Ephemera Explored: Over 40,000 New Images Give Glimpses into 19th-Century American Life

Have you ever wanted to catch a ride on the Flying Dutchman? Or wondered what people ate at Faneuil Hall to celebrate the 4th of July? Would you like to attend a nineteenth-century séance? Earn ten cents from your teacher? Or shop for a tombstone?

You can learn about all those activities (and more) from the collections at the American Antiquarian Society – and now, you can view images of ephemera related to these topics online, for free! With the completion of a recent project, more than 40,000 new images of ephemera were linked to records in the AAS online catalog. Read more about the project below!

Historical material is considered ephemera if it was intended to be discarded after a specific use. This includes objects such as menus, concert programs, broadsides, photographs, and trade cards. 

When I started in the role of Digital Librarian in June 2024, Vice President for Collections and Curator of Graphic Arts Lauren Hewes knew just the thing for me to tackle first. A backlog of approximately 43,000 unorganized and unprocessed scans needed to be checked for quality and arranged to match up with the scanned item’s catalog record. These scans were captured in 2005 and 2006 as part of a larger commercial project, and AAS received copies of the scans.

Though you can’t hold a digital file in your hand, I approached the project just as I would a basic archival accessioning and arrangement project for physical materials. Imagine you’re an archivist and your institution has received a giant box of “stuff” from a donor. The “stuff” in the box is comprised of loose files, all in different physical formats, and terribly unorganized. Looking at it, you might not know where to begin! But to make the materials available to users in your archive, you have to organize the files. With a (virtual) pile of files in front of me, I began sorting through them all to identify which files belonged where.

I started to inventory and organize the scans in late August 2024. I worked through the “pile” by sorting out groupings based on the type of material captured in the scan – for example, broadsides, Civil War envelopes, and photographs were all sorted separately. I finished the project in early November.

In total, I uploaded 40,394 new scans to GIGI, the Society’s digital image repository. With the help of Information Systems Librarian Kathleen Haley, new links to digital surrogates were added to 29,015 individual records in the General Library Catalog, making these files instantly available and downloadable, for free.  

The objects scanned span a huge variety of materials in the AAS graphic arts collection, including broadsides, ballads, rewards of merit, and myriad other types of ephemera. These pieces give us a fascinating glimpse into the details of life in the nineteenth century across the country.  

Some groupings of scans were small, and some were very large – the largest group was the broadsides, with 17,442 images added to 12,307 records. As I went through, I kept track of the number of titles and number of scans for each collection. See the chart below to learn which collections were added to, and for the corresponding numbers of newly accessible images!

To view the images, click on “View Records” in the table below. This will take you to the online catalog. Select a record by clicking on its title. Then, click the “Scanned image available here” link on the right-hand side of the catalog record display to see the freely available image(s) for that title.

Collection	Number of Titles	Number of Scans	Catalog Records
Advertisements	708	1,289	View Records
Ballads	2,470	2,672	View Records
Billheads	695	715	View Records
Boston Museum	370	502	View Records
Broadsides	12,307	17,442	View Records
Cartes de Visite	6	10	View Records
Charts	12	12	View Records
Civil War Envelopes	2,532	2,708	View Records
Concert Programs	444	868	View Records
Invitations	714	830	View Records
Lottery Advertisements	60	94	View Records
Menus	392	752	View Records
Popular Entertainment	195	288	View Records
Rewards of Merit	1,930	2,187	View Records
Ship Cards	358	362	View Records
Stock Certificates	179	265	View Records
Textile Broadsides	87	87	View Records
Theater Programs	683	1,156	View Records
Trade Cards	841	946	View Records
Transportation	113	145	View Records
Worcester Concert Programs	457	878	View Records
Worcester Popular Entertainment	286	460	View Records
Worcester Theater Programs	415	564	View Records
Late Trade Cards
Late Trade Agriculture	98	183	View Records
Late Trade Art	120	190	View Records
Late Trade Chemicals	63	112	View Records
Late Trade Clothing	398	648	View Records
Late Trade Death	10	15	View Records
Late Trade Education	15	25	View Records
Late Trade Electricity	17	27	View Records
Late Trade Entertainment	96	159	View Records
Late Trade Extermination	10	16	View Records
Late Trade Eyewear	23	42	View Records
Late Trade Food	215	395	View Records
Late Trade Footwear	367	651	View Records
Late Trade Horticulture	21	41	View Records
Late Trade Hotels	365	640	View Records
Late Trade Livestock	20	37	View Records
Late Trade Medical	174	329	View Records
Late Trade Merchandise	26	40	View Records
Late Trade Military	14	24	View Records
Late Trade Mills	35	59	View Records
Late Trade Music	121	211	View Records
Late Trade Personal	103	194	View Records
Late Trade Printing	160	205	View Records
Late Trade Publishing	128	210	View Records
Late Trade Religion	4	7	View Records
Late Trade Scales	42	66	View Records
Late Trade Ships	99	192	View Records
Late Trade Soaps	195	346	View Records
Late Trade Travel	59	98	View Records
Total:	29,252	40,394

References:
For more information on some of the types of items included in this post, please visit these pages:

• • • • Billheads: https://www.americanantiquarian.org/billheads
      • Civil War Envelopes: https://www.americanantiquarian.org/civil-war-envelopes
      • Clipper Ship Cards: https://www.americanantiquarian.org/clipper-ship-cards
      • Menus: https://www.americanantiquarian.org/menus