Group of 100 pieces of American ephemera, 1830-1900.
In order to mark the Society’s 200th birthday, AAS member and collector Lisa Baskin took the unique approach of donating 100 pieces of American ephemera, including the examples shown here. The collection includes labels, trade cards, and tickets, and features a variety of printing styles, including letter press, lithography and wood engraving. Boat makers, dentists, and sellers of pickles, books, and safes are all represented. A set of trade cards for Fulton Street fish mongers is perhaps the most exciting, as on their versos the cards were used by a young boy to keep a diary in November and December of 1876. He records lighting the stove in school, delivering fish, and shopping at a local store for supplies, as well as breaking a window during a snow ball fight! Bicentennial gift of Lisa Baskin.
