Ticket stubs, programs, menus, schedules, pamphlets, fliers, certificates-- small paper items known as “ephemera” that recall past occasions, activities, and people--hold an intimate place in an archives, particularly that of the San Francisco History Center.
 |
| Matchbook from the Roundhouse Restaurant, undated |
They offer glimpses into the daily life of our city across the generations. Their creases and marks and stains suggest the hands that held them at the event they were printed for, be it a bus trip, a performance, an exhibit, a grand opening, a dinner, or a protest.
 |
Cocktail napkin
from Cable Car Village, undated
|
Ephemera such as this can be found throughout the San Francisco History Center’s archival collections; however, the bulk of this kind of material may be found in our San Francisco Ephemera Collection. This collection of subject files stored in 153 filing cabinet drawers, is also known as the “vertical file” because items are stored upright in folders rather than bound in a book, covers all sorts of San Francisco topics and entities, dating from 1850 to the present: buildings, businesses, clubs and associations, restaurants, neighborhoods, streets, and more. A guide to the San Francisco Ephemera Collection, which lists the folders we can pull for researchers, can be found
here.
Posters, a kind of super-sized ephemera, are also in the San Francisco History Center. Like ephemera, they are printed for use-in-the-moment. They publicize arts festivals, concerts, rallies, conventions, public services, and political causes. Our poster collection has over 800 posters dating from 1865-present, mostly from the 20th century.
Visit the San Francisco History Center on the 6th floor of the Main Library to explore these collections further. There’s nothing like paper-in-person!
 |
| Old First Church Concerts poster, 1995 |
Comments
Post a Comment