| Title |
The Art of Poultry Farming 1930 |
| Category |
| Catalog, gallery |
| Date |
|
1930 |
| Why It's Interesting |
|
I have acquired many poultry-raising booklets, catalogs, etc. because Ruston, where I live, has always been a center for poultry and eggs. During World War II, one of America’s largest egg-drying factories was here, supplying the military with the dried egg that was central to rations both for soldiers in the field and liberated civilians who had to be fed. Many companies serving poultry farmers issued gorgeous catalogs and bookets, but were were as impressive or dramatic aesthetically s those of Petersime, of Gettysburg, OH. This firm continued to use striking imagery even after World War II, by which time most poultry ephemera had become rather monochromatic. Petersime material is more common than other vendors’ because someone found their old inventory of publications. They have appeared with some regularity on Ebay over the past two years. This particular catalog only started showing up two weeks ago, and the seller stated frankly that he had only a few of them left–proving that there had indeed been what we call a warehouse find. That a number of these catalogs survive does not detract from the strength of the imagery used here and on Petersime’s other publications. Moreover, this is one of the most comprehensive and informative guides to raising chickens I have encountered. |
This website seeks to encourage researchers and collectors to discover and study obscure ephemera that document American culture and life. Worldcat reveals that most of the items that I post cannot be found in more than a few research libraries–often none at all. Alternately, research libraries do not bother to catalog ephemeral publications like these. I believe, however, that because these were distributed free, or at nominal cost, to consumers, they were the publications most likely to make their way into homes and be read by large numbers of Americans.
I acquire pre-1960 examples of the kinds of publications that prove so useful when scholars study 19th-Century America. The limited competition that I encounter for them suggests that libraries, which could easily outbid me, have little interest in post-Civil War and 20th-century ephemeral publications in general.
I try to anticipate what materials future historians will find useful. Being an historian first and a collector second, I organized this website to encourage others to do this too—even if this means new competition for me. I am aware that I could be wrong in prizing particular ephemera or even whole classes of ephemera. I may even be wrong to encourage scholars to study obscure ephemeral publications; these may be obscure for good reason.
Ephemerastudies.org will permit me to share with others the information and imagery that I am acquiring, and to benefit from the knowledge, intelligence and experience of other scholars and collectors. Please contact me with your impressions of the site.