Selected Topics

Departments

Search Special Collections

Guest Resources

About Us

Contact Us

The background design is "Fruit," (also know as "Pomegranate") a William Morris wallpaper design from 1866. Morris founded Kelmscott Press in 1891 to publish his designs and promote his design philosophy. Special Collections preserves a Kelmscott Press collection.

* ArchivesUSA is available only to the Tulane community.

o Disclaimer

Search the Louisiana Collection Vertical Files by entering keywords in the box below. Enclose phrases in parentheses; e.g. "New Orleans" will only retrieve entries where new is followed by orleans. Without enclosed quotes, you will retrieve every entry with the word new OR the word orleans. To find every entry that begins with the same letters, follow the letters with an asterisk; e.g. "archiv*" will retrieve every entry with a word that begins with "archiv:" archival, archive, archived, archives, archivist, etc.

Campaign card for Martha Gilmore Robinson's race for New Orleans City Council, 1954. The "1" refers to her position on the ballot. Actual size 4.5 x 7.75. This campaign card is an example of the kind of information researchers can glean from ephemera. From this one card, you learn that New Orleans used voting machines as early as 1954 and that Robinson was running for a city-wide at-large seat. Photographs are also very important in campaign literature. From this image you can learn her race, sex, an approximation of her age, and possibly a sense of her social status. Campaign flyers will also often include the candidate's party, party faction, platform, and resume.

Flyer for Victor's Cafe, n.d. Note the "Whole Fried Chicken Loaf," which is a sandwich made out of an entire fried chicken. In the 1880’s, Victor Valentinien opened a grocery store on the corner of  Toulouse and Chartres and it remained a grocery store with a café until 1962.

We need your help. Our ephemera collection is a rare and significant resource for preserving and studying all aspects of Louisiana life and culture. To maintain the collection, we rely on individuals willing to donate brochures, menus, programs, tickets, invitations, and campaign materials. If you have a box or drawer of Louisiana brochures or menus that you have picked up over the years, we would appreciate your donating them to us. If you go to a restaurant, please ask for a menu and save it for us. If you receive campaign literature in the mail, please set it aside for us.  To donate Louisiana ephemera or to discuss other ways you can help us preserve Louisiana's unique heritage, please contact: Wilbur E. Meneray Assistant Dean of Libraries for Special Collections Special Collections, Jones Hall Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Tulane University New Orleans LA 70118 ph: 504-865-5685 fx: 504-865-5761 meneray@tulane.edu

What are vertical files?

The Louisiana Collection, a research library within Tulane University's Special Collections Division, preserves an extensive collection of pamphlets, brochures, flyers, posters, menus, programs, sample ballots, invitations, campaign cards, and other small printed items about Louisiana. Such small publications are called "ephemera" because they are often meant to be read and thrown away, and thus have a short, or "ephemeral," lifespan. An ephemera collection is commonly called "vertical files" because the items are often stored in upright filing cabinets.

The Louisiana Collection’s Kenneth Owen has organized and indexed the collection, which includes more than 50,000 small printed items from the early nineteenth-century to the present. In celebration of this massive, several years-long project, Special Collections is pleased to announce an online index to the Louisiana Collection Vertical Files.

The vertical file collection preserves flyers and brochures from more than 8,000 Louisiana groups, organizations, businesses, and associations, including:

• Restaurants and nightclubs

• Heritage and preservation societies

• LGBT businesses and organizations

• Horticultural societies and garden clubs

• Social welfare and charitable organizations

• Synagogues, churches, and religious groups

• Theaters, cabarets, and performing arts clubs

• Neighborhood and community organizations

• Social, ethnic, and fraternal organizations

• Art societies, galleries, fairs, and auctions

• Hurricane Katrina recovery organizations

• Environmental and conservation groups

• Business and civic affairs societies

Flyers, brochures, and handouts are often the only sources for a surprising wealth of information:

• An event flyer can record the organizers, date, location, purpose, special guests, and sponsors.
  
  

• A brochure can preserve a society’s mission, goals, projects, officers, and board members.
  
  

• A political handout can reveal a candidate’s name, race, sex, age, party, party faction, platform, resume, business, offices held, endorsements, and a candidate’s image.

Three areas of special strength for the collection are:

• New Orleans art gallery flyers from 1913 onward.
  
  

• Louisiana political ephemera from 1845 onward.
  
  

• New Orleans theater flyers from 1835 onward.

You can search the index using the search box above. Simply type your search terms or keywords into the box.

• Individual words will retrieve every index entry containing each word. For example, a search for
  red box will retrieve every index entry with the
  word "red" OR the word "box."
  
  
• To search for a phrase, enclose it in quotes. For example, "red box" will bring up only index entries with the phrase red box, (that is, where red is
  immediately followed by box) instead of every file with the word red OR the word box.
  
  
• To find every entry that begins with the same letters, follow the letters with an asterisk (*); e.g. "reli*" will retrieve every entry with a word that begins with "reli:" reliable, relief, religion, relinquish, reliquary, relish, etc.

Your search results will identify file folder titles as listed in the index. To see the folders containing the original items, please bring your print-out to Room 202 of Jones Hall, where the collection is preserved. An attendant will bring the file folders to you.

No materials may be checked out or removed from the room. Also, because of the age and fragility of many items, photocopying may be limited. Our guidelines for using  rare or fragile holdings and our photocopy and photograph policies are available here.

ephemeral, a. (n.)

A. adj.
1. a. Of diseases: Beginning and ending in a day. b. Of insects, flowers, etc.: Existing for one day only, or for a very few days.
2. a. In more extended application: That is in existence, power, favour, popularity, etc. for a short time only; short-lived; transitory.

 

ephemera, noun

ephem·era
Inflected Form(s): plural ephemera also ephem·er·ae  or ephemeras
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek ephēmera, neuter plural of ephēmeros
Date:  1650
1: something of no lasting significance —usually used in plural
2: ephemera plural :  paper items (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles

 

Friday, February 22, 2008 04:57 PM
We welcome your comments and suggestions.