Historical Ephemera is a project designed to present ephemera from a variety of historical sources. Wikipedia defines ephemera as “transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved.” We consider ephemera a bit more broadly as materials that were produced for one time or specific short-term use. Such materials were often thought to be of little value when produced. The Ephemera Society of America even maintains a list of ephemera topics, which include the following; advertisements, air transport labels, bank checks, baseball cards, billheads, bonds, bookmarks, bookplates, broadsides, brochures, business cards, calendars, cameo stamps, chromos, cigar box labels & bands, clipper ship cards, die-cuts, greeting cards, indentures, invitations, labels, letters, magazines, maps, newspapers, packaging, pamphlets, paper dolls, passes, photographs, postcards, poster stamps, posters, programs, rewards of merit, seed company ads, Shakers, sheet music, songsters, stocks, tickets, timetables, trade cards, trade catalogs, valentines, watch papers

Each presentation includes a description of materials and when appropriate some consideration for how the items fit within the larger historical context. This site has been designed for students, teachers and anyone interested in past.

This project is a collaborative effort completed by students in a graduate class on digital history at North Carolina State University, spring semester 2009.