| Forgotten Moments Preserved in Paper |
| When I was in college I worked in the Shipping and Receiving Department of the university's bookstore. One of our main responsibilities before the beginning of each new semester was to “clean” all the used textbooks that were returned or sold back to the bookstore. As we flipped through the pages checking for tears or water damage, we would occasionally come across items left behind in the books. Notes, receipts, brochures, sticky notes, drawings, and—if you were lucky—love letters. (The Oakland Public Library maintains an online collection of similar items that's worth checking out!) Whenever we found something good we would stick it to a column that was in the middle of the room. Over the years, the column was filled with these found items: drawings, notes, tickets, letters, stickers and more. In a way, that column became a monument to the students in a way that no statue ever could. Each item told a small story about someone, it represented an authentic, everyday moment in that person's life. The same principle applies to our ancestors' paper ephemera, especially our late 19th- and 20th-century ancestors. New printing technologies made paper products cheap, which lead to an abundance of things like receipts, tickets, advertisements, brochures, maps and more. While records like marriage certificates and immigration documents tell us about the most momentous, dramatic moments in our ancestors' lives, these small, forgotten treasures tell the story of the 99% of time in between. This newsletter will help you find, preserve and use these items to learn more about your ancestors' everyday lives. |
