Chapter 419 Useful References About Ephemera

I wrote about an interesting ephemera find last week, an 1890s board game called The Game of Round the World With Nellie Bly. I promised to share with you the way I planned to research whether this game is (one of) the earliest to be based on an American woman. After a search for references about American board games, I ordered and am waiting to receive, Margaret Hofer’s The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games. If it can’t answer my question, it’s quite likely that it will have a list of additional resources for me to check to see who can answer my question.

I’m also interested in learning more about American trade catalogues. Two catalogues of ephemera from Rulon-Miller Books got me interested. I learn a lot about books from other booksellers’ catalogues, and I expect the same will be true for ephemera. Here are the links to the two ephemera-based catalogues:

American Pamphlets and Trade Catalogues
Travel Guides and Ephemera

And here’s the list of the books I either have or have ordered in the past few days to learn more about ephemera. It’s by no means an extensive list, just a place to start:
Rickards, Maurice. Encyclopedia of Ephemera
Romaine, Lawrence B. Guide to American Trade Catalogs, 1744-1900
Fredgant, Don American Trade Catalog Reference Book
Hofer, Margaret. The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games

There are a few online resources for learning about ephemera that look as though they may also be useful:

Epehemera Society of America

Their bibliography of ephemera is quite extensive.

An ephemera blog

Here’s a little bit of ephemera I bought at the recent Gold Rush Book Fair. It will fit in nicely with my collection of books by or about American women, which has a tiny section on suffrage. This small pamphlet has a rather controversial title:

And even more startling content (or lack thereof):

The back cover explains all:

Really! 😉

The look of the small pamphlet reminded me of this book, which presents the other point of view, that women should vote and the responsibilities incumbent upon those who did vote:

My catalogue description for this book:
Beatty, Bessie. A POLITICAL PRIMER FOR THE NEW VOTER Introduction by William Kent. San Francisco: Whitaker & Ray Wiggin Co. , 1912. 12mo. 76pp. Tan paper over boards. First edition. Half-title reads, “Compliments of William Kent” (who wrote the introduction). California granted women the vote in 1911, a full decade before the rest of the country. Unusual in its focus, the book is written to explain to the new female voter what is meant by the terms citizenship, elections, government, and the legal status of women. Beatty was a reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin, and later visited Russia with John Reed. In 1919, she published a book on the Russian Revolution called The Red Heart of Russia. Kent was a California Congressman credited with saving what is now called Muir Woods in San Francisco. Minor foxing to endpapers. Near fine.

I just like how the ephemera and the book complement (or perhaps negate?) each other. Do you have any good resources or references for learning about ephemera? If so, share them in the Comments Box below.

See you in the stacks!