Tag: Magazines

Describing and Imaging Ephemera

A brief look at some of my recent work at James and Sons, including photos, and a regular photo gallery.

One of the things I have been doing recently at James and Sons is describing an imaging a large collection of old newspapers and magazines. This post looks at that process.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

The condition has to be assessed – even if the item is very old one cannot expect imperfections to be overlooked. In the oldest stuff (1850s-1870s in this context) there are rarely any adverts, so it is purely about general content. From the tail-end of the Victorian era onwards ads play a much bigger role, and while genuinely interesting content should be noted it is often the ads that are the main selling point. Once the descriptions have been typed in the image gallery then has to back them up. I have some sample images to show to end this section.

We start with three full page ads from different lots.
With this one there were few ads because it was wartime, but there was an abundance of very interesting general content, themed on looking to the future.
A full page ad from another lot.
This item had some incredible advertisements.
The 1962 Chevrolet got not just an advert, but a multipage advertising feature – one full page and two double page spreads.
There were three double page spreads advertising Ford products in various parts of the magazine.
This was a double page plus a mini booklet.
The feature article was beautifully presented.
This was just the start of a superb historical feature.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I end with one of my regular galleries…

Not a perfect V – the two birds on the bottom left are out of true – but not that far off.
This was hovering high overhead as I headed on to the footpath along the east bank of the Great Ouse on my way home from today’s WNAG committee meeting.