October news from the Local Studies Library.

In our monthly look at what’s been going on in our Local Studies Library, Archives Assistant Lynda Tomkins explains the theme of our latest display.

This month’s History Begins at Home topic is ‘In Print’, a very fitting subject for a local studies library as we don’t just have books, but lots of different printed formats. Newspapers, community/parish newsletters, telephone/trade directories, yellow pages, maps & guides, leaflets, calendars, posters, post cards, engravings, theatre/sport programmes – the list goes on.  

You may have your own collection at home? Let us know – do you have every programme for all of the football matches you’ve seen? Or kept every parish newsletter that comes through the letterbox? Maybe all of those postcards from loved ones as they travel the world?  Many of these treasured items were only designed to be temporary but are often kept as mementos. They are great to dig out from time to time for reminiscing with family and friends, or just for quiet contemplation. From experience they can also be great for those suffering from dementia.

The term used to describe most of these is ephemera, the Oxford English Dictionary meaning is: 

 ephemera 

 noun 

things that are important or used for only a short period of time 

a collection of postcards, tickets, and other ephemera 

Our display bookcase in the computer room has been used this month to showcase some of the different kinds of ephemera that we keep:

Calendars: 

942.51BEL Belper Heritage Calendar 2004

942.51HEA Heanor & District Local History Calendar 2003  

Community Magazines:

Dronfield Eye Issue 167 September 2019 

Maps: 

912.4251 Old Ordnance Survey Map 1896 Whaley Bridge & Bugsworth  

Postcards, cards & notelets:

Floral Artist notelet 

Hathersage greeting card 

Elvaston watercolour 2001 notelet  

Derby watercolour greetings card 

Colour exterior of Chatsworth postcard 

Colour postcard by Crich Tramway Museum 

Black & White postcard of High Tor Matlock 

Black & white 5 views of Matlock postcard 

Programmes: 

914.251 Belper Musical Theatre ‘Oklahoma’ 

Telephone directories:

British Telecom Chesterfield, Worksop & Hope Valley phone book 1988

Alongside Maurice Rickard’s 2010 book Encyclopaedia of Ephemera (769.5 oversize) 

Of course, there is another angle for this topic for which we have plenty of information too and that’s printed fabric. But I think we already had enough ‘material’ to work with. BOOM BOOM!!