The Story Of A Very Special Collection

Reading the interview of Rebecca Martz on the Ephemera blog I realized that the decision to start a collection can be a result of almost anything.

I have been collecting since 1991. One day I was putting recently purchased bananas into our fruit bowl, which still had a couple of bananas in it. I noticed that the Dole labels that at first glance were the same..some were not. One of them said Guatemala and one said Honduras. That is when I first started looking more carefully at banana labels. In December of that same year, Chiquita put out a label that said, “The Perfect Stocking Stuffer”. That amused me, and that became the first label that I kept with the idea of keeping more. I started by sticking any different banana label that I encountered onto a sheet of plastic. I thought I was the only person in the world who collected banana labels. I have come to think of them as little works of art–made for throwing away. And isn’t that what ephemera is? They have been used as little billboards to champion a cause or to commemorate or person or place. They are used to advertise TV or movies. They have even been used to make a political protest.

When people realize that simple everyday items are actually telling a story they are forced to give them a second look, this second look can lead to collecting, researching or interpreting the story in one way or another.

It is only on very rare occasions that people collect things, other than for financial purposes, unless they are at least partially involved in telling the story of the culture, society, art, history and people.

In a way it is probably our need to feel and be connected with other people and times and touch them in someway that leads to the creation of many collections.