nancy |date=2001 |title=Access and Description of Visual Ephemera |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j105v25n04_05 |journal=Collection Management |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=39–50 |doi=10.1300/j105v25n04_05 |issn=0146-2679 |s2cid=62713439|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Lambert |first=Julie Anne |date=2017 |title=Immortalizing the Mayfly: Permanent Ephemera: An Illusion or a (Virtual) Reality? |url=https://rbm.acrl.org/index.php/rbm/article/view/304 |journal=RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=142–156 |doi=10.5860/rbm.9.1.304|doi-access=free }}

As a source, ephemera has been widely accepted. Ephemera has been credited with illustrating social dynamics, including daily life, communication, social mobility and the enforcement of social norms. Furthermore, varied cultures from differing groups can be assessed via ephemera.{{Sfn|Zieger|2018|p=22}}{{efn|Following the California Gold Rush of 1849, by means of visual ephemera, the citizens of San Francisco, regardless of race or class, "were exposed to one another".{{Cite book|last=Lippert|first=Amy DeFalco|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190268978.001.0001/oso-9780190268978|title=Consuming Identities|date=2018|volume=1 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-026897-8|pages=319|language=en|doi=10.1093/oso/9780190268978.001.0001}}}} Ephemera, to Rickards, documents "the other side of history...[which] contains all sorts of human qualities that would otherwise be edited out".

• Bibliothèque Bleue
• Ephemeris
• Ephemeral
• [https://www.ephemerasociety.org/ Ephemeral Society of America.]
• Found Footage Festival
• Prelinger Archives
• The Show with No Name

{{notelist}}

;Citations

{{reflist}}

;Bibliography

• {{Cite book|last=Bellows|first=Amanda Brickell|date=2020|url=https://northcarolina.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655543.001.0001/upso-9781469655543|title=American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-4696-5554-3|language=en|doi=10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655543.001.0001|s2cid=225964519 }}
• {{Cite book|last=Blum|first=Hester|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/65200|title=The News at the Ends of the Earth: The Print Culture of Polar Exploration|date=2019|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-1-4780-0448-6}}
• Buday, György. (1971). The History of the Christmas Card. Salisbury Square.
• {{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1099543594 |title=A Companion to the History of the Book |publisher=Wiley |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-119-01821-6 |editor-last=Eliot |editor-first=Simon |edition=2nd |location= |oclc= 1099543594|editor-last2=Rose |editor-first2=Jonathan}}
• {{Cite book|last=Field|first=Hannah|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/66674|title=Playing with the Book: Victorian Movable Picture Books and the Child Reader|date=2019|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-1-4529-5958-0}}
• {{Cite book|date=2019|editor-last=Iskin|editor-first=Ruth E.|editor2-last=Salsbury|editor2-first=Britany|title=Collecting Prints, Posters, and Ephemera|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/collecting-prints-posters-and-ephemera-9781501338496/|access-date=2021-12-19|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|language=en}}
• {{Cite book |title=Exhibiting the Empire: Cultures of Display and the British Empire |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-7190-9109-4 |editor-last=McAleer |editor-first=John |editor-last2=MacKenzie |editor-first2=John }}
• {{Cite book |last=MacKenzie |first=John |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10208219 |title=Propaganda and Empire: The Manipulation of British Public Opinion, 1880-1960 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1984 |isbn=0-7190-1499-9|oclc=10208219 }}
• {{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/812254905|title=Studies in Ephemera : Text and Image in Eighteenth-Century Print|date=2013|publisher=Bucknell University Press|isbn=978-1-61148-494-6|oclc=812254905 |editor-last=Murphy|editor-first=Kevin |editor2-last=O'Driscoll|editor2-first=Sally}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv2gjwnfd |title=Broadsheets: Single-sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print |publisher=Brill Publishers |year=2017 |jstor=10.1163/j.ctv2gjwnfd |isbn=978-90-04-34030-5 |editor-last=Pettegree |editor-first=Andrew }}
• {{Cite book|last=Russell|first=Gillian|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ephemeral-eighteenth-century/4F9B8D61D476ED883A5B739C720BBD4F|title=The Ephemeral Eighteenth Century: Print, Sociability, and the Cultures of Collecting|date=2020|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-48758-0|series=Cambridge Studies in Romanticism}}
• {{Cite book|last=Stone|first=Richard|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3413498|title=Fragments of the Everyday: A Book of Australian Ephemera|date=2005|publisher=National Library of Australia|isbn=978-0-642-27601-8}}
• {{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain|isbn=9781139056069|editor-last=Suarez|editor-first=Michael F. SJ|volume=5|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/chol9780521810173|editor2-last=Turner|editor2-first=Michael L.}}
• {{Cite book|last=Wasserman|first=Sarah|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/78266|title=The Death of Things: Ephemera and the American Novel|date=2020|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-1-4529-6414-0|location=Minneapolis}}
• {{Cite book|last=Weaver|first=William Woys|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/794663706|title=Culinary Ephemera : an Illustrated History|date=2010|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94706-1|oclc=794663706}}
• {{Cite book|last=Zieger|first=Susan|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/59089|title=The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century|date=2018|publisher=Fordham University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-7985-2}}

