33 Ephemera Collections on Flickr

originally uploaded by Sara1973

Flickr is an incredible source for scans of ephemera from all eras. There is so much to find on there. One of my dreams is to somehow organize and catalog all of this; until then, all I can give you is a somewhat ordered list of things I’ve found. Remember that this only represents a sliver of a portion of what’s available on the internet.

1. The Modern Ephemera Society – printed material from the 1950s to the present
2. Ephemera – vintage photos, old certificates, foriegn money, train tickets, found paper documents, and other interesting printed materials
3. Jassy-50′s Postcard Collection – Hundreds of postcards from over fifty years of collecting
4. Striderv’s Collection – Advertisements, postcards, and sheet music
5. Pantufla’s printed ephemera – Posters, including Civil War, Soviet, and WPA; 1969 Catechism; 19th century shipping cards; book, magazine, and album covers; typography, and so much more
6. Steveartist’s postcards
7. Mando Maniac – movie posters and portraits, stamps, postcards, cigarette cards, advertising, art, book covers and illustrations, and magazine covers
8. Takeabreak’s collections – illustrations and photos, including stamps, money, ads, postcards, sheet music and more
9. Cinema Postcards
10. Kocojim’s collection – Vintage advertising and illustration: A lot of pinup and men’s magazine covers; Graphics and logos; objects and stuff, such as matchbook covers, appliances, etc.;
11. 1940s Magazine Covers
12. Sara1973′s Vintage – Magazine covers, ads, travel and movie posters
13. Vintage Magazines
14. Jasperdo’s scanned stuff – road maps, travel souvenirs, MAD Magazine covers and interiors, and more
15. Decades – ads and packaging from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s
16. One for the Ladies – Housewife and hostess related ephemera
17. Mario Groleau’s Collections – photo magazines, advertisements, and photographic nostaligia (camera manuals, found photographs, etc)
18. Posters – World War II, travel, and ads (No longer available)
19. Vintage Advertisements – From the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s
20. Gatochy – Over 10,000 images here. Advertising, movies, art, fashion, books, and magazines. Hours of exploration
21. Neato Coolville – Another large archive (nearly 4,000 images) with a slightly kid focus. Cereal boxes, comic book ads, and many other categories fill this collection
22. Jazz-Age in Print – ephemera from the 1920s and 30s
23. Vintage Illustrations – mostly children’s book illustrations from the early 20th century
24. 1950s to 1970s advertising
25. Star1950′s collection – A wildly divergent mix of ephemera from all time periods
26. TrialsandErrors’ Collection – Performing Art posters, Ziegfeld follies girls, ads, posters, postcards, and photography
27. Vintage Restaurant Postcards and Ephemera
28. Maraid’s collections – though there are some personal photographs mixed in, I linked to all the categories so you won’t miss any of this esoteric collection, which includes British wrestling posters, Japanese matchbox labels, and architecture paperback covers among other things
29. Wishbook’s collection – Christmas catalogs, ads, Garbage Pail stickers, and Disney stuff
30. Illustrations – Mainly advertisements, all separated by subject
31. American Ephemera
32. Art of the Luggage Label
33. Al Q’s Collections – A lot of radio and music related ads, illustrations, and graphics. Also some postcards, valentines, and magazines

Please point to your favorites as well. I am aware that there is tons of ephemera collections outside of Flickr as well; I’ll be pointing to some of them in the near future.

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