History Store Intro

Historystore has one of the UK’s largest archives of commercial ephemera for sale with some 20,000 documents available for purchase individually.  But exactly what is ephemera and why does it matter?

Ephemera can be described as the transient documents of everyday life. So your parking ticket and your junk mail are all ephemeral and most are binned immediately.

At Historystore we specialize in the documentation of the Industrial Revolution – the invoices, trade cards and price lists.  Many of these bear engravings of factories, machinery, workmen and products which, in the days before photography, are the only surviving images demonstrating the transition to an industrial society.  Then, as now, most of these documents were destroyed once their purpose had been served.

At the age of six I was given a stamp album.  Collecting stamps can be quite an introspective hobby and, if taken seriously, an extremely expensive pastime.  But the purpose of a postage stamp is to send a message or a consignment to someone else and the reason for writing is the aspect which fascinated me as an historian.

Any original document which combines printing and handwriting is likely to be unique, so you have in your hands an eye-witness account dating back several centuries. As commercial documents, very few landed up in institutional hands and the vast majority of our stock cannot be repeated and may be the only example still surviving.

Over the coming months we will be adding new items to our website regularly and telling you about the stories that surround so many. Enjoy!