A Visit to the Ephemera Fair

Can you guess which two items I purchased at this fantastic vintage market?

Editor’s Note: I strongly recommend that you read this post on a computer, not on your phone, and also urge you to read the web version of the post, not the emailed version. The web version has enlarged photos and some video content, both of which are best appreciated on a larger screen. Enjoy! — Paul

As you surely know by now, I’m very fond of ephemera. But I’m just an amateur ephemerist compared to some people — like, say, the people who are members of the Ephemera Society of America, which just held its annual conference in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. The conference included various presentations and lectures (typical title: “Better Design Through Chemistry: Graphic Art from the Psychedelic Era”) and also featured the Ephemera Fair, which is basically a big marketplace for ephemera dealers. Although I’m not an ESA member, the Fair is open to the public, so my friend David and I went up to Old Greenwich on Saturday to check out the scene.

There are several definitions of ephemera, but in the collectibles world it usually refers to paper artifacts. That can mean letters, postcards, print ads, books, magazines, catalogs, scrapbooks, diaries, brochures, ticket stubs, photographs, stock certificates, report cards, marriage licenses, greeting cards, business ledgers, passports, matchbook covers, ships’ logs, billheads, birth certificates, wills, and maps, among lots and lots of other things.

All of these things, and many more, were available at the Ephemera Fair. My plan was to treat the Fair as a museum and avoid buying anything, in part because I’d been told that the prices tended to be high and also because I don’t really need more ephemera. But as it turned out, I found two inexpensive items that I really loved and purchased.

Here’s a rundown of some of the most notable things I saw. See if you can guess which two were the ones I bought! I’ll reveal the answer at the end of the post.

Uncut Sheet of Mets Patches

Not paper, but still ephemera. I’m a lifelong Mets fan, but I’d never seen these “World Champions” patches before. Here’s a closer look at the design:

Note that Tommie Agee’s first name is misspelled — a common error.

Obviously, this wasn’t team-issued or team-worn. More likely the type of thing that would end up on one of those old youth baseball jackets.

The full sheet was enormous! Check this out:

Milprint Sample Catalog

Milprint was a Milwaukee-based printer that was among the first companies to figure out how to print graphics on cellophane, which revolutionized the packaging of meats, candies, and other products. This catalog, which I think is from the 1930s, features dozens of the company’s then-current package designs:

Your Health and Your Kitchen Catalog

This was a promotional book/catalog produced by the Chicago-based Super Maid Cook-Ware Corporation in 1930. It features magnificent renderings of the company’s product line, including several different waffle irons (which, interestingly, were called waffle moulds):

College-Themed Hat Band Sample Brochure

In all my years of writing about sports uniforms, I never came across anything like this 1910 sample brochure featuring hat band swatches rendered in the colors of major colleges. When you open it up, here’s what you see: