For this very special History Pub presentation, McMenamins is partnering with the Ephemera Society of America and the Oregon Historical Society to host a free evening of visual presentations relating to ephemera on Tuesday evening, October 11th, at McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Avenue, Portland, beginning at 7pm (doors at 6pm).

The program is one of the Ephemera Society of America's Mid-Year Gathering events being held in Portland this year, October 10-13. The Ephemera Society is a national non-profit organization formed to cultivate and encourage interest in ephemera and the history identified with it.

Ephemera is usually defined as 1) anything short-lived or transitory, and/or 2) items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed, originally intended for short-term usefulness or popularity. These transient documents of everyday life - saved by chance or design - now offer a rich field of study and enjoyment.

The 7pm public program at McMenamins Kennedy School theater features four visual presentations about different aspects of ephemera. Nearly every imaginable subject and event from the last 200+ years has generated ephemera of one sort or another, so the possibilities for gathering material are almost endless. The evening program provides a brief glimpse into several of those collecting areas and demonstrates what can be learned from researching ephemera.

The four presenters, all from Oregon, are:

Loren Pankratz, a retired psychologist who has collected, written, and lectured on a variety of topics, including deception, slight-of-hand, self-deception, con games, fraud, mesmerism, ghosts, spiritualism, faith healing, self-surgery, plagues, magic, and medical quackery. Loren will show and talk about some of the ephemera relating to the broad topic of deception.

Elisabeth Burdon, proprietor of a Portland rare book and ephemera business, Oldimprints.com, will speak about the 19th century illustrated West Shore Magazine and its publisher, L. Samuels of Portland. Samuels also published souvenir booklets illustrating Portland and the Pacific Northwest. Elisabeth is a long-time member of the Ephemera Society.

Dale Forster, also an Ephemera Society member, is one of the foremost collectors of regional postal history. Dale is the author of many articles on public and private mail delivery and express companies in the Northwest and is a frequent presenter at conferences. His book, Oregon Express Companies (Raven Press, 1985), is still the go-to research reference on the subject.

Tim Hills, McMenamins' long-time historian, will talk about the ephemera generated by this home-grown company. McMenamins is a great example of a modern business that creates graphic ephemera corporate archives, with its many posters for concerts and events at multiple venues, as well as promotional brochures, menus, and labels for beer, cider, spirits, wine, packaged food, and more. All of this will help researchers in the future get a vivid picture of ephemera being created today.