Ephemera is an often-overlooked area of preservation (NSFW)

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

 Here is an old post from one of my blogs. It is a direct copy and paste, so it is kinda rough. I wrote it many years ago. I was clued into saving ephemera around 2012 from a curator of a special collection library that brought it to my attention. Moviemaking especially needs to preserve related ephemera before, during and after production. 

 

Just a note...I removed one photo from the original post of a giant group of vintage homosexual explicit photos I was laying out on the floor for organizing one of my artists books. And for some reason a few of the photo's proportions are distorted after cutting and pasting.

http://www.ephemerasociety.org/def.htm

Working up the maquette for Bikers’ Mardi Gras artist’s  book.

 

When I am speaking of ephemera, I am referring to the ancillary items that pertain to the production of art as it relates to the artist. You can collect ephemera that has no relation to the artist, but that is not what this post is about.

Assembly line for De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Red Light District artist’s book.

Some collectors may define artist’s ephemera more strictly, as having to display something of the art that the artist is known for.

https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2015/07/01/extra-art-artists-ephemera-in-the-library/

Jackson Pollack’s address book

If the artist becomes important, almost everything the artist comes into contact with in their daily life will have importance to the archive managing their legacy.

Daybooks / Calendars

Videos

Films

Bills

Notes

Maquettes

Prototypes

Rough Drafts

Doodles

Work Prints

Correspondence

Loan Papers

Emails

Proposals

Contracts

Deed of Sale or Deed of Gifts

Equipment

Lab / Technical Notes

Diaries / Journals

Travel plans

Maps

Airlines Tickets

Hotel bills

Passports

The milestones that the artist crosses should be of special import for preservation. For instance, when Robert Frank was applying for a Guggenheim for his Americans project, he had the foresight to keep his rough draft for the application proposal.

Trials, tribulation and failures must be preserved just as well as success. When W. Eugene Smith could not pay his bills he would pawn his camera gear to get by. I read when he died he only had $18 in the bank. Many artists make great sacrifices in order to dedicate themselves fully to their art…make sure it is documented!

Pawn ticket for camera equipment W. Eugene Smith

Smith’s famous ‘Jazz Loft’

W. Eugene Smith

Now, it may be hard to predict how things will turn out for the artist. Sometimes fame and glory only come after the death of an artist. If you have the room and finances, the best thing to do is to ‘act as if’ and try to preserve a legacy the best your space and budget will allow for.

(Removed for this post due to explicit homosexual content.)

Working up the layout for Engaging the Enemy Frigate artist’s book.

One of the easiest methods for basic ephemera preservation is to get a letter size archival drop front box and throw things into it as you would a time capsule.

                                                                                                                     Internet Photo

If you are short of space and $ then all is not lost. You can preserve your ephemera archive digitally or even make an artist’s book composed only of ephemera. In any case, it is always good to have both digital as well as physical preservation going  for you.

Nick Cave’s notebook

When I finished up my project The Americans…60 years after Frank I saved the map that showed my travel plans for a mid-America portion. Well, it got lost. But, during the trip I took a photo of it and the digital copy survived to tell the story.

Map of mid-America route for The Americans…60 years after Frank artist’s book.

Through the years, from a combination of  many geographic moves, storage units, natural disasters and carelessness I have lost a good portion of my archives and photography. In 2001 a flood in Ohio destroyed the bulk of my photography from the 1980’s and 1990’s. I also lost all my early ephemera as well. I was all analog back then and had not made the move to digital. If I had digital copies of it off-site, that portion of my body of work would have survived.

The proverbial moral to the story…have backups…lots of them!

The intro written by Jack Kerouac for The Americans by Robert Frank.

When it comes to ephemera that is art based, many times I will mark it to distinguish it from my first quality work.

I learned the hard way that this needed to be done. When placing the Encyclopedia of  Photographic and Fine Art Ink Jet Printing Media I had sent out a 30 page sample to an institution that requested one for their acquisition committee to vote on acquiring. The sample book was just a mish-mash of pages from some of the 12 volume set. I had sent a cover letter with the book explaining it was not a true copy of any of the volumes, but the letter seemed to have gotten lost and the book survived…in their library as a true copy of the Encyclopedia!

From that and a few other bad experiences, I  learned I had to stamp material that is not representational of my first quality work so that there are no confusion down the road. I don’t mind putting art ephemera out there, as long as it is clear as to what the material actually is. Someday we will all be dead, so good to make it clear what our original intent was when no one is around to remember or dispute the critics.

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Published by danielteolijr

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Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

Edited November 28, 2025 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.