From the Bodleian Library Website:
The term Printed Ephemera, was used by John Johnson, most often in the form: "the ephemera of printing." It entered the public consciousness principally through John Lewis’s seminal work Printed Ephemera. The Changing Uses of Types and Letterforms in English and American Printing. Ipswich, W.S. Cowell, 1962, reprinted Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1990.
.Johnson defined printed ephemera as:
"Everything which would ordinarily go into the waste paper basket after use, everything printed which is not actually a book …"
At the beginning of 2004, I started a Printed Ephemera Tribe on tribe.net (http://printedephemera.tribe.net/). We have 90 members now, and about 300 images in the photo album. We have collected tons of images: posters, stamps, ads, packaging, letters, matchbooks, book covers, album covers, pulp magazines, gum wrappers..you get the picture. The amazing thing is that there is always more ephemera out there to enjoy, and more being created every day! The tribe is a great place to share finds, get inspired, and meet other people who keep paper around way too long. Check it out!
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