Friday, May 31, 2019

1980 newspaper headline that would give Marie Kondo hives


That's the headline on a newspaper article that appears on Page D-4 of the January 6, 1980, edition of The Santa Fe New Mexican. The article, written by John Arnold, profiles ephemera collector and seller David Margolis.

Here are some fun excerpts:

  • "Margolis said ephemera is 'printed material that was never meant to be saved. It was the throwaway of the day; not books or photographs, but things no one intended to last very long.'"
  • "Margolis, who with wife Jean Moss opened Margolis and Moss Dec. 5, 1979, sells and collects ephemera as well as books, photographs and prints."
  • "'These materials were meant to commemorate something of the period and not for posterity,' he said. 'They are a great way to study the past for people interested in preserving social history.'"
  • "Margolis uses his well-stocked reference library to track down and identify many of the rare and unusual items that come his way. People collect just about anything, he said, and there's usually a reference book on the subject. To illustrate his point, he pulled two fairly thick volumes from the shelf: A book describing every George Washington post card made and a similar one for Abraham Lincoln."
  • "An up and coming collectible item which may increase in value, Margolis said, is post cards. 'In Paris alone, there are 28 shops that sell nothing but post cards,' he said."

David Margolis is in his mid 70s now. I found Margolis and Moss mentioned in a 2013 syllabus for a summer graduate course in ephemera ("Managing Ephemera in Libraries, Archives, and Museums").

And here's a 24-minute video interview that Margolis and Moss did in 2014...

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