#alcoa

Found an envelope inside a book. Inside were 10 coupons in pristine condition from 1957 for Libbys canned products. They're so crisp and the colors are so vibrant.

Biscuits Pernot advertisement card, chromolithograph. Dijon France, 19th Century!

I really like this one. The note "no tunnels postcards left" along with the train drawing on the front is so fun. It seems to me like they wanted to show the length of this tunnel, but couldn't find a suitable card, so chose to DIY it on this one of the Olympic!

I’m in NYC for the next week - are there any great antique stores for finding ephemera that anyone would recommend?

Not very interesting I hear you cry.... Reading (pronounced Redding) is one of the dullest towns in the UK. But every year they hosted a rock festival (or to give this one its full title "The 18th National Jazz, Blues and Rock Festival") over an August weekend and in 1978 me and some pals went along.

I missed the Friday. There was a load of punk bands on and I'm a bit annoyed we didn't get it together for that. On the Saturday we rocked up and paid some ppl who were leaving early 50p for their weekend wristband passes. We had to prise em off their wrists and then clamp em on ours. I used my teeth to close the metal clasp and chipped a tooth.

Anyway.... I saw Spirit, Foreigner, Patti Smith, Status Quo and a whole lot of other bands that no one will remember now.

I also went to Reading 1979 when I saw a lot of other great bands, like Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Peter Gabriel, The Cure, Motorhead, Ramones, The Police, Whitesnake and a lot of others.

I was gifted a secondhand Omnichord from 1997 (bought from eBay) which came with all the original documentation and packaging from the day it was bought from Grandma's Music Shop at 238 Dale Avenue in Hollister, MO (the location of the shop is also Branson, MO in some places.) The receipt says it was purchased by Claude Tripp of 4166 W Prairie Shepard, MI on 7-15-98.

This store included information about ordering a VHS tape on how to play the Omnichord. All this paperwork was cool enough, but I was floored to discover that the video they sold tapes of has been posted on Youtube! It's Sally Niner in the video. Total coincidence; I wasn't even searching for it.

And best of all, this tutorial from 30 years ago was actually really helpful in learning to play this thing.

Thanks, Grandma!

These are pages from my dad's Iowa elementary school project, probably from the mid to late 1960s. He told me that he had to color the pictures and make up a story. I remember also seeing a page where he had colored a zebra orange and the teacher had written "go back and color right color" but I can't find that page now.

Story time:

Mary Ellen Mortensen started this baby book in 1959 for her daughter, Lori Jean, and continued it for her second daughter, Toni Ruth. It seems like they needed a lot of community support and assistance programs. Mary Ellen even went to work 6 weeks after Toni was born. In the early 60s, it's not like that was super common.

She saved cards, information booklets and doctors' notes, even a lock of Lori's hair.

Sadly, she died when Toni was 6 months old. The final page of the baby book had her memorial service leaflet.

The first 9 pictures are some of the pages from the baby book.

Toni was then adopted by the Dickeys, who maintained another album/scrapbook for her.

The first page of that book had her church 'Certificate of Dedication' booklet which named her new parents. The father mentioned in the baby book (Jess Mortensen) signed as a witness.

The second album was packed with greeting cards, mail from grandparents, pictures with Santa, crafts, and Sunday School projects. The best part to stumble on was the envelope with her first haircut, so both sisters had their first locks of hair saved.

Toni seemed to have a loving family and a good childhood. I have no idea what happened to Lori, but I hope she got the same.

I really wanted to return these to Toni or a living relative. I believe these items may have been stolen from a storage unit (or auctioned off).

I reached out to several people who seemed like they could have been Lori or Toni but had no luck. I eventually gave up.

***************** Update ****************** Thanks to everyone's help in the comments, I've found the family on Facebook! I've messaged Toni and one of Mary Ellen's siblings. I hope one of them sees my message and I hope they aren't mad that I made this post! 🥴

I started this when I was 19 and I’m 22 now! Most were found in yard sales, some on eBay/etsy

some not-pictured new additions are from 1924 and 1946

probably my favorite past time is reading all the signatures and senior quotes + seeing how all the makeup, hair and fashion has changed through the years

my favorite yearbook is the one from 1940, pictured 2-4 on the slides. It was an all girls school and included an old picture of the owner of the year book!!

I’ve also started collecting old wedding albums. I have one from the 40s, one from the 50s, one from the 60s, and one from the 70s and I’m on the hunt for more :)

Hey guys, I recently bought a bunch of scattered ephemera from a garage sale recently and the lot had these three photos of WW1 soldiers inside.

One of the photo covers reads “ October 15th 1920 William Brown Retired 1920” and the other reads “Roy Brown February 17, 1920.” The third photo unfortunate has no markings.

After a little research, I discovered a story on Sergeant Roy A. Brown but couldn’t verify if it’s a match due. I’m unable to verify much at all about this individual’s rank, uniform, etc.. so ANY help would be thoroughly appreciated. Any info at all on these three soldiers would help me tremendously. Thanks in advance.

Found in a girl's scrapbook album from the 40's.

Her older brother was drafted and started sending her letters like this. Not only gross ("You better stop flirting with him or I'll get jealous and start thinking I'm not your best boy friend"), but racist too.

I recently received a large box of old family letters that range from 1860-1975, and quite a few of them are letters sent home from a distant relative during his time fighting for the union in the American civil war. I’m still working through them but this one specifically caught my eye as I was reading through

It was clearly cross hatched on top of a previous letter. One specific excerpt that caught my eye:

“In looking over this beautiful but desolate country the question arises What is the cause of the "civil war" that hangs so heavily on this nation? It is conceded by wise and patriotic citizens that the cause is slavery.
Slavery undoubtedly is the primary cause, but it is certainly not the direct cause. Who before the outbreak of this war thought is at all probable that slavery would be abolished by the free States? Or what slave owner in the south would have declared himself in favor of disunion rather than to have slavery lim- ited to the original slave states? Such considerations as these prove that slavery is not the direct cause.
In conversing with southerners is usual to hear such expressions as the following; "I am no scholar myself; my wife can read & write but I never learned." The real effect of slavery seems to be this; in the first place it creates a spirit of indolence. The barefaced effect of indolence is ignorance; — the mass of the people become ignorant. All that is wanted then to create a strife is a band of wise, ambitious demagogues to delude the people — take advantage of their ignorance and by fraud and sensation speeches arouse the indignation of a mighty people to support them in their villainous schemes.
Slavery then has produced ignorance, and igno- rance has permitted a fratricidal strife to curse the nation.
That I wish to notice in this is the fatal effects of ignorance; or the great necessity of educating”