Ephemera... the Source

[Tom Murphy]

The Wikipedia definition of Ephemera is "transitory written and printed matter" ... and that is what many of us, who have an interest in Ephemera focus on.

But backing up a step... we need to look at the source of much of that Ephemera... and a museum in North Andover, Massachusetts may well be the place to start.

The Museum of Printing was founded in 1979 and thus is now celebrating its 30th anniversary. According to its website, the museum "... is dedicated to preserving the history of the graphic arts, printing equipment and printing craftsmanship".

The Museum sits on the spacious North Andover, Massachusetts town common with free parking. A non-profit organization, the Museum was originally incorporated in 1978 as The Friends of The Museum of Printing, Inc., to save printing equipment and library materials associated with arcane technologies.

The Museum focuses mostly on the equipment used to create our cherished Ephemera... with collections in several categories such as:

• Composing Room Equipment
• Makeup and Correction
• Photography and Plate Making
• The Pressroom
• The Bindery
• Support Apparatus

There is also a rather large collection of the output of those printing methods, including a 5000 volume library covering subjects such as printing history, typographic design, type specimen books, printing instruction texts, paper manufacturing history, printing methods, machinery manuals, computer and phototypesetting manuals, graphic design. etc. An additional 10,000 periodicals also make up the collection.

Perhaps of more interest to our Ephemera-minded folks is the Edward J. Frey Collection. Mr Frey was a scholar-printer from New York and subsequently a vocational technical programs teacher in the New York City Public School system.

During his 35 year long teaching career, Mr. Frey created the Graphic Arts Technology Program for the Occupational Therapy Division of the General Studies Program at Columbia University.

At the same time as he was involved in education, Mr. Frey also operated The Garden Press in Chappaqua, New York, from 1922 until 1978. When he entered his 95th year he decided to dispose of his library and ephemera collection as well as his shop equipment. During his lifetime he accumulated a huge archive of magazine articles, press and paper sample books, pamphlet books, zines, and numerous type sample catalogues. Mr. Frey, like many of the scholar-printers of the early to mid twentieth century, had a love of fine typography and kept numerous scrapbooks illustrating typographic layouts, sample proof pages, design schemes for business cards, brochures, show cards, and stationery. His family has donated Frey’s huge ephemera collection, his correspondence archive, and a good deal of his shop equipment and type, to The Printing Museum.

So if your interest goes a bit beyond simply the Ephemera we all collect.. and you wonder a bit about the original source of that transitory printed matter... I suggest you pay a visit, either in person or through the Internet, to the Museum of Printing. I'm sure you will find it to be a worthwhile use of your time.

I'm Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the Encore it deserves.

This article recently appeared in my blog located at Encore-Ephemera

Tom
Have a look at my eBay Ephemera site (which may or may not currently have anything listed)
or have a look at my eBay Auction sites (which may or may not currently have anything listed)

Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Museum of Printing, Edward J. Frey.

Thanks for visiting!

[Frank DeFreitas]

This will definitely be a potential over-night trip for me. I knew that there were several printing museums in San Francisco (including book binding, typesetting, etc.). But I had never heard of this one until you posted about it, Tom. I'm a print industry old-timer. Not as old as some of these machines, though!

[Paul Batchelor]

Well I am glad to hear you are honoring the people who make we collect possible. I work as a graphic designer by trade and I find myself getting lost on computer whoo haa. Its always good to get back to basics and appreciate the hard work that go into the things we love. The history alone is enough to keep me captivated. Computers dont create everything, people with imagination do. I wished I lived closer to MA, I think I would really enjoy that for the day. Thankyou for sharing that Tom