• Printed Ephemera: The Changing Uses of Type and Letterforms in English and American Printing, John Lewis, Ipswich, Suffolk, Eng.: W. S. Cowell, 1962
• The Encyclopedia of Ephemera: A Guide to the Fragmentary Documents of Everyday Life for the Collector, Curator, and Historian by Maurice Rickards et alia. London: The British Library; New York: Routledge, 2000.
• [http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/onlineshop?action=OLSDisplay&id=nla.int-ls27601-bk Fragments of the Everyday: A Book of Australian Ephemera] by Richard Stone (2005, {{ISBN|0-642-27601-3}})
• {{cite journal|last=Twyman|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Twyman|title=Ephemera: whose responsibility are they?|journal=Library and Information Update|date=August 2002|volume=1|issue=5|pages=54–55|issn=1476-7171}}

{{wiktionary|ephemeron}}

{{Commons category|Ephemera}}

• [http://www.ephemerasociety.org.au/ Ephemera Society of Australia]
• [http://www.ephemera-society.org.uk/ The Ephemera Society]
• [http://www.ephemerasociety.org/ Ephemera Society of America]
• [https://www.loc.gov/collections/broadsides-and-other-printed-ephemera/about-this-collection/ Printed Ephemera] in the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division] of the Library of Congress
• [http://alga.org.au/the-collection#ephemera Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives – Ephemera Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115235646/http://alga.org.au/the-collection#ephemera |date=2019-01-15 }}
• [http://www.nla.gov.au/find/ephemera.html National Library of Australia – Ephemera Collection]
• [https://www.ggarchives.com/ GG Archives – Ephemera Collection]
• [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/evancoll/index.html British Library – Evanian Collection of Ephemera] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713133624/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/evancoll/index.html |date=2017-07-13 }}
• [http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/what-we-collect/ephemera State Library of Victoria – Ephemera] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140430125804/http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/what-we-collect/ephemera |date=2014-04-30 }}
• [http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/waephemera.html State Library of Western Australia – Ephemera]
• [http://www.johngrossmancollection.com/ The John Grossman Collection of Antique Images]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081028232252/http://newzealandephemerist.org/ New Zealand Ephemera Society website]
• [https://www.bnf.fr/fr/les-collections-dimagerie-et-dephemera Bibliothèque Nationale de France – Ephemera]
• [http://www.ephemerastudies.org ephemerastudies.org] at Louisiana Tech University
• {{cite web |first1=Dick |last1=Sheaff |work=Ephemera |url=http://www.sheaff-ephemera.com/ |title=Sheaff: Ephemera |access-date=12 December 2011}}
• [http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/Search.do?destacadas1=Ephemera&home=true&languageView=en Collection of digitized ephemera] at Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, Biblioteca Nacional de España
• [http://www.ephemerajournal.org Ephemerajournal. theory & politics of organization]

Category:Book collecting

Category:Documents

Category:Greek words and phrases