The Ephemera Collection

The very act of conceiving, designing, producing and distributing a printed object ascribes it value and meaning. So the question is: how to unpack what these values and meanings are, and how they interconnect with larger histories, or not? Each artefact must be considered against what is known of its larger cultural context(s) and the history of print culture in general – both globally and locally. For example, ephemera, through the Auckland Central City Library collection, tells us something of the unheralded interests and aspects of daily life; but the collection also retains residue of larger narratives and value systems.

The items of ephemera are not containers of ‘little narratives’ per se, but evidence of them. Accordingly, it is not simply artefacts of themselves that are of interest - so too are personal accounts of how specific items were selected and accumulated; and their production and expedition into the library collection.

Furthermore, the collection is not complete. It contains a slice of all possible material produced at each time frame. Therefore it is not a comprehensive or exclusive representation of Ephemera, assigning a quality of ephemerality to the collection itself. The very notion: collection of ephemera, or, ephemera collection; therefore presents a paradox.

Having noted the above, and being aware of pre-existing hierarchies of cultural information and artefacts, there are observations that can be made regarding particular aspects of the collection that may offer clues to unknown and/or alternative New Zealand histories; as well as a consideration of the function and development of print culture (and design) in relationship to those histories and society in general.

The renewing system

Looking through the postal services folder was most interesting when i came across a series
of postal charges booklets (price lists). They were interesting in considering how the
constant updating of price lead to new editions and design. These objects reinforce
ideas of type in New Zealand Print History as an agent for order, categorization and
administration. Typefaces live forever if they are continued to be used - their system
(the alphabet) will