Junk Mail of Yesteryear

I've written about the beauty in advertising cameos before, but what about the glory that is junk mail? I spent many an afternoon wandering through the ephemeral goodies in the Publishers Clearing House packets mailed to my mother's house. Even before that, advertisers knew there was power in mass mailings. Dick Sheaff over at the Ephemera Society has a great article up about the generally addressed mail of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Most of it was sent to the postmaster with instructions to pass it on to the appropriate person. In those days, the postmaster knew everyone and pretty much everything there was to know. Check it out. There are tons of other envelopes in the article. You can also follow the Ephemera Society on Twitter and Instagram.

 

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Comments

[Cynthia]

Very cool. Thanks for posting.

[ScribblingSarah]

Thanks for sharing! The middle one was of special interest to me as I have an ancestor who was disabled at Gettysburg and lived in NY state-he may have got one very like that!