Ephemera Alley

A Photo Of The New Schrader House Hotel Bad Axe, Michigan Early 1900s
Built in 1882, the Schrader House hotel was owned and operated by German immigrant Charles E. Schrader. Not long after this photo was taken, the property was sold and renamed the East End Hotel. The hotel closed in 1962, and the building was sold in 1979.  It reopened as a pizza parlor, then was demolished in 1987.   Read more...
Program For The Semaine Artistique Allemande à Paris German Artistic Week in Paris September 1937.
An original program for the Semaine Artistique Allemande à Paris (German Artistic Week in Paris), held from September 3–12, 1937. Read more...
1922 Flamingo Polo Club Program Miami Beach Florida
I purchased a large collection of ephemera from the Kussrow family estate. Originally from Michigan, Van Carl Kussrow was a businessman with ties to Miami and Detroit. In 1927, he co-founded Camp Pinnacle in Hendersonville, North Carolina.  Read more...
Weird Deaths: Charley Cardell 1915
12-year-old Charley Cardell died from suffocation while playing in a cotton house. For those who are unfamiliar with cotton houses, it's exactly what it sounds like: a storage shed for the cotton crop. The big, fluffy bales were very inviting to children. Unfortunately, it was a dangerous place to play. If the bales collapsed, a child could be trapped and asphyxiated by fibers or lack of oxygen. Read more...
1947: So You Want The Big T.V
In 1947, this cutting-edge television set would cost you $795.00. That's a little over 12,000 in today's dollars.  The average Joe/Jane's weekly paycheck? 47.00. Read more...
1950s Model And Beauty Queen Yvonne Mullings New York City
Miss Mullings became Yvonne Willis after she married former Solitaires member turned music business executive/manager Winston “Buzz” Willis. Also a talented singer,she appeared in the 1956 film Rockin' The Blues and on several episodes of the Jack Paar show. Read more...
Sledding In Salt Lake City Utah 1931
The young boy pulling his sister in this photo (Jack Nichols Eichers) was 104 when he passed away last month.  During the time between these photos, Jack married his wife Johanna, served his country during World War 2, had two sons, operated his own business, retired, then came out of retirement and worked for another 35 years. When he stepped down from Capital Industries, he was 102 years old.  Read more...
St.Paul Minnesota 1963: Murder of Carol Ann Thompson
March 6th, 1963, started as an ordinary morning for Carol Ann Thompson. She hustled the family off to their day, then went upstairs and drew her daily bath, not knowing that a killer was lurking in the basement. His original instructions were to strike Carol in the back of the head, then carry her up the stairs and drown her in the bathtub. But after realizing the basement stairs squeaked, he decided to wait until she went up herself, then followed behind.  It did not go as planned. After striking... Read more...
The Women Behind The Old Gold: 1936 New York City
  In this 1936 ad, members of the New York 'Smart Set" enjoy an Old Gold after lunch. But who were they? Mrs. Wolcott C.W.Andrews was originally Eulalie Ashmore. Wolcott died in the 1949 Eastern Airlines 557 crash. Eulalie went on to marry two more times before dying in 1990. They had one daughter, also named Eulalie, who was an Associate Curator at the National Museum Of The American Indian. Mrs. Jorge Andre Jr was the former Jane Alred. She and George would divorce in 1939.Jane married twice more, in... Read more...
Axe Murder 1943 Washington DC
After an argument over the attentions of Miss Otorius L Jordan, 42-year-old Edgar Ramsey crept up to the bed of his roommate, Roscoe Meeks, and killed him with an axe. He then walked to a police patrol box and told them, "Come and get me. I killed a man".  Ramsey was convicted of manslaughter and given a sentence of three to nine years. The Watergate Hotel now occupies the spot where their shack formerly stood.   Read more...
The D.C.Strangler Murder Map 1941
The D.C.Strangler Murder Map 1941
The Washington Afro-American newspaper published this photographic "murder map" that shows the killing locations of Jarvis Theodore Roosevelt Catoe, better known as the D.C. Strangler.   Catoe murdered at least eight... Read more...
Exploring Vintage Slides from 1960s North Carolina Estate Sale
I picked up these wonderful slides at an estate sale in Hendersonville,North Carolina. Other than their names (Eleanor and Stephen Gray), a previous residence in New York, and Stephen working with electronics in the Navy ,I can't find much information about the family. The couple wasn't much for throwing things away: many of the items shown in the slides were still in the house, including her clothing. These slides are from the mid-late 1960s. Included are images of a family Christmas, plus vacations out west and to Florida. Read more...