The Longevity of ‘Ephemera’

A combination of the practices of the printing industry and social institutions has ensured that some of the nineteenth-century press has survived, inviting us to re-think its status as ephemera, and to examine the history of its survival and the meaning of the formats in which it has been preserved. Most of the century's newspapers and periodicals available today were bound into annual or semi-annual volumes, produced by publishers precisely for the preservation and purchase of single issues in a more durable format by individual and institutional collectors, for private consumption or public circulating libraries. This article questions the assertion that Victorian serials were among the larger category of Victorian ephemera designed to ‘flare and fade in cultural circulation’, and without aesthetic properties. Comparison of bound volumes of serials with individual issues identifies the material culture of both formats in this instance of re-mediation.