Announcement of Update to the American Time Capsule Collection of Broadsides and Printed Ephemera in American Memory

[Danna Bell-Russel]

Good afternoon,

This announcement is being sent to a number of lists. Please accept our
apologies for any duplicate postings.

Update to An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and
Other Printed Ephemera Now Available on American Memory

 In September 1998 An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of
Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera was made available to users of the
American Memory online collections. On November 30, more than seven
thousand additional items from one of the world’s greatest collections
of Americana will be added to An American Time Capsule. The collection
can be found at the following url:
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/> .

 Taken from the Library of Congress’s celebrated Printed Ephemera
Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, the
materials include such highlights as:

The first broadside account of Washington crossing the Delaware River in
1776.

The Gerry-Mander, the 1812 caricature of the salamander-shaped
congressional district created by Federalist polemicists to satirize the
Massachusetts redistricting law spawned by zealous Republican colleagues
of Gov. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts.

A Western anti-slavery handbill, ca. 1850, urging Ohioans to “TURN OUT!”
for an abolition meeting and “Learn Your Duty to Yourselves, the Slave
and God.”

The final issue of the Vicksburg Daily Citizen, July 4, 1863, printed on
wallpaper.

An 1864 campaign souvenir “Lincoln Business Card,” suggesting that in
the spring of 1865 Lincoln would be at home in Illinois splitting rails
and swapping horses rather than residing at the White House.

A reward poster for John Wilkes Booth (1865).

One of the earliest printed references to baseball (1859).

The National Woman Suffrage Association’s “Declaration and Protest of
the Women of the United States,” July 4, 1876, calling for the
impeachment of the nation's rulers.

A poster from the mayor of San Francisco printed following the
earthquake and fire of 1906, warning that law enforcement officials
“have been authorized to KILL any and all persons found engaged in
Looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime.”

Much of the material in this collection was produced as events unfolded,
offering a unique snapshot of America's past that captures the concerns
and conditions of everyday living. Many of the items, never intended to
be kept for future generations, nonetheless provide important historical
information.  For example, an advertisement for paint from 1783 gives
clues about the colors that adorned the homes of the nation's earliest
citizens.  An 1840 poster for a lost dog shows that owners felt as
strongly about their pets 150 years ago as they do today.

American Memory  is a project of the National Digital Library Program of
the Library of Congress. The Web site offers more than five million
historically important items of American history, in collaboration with
other institutions. More than ninety American Memory collections are now
available on topics ranging from presidential papers and photographs
from the Civil War to early films of Thomas Edison and panoramic maps,
to documents from the women's suffrage
and civil rights movements. The Library of Congress website can be found
at <www.loc.gov> .

Please direct any questions to ndlpcoll at loc.gov