From the ancient Greek ephemeros, meaning ‘short-lived’, printed ephemera encompasses a broad list of printed items not necessarily intended to last: Broadsides, penny dreadfuls, posters, tickets, playbills, pamphlets, advertisements, magazines, and newspapers, many of which, but not all, are time-sensitive materials, consumed (read) and disposed of, often reused as scrap.

On the history of broadsides, see Andrew Pettegree’s Broadsheets: Single-Sheet Publishing in the First Age of Print, 2017.

ILT articles tagged with ‘ephemera‘