Collecting and preserving local ephemera

Postcard, Observation-Buffet-Lounge Car of The Trail Blazer (scan)
Originally uploaded by rllayman

Last weekend, Antiques Roadshow was in town ("'Antiques Roadshow' gets 5000 visitors in Washington" from the Post). It got me to thinking about how at least in the DC area, we don't have an active program for the acquisition and preservation of ephemera and objects in a local museum. Sure we have the Historical Society and local societies across the region, plus special collections in libraries such as the Washingtoniana collection at the main branch of the DC Library.

But who is going to estate sales and buying clothes with Raleigh, Garfinckel, Woodward & Lothrop, or Hecht's tags, hatboxes, newspapers, magazines, books, and other ephemera for the locality, for both preservation and display?

(One of the reasons I've kept a particular woolen overcoat that I happened to find in a thrift store in Pittsburgh is because it has a Hughes & Hatcher label from an old Detroit area chain that has been out of business now for more than 25 years.)

I look for postcards, magazines, newspapers (mostly for the ads from local businesses, not the stories) and other stuff. But my financial means limit my ability to collect very much.

Another thing I look to do is look for postcards in other locales when I am traveling. People visit Washington and send postcards back home. That's a good way to buy Washington-area postcards more cheaply than you can around here.

In Montreal, the Provincial library has a "back alley" section and they set up the ground floor edge of the building as stalls for booksellers, and on certain days of the week, they open for business. We went the Friday night before we left, and found a bunch of good stuff, including these postcards from Detroit (remember I am from Detroit, and it is across the river from Windsor, Ontario, and back in the day was visited by many people from across Canada) as well as Washington and other places.

Postcards are cool because they communicate about places and events that the community thought were important.


The S.S. Aquarama, postcard, circa 1961 (scan). The back of the postcard reads: this multi-million dollar luxury liner maintains a daily round trip sailing schedule between Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio during the summer months. It carries both passengers and automobiles; has four restaurants, three dance decks, colorful cocktail lounges and soda bars. The Detroit terminal is at the foot of W. Grand Boulevard.


Postcard, Junction of the Edsel Ford Expressway and the John Lodge Expressway, Detroit, circa 1961. The back reads: Not yet completed but with construction progressing rapidly, this modern highway system greatly facilitates movement of motor traffic in this metropolitan area. Three levels of traffic cross at this interchange. That's the Fisher Building at left background.