While looking through a big box of ephemera can bring a lot of ideas and inspiration, finding a specific piece can be a nightmare if you’re not organized. So, we want to do more than collect, find and make ephemera. We want to be able to find what we need as well.
Steps
1. Safety.
Before you start, you need to think about the items themselves. Storing paper ephemera in a wet basement can destroy it. Likewise, storing it near a heat source is a bad idea. Other people can also be a detriment to your ephemera collection. Seriously think about the safety of your ephemera before you start.
TRUE STORY:
When I was a kid, we were pretty poor. I had a matchbook collection I started of the places we’d go. A lot of it was local restaurants my grandmother would take me to or places we’d go on our yearly vacation. I moved in with my husband and didn’t think anything of it because I had them all in a box and put it a specific location. I went to get my box a few years later and found only a handful of matchbooks left. I was very upset that they were gone. I got more upset when I found out my husband had used them when he couldn’t find a lighter. He saw nothing wrong with using them. I hadn’t told him it was a collection I had started as a teenager. We both felt bad, but at that point, the collection was gone.
2. Archival.
Most current paper storage systems are acid-free. Be sure to verify this before putting your precious collection into any folder, envelope, box, etc.
3. Purge.
Sometimes your tastes will change. You may find a collection you started no longer excites you and the possibility of making a few dollars from selling it makes more sense. Set up a schedule or process for cleaning out items that you no longer want. This might be getting rid of physical items once you digitize them or just selling a few boxes to make space for new items.
Physical Ephemera
4. Sort.
You can sort your ephemera by what it is, like keeping all matchbooks together. You can sort by color. You can sort by theme. If you have multiples of the same piece, you can sort it multiple different ways. Look at your ephemera collection of physical items. What makes the most sense to you? How would you go about finding a specific piece? That will tell you where you should file it.
NOTE: Just because you think one way now doesn’t mean it might not change in the future. Be flexible with your sort.
5. Page.
Using page protectors in a three-ring binder keeps your items neat and tidy. It also makes it easy to reassemble the pages within the binder or see into the page protector to see what is in it. You don’t have to stick to a full page protector. They are available with pockets the size of trading cards, slide mounts, business cards and more. This solution is less about sorting by what’s in the image and more about the size. Can you make this solution work?
6. Envelopes.
Getting a bunch of large envelopes means you can place a lot of flat items into each. You can label the outside of the envelope with what is inside. Photographs, sheet music and book pages are great things to put into envelopes. It will keep them flat. When you want to work on a project, just grab an envelope. Will this work for you?
7. Folders.
You may choose a filing cabinet and folders. This is great for both flat and dimensional items as you can get folders in different thicknesses as well as having them sealed on three sides so items don’t fall out. This works for larger collections as you have an entire cabinet to fill. Is this option the best for you?
8. Boxes.
You can purchase plastic shoe boxes almost anywhere. This isn’t the only plastic box storage possibility. If you have a lot of dimensional items in your ephemera collection, you might choose to use boxes. Putting up shelves specifically for your boxes keeps everything together and accessible. Just be sure to label the boxes clearly.
9. Combination.
With physical items, you’ll probably find a combination of these methods works best. Flat items in page protectors or envelopes. Three-dimensional items in folders or boxes. Is a combination of the above methods better for you?
10. Original.
Always keep your originals in the best condition possible. Digitize or copy it, do not cut up your original. Believe me, you’ll hate yourself. You can make multiple copies and keep it with the original . . . just stick with archival paper. You can put your copies with the originals to make them easier to find.
Digital Ephemera
11. Digitize.
Digitizing your physical items can make your physical storage solution less important as you can easily make multiple copies and sort them in a variety of ways. You might take one piece and sort it into “yellow,” “flowers,” and “seed packs” for a package from sunflower seeds. Would organizing your ephemera this way be a more usable system for you?
12. Filename.
You can put a lot of information in a filename. Think carefully before you start. You might include items like color, type of piece, size, where a physical item is located, year it was digitized, where you got it, etc. This may seem like a lot of work, but in a year when you have over 1,000 pieces to track, it will be much worse than starting it now. Examine your ephemera. What information do you want to put into a filename to find items later?
13. Print.
Some people worry about digital files and make prints of their digital ephemera. If you choose to do this, look back at the ways you can store physical ephemera.
14. Contact.
Contact sheets allow you to see everything in a folder at a glance. This will save you a lot of time when you have a large digital collection. See the supplement listed below to see a contact sheet for the images for the three ephemera sheet examples from the Enrichment Project badge program “Ephemera Maker.”
15. Backups.
Be sure you always create one (or more ) backups of your digital data. You don’t want to lose a hard drive and realize you have lost every piece of ephemera you collected over five years. Create a schedule so you continue to backup your data to make sure you do it.
Badge and Supplement Files
Member Level
- EP_Badge List_EphemeraO_larajla — list of badge items
- EP_Badge Set_EphemeraO_larajla — list of badge set and related badges
- EP_Supp_List_EphemeraO_larajla — list of supplements for the badge
- SUPP_BPG_EphemeraO_2in_12up_larajla — generic badge printable
- SUPP_EphemeraO_Journal_larajla — badge journal
- SUPP_EphemeraO_Planner_larajla — badge planner
Supplement Fun
- SUPP_List Fun_CS_Ephemera_larajla — Sample ephemera contact sheet
Sites to Explore
- artjournalist.com/how-to-organize-ephemera
- www.scrapbook.com/articles/organizing-memorabilia-ephemera-and-junque
- ephemeracorner.com/2019/02/03/how-to-organize-your-ephemera-collection
- aspirebygrace.com/2019/01/16/how-to-organize-your-ephemera
- theantiquesalmanac.com/caringforephemera.htm
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpcFdA4-nHk
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFzbjfQTEHY
- www.bookthink.com/0120/120beh1.htm
Get the infographic here > larajla blog post
Get the PDFs of the badge program / supplements here