Ephemera
Ephemera is the worldwide hobby of collecting minor antique papers, including, but not limited to bills, letters, advertising trade cards, posters, postcards, baseball cards, tickets, greeting cards, stock certificates (scripophily) and photographs.
The word ephemera is also used to describe the class of published single-sheet or single page documents of a large or tiny size which are meant to be thrown away after one use. This thus excludes simple letters and photographs with no printing on them, which are considered as manuscripts or typescripts, but includes postcards, event-oriented posters, transportation and show tickets, baggage stickers, stock certificates, motor vehicle licensing forms, business cards, printed wedding invitations, trade cards, and other similar printed materials.
An academic or a national library often has a rare book department tasked, in part, with the acquisition and organisation of such ephemera, in order to preserve them as witnesses of local or national History. In some places museums are given this responsibility, or decide to assume it.
Complete decks of the Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards are good examples of Ephemera because they will have lost their original purpose and their novelty interest in a relatively short time and they will then become original printed witnesses of some major historical events.
References
- 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.
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