Why did collectors seek out posters and collect ephemera during the
late-nineteenth and the twentieth centuries? How have such materials
been integrated into institutional collections today? What inspired
collectors to build significant holdings of works from cultures other
than their own? And what are the issues facing curators and collectors
of digital ephemera today?
These are among the questions tackled in this volume-the first to
examine the practices of collecting prints, posters, and ephemera during
the modern and contemporary periods. A wide range of case studies
feature collections of printed materials from the United States, Latin
America, France, Germany, Great Britain, China, Japan, Russia, Iran, and
Cuba. Fourteen essays and one roundtable discussion, all specially
commissioned from art historians, curators, and collectors for this
volume, explore key issues such as the roles of class, politics, and
gender, and address historical contexts, social roles, value, and
national and transnational aspects of collecting practices. The global
scope highlights cross-cultural connections and contributes to a new
understanding of the place of prints, posters and ephemera within an
increasingly international art world.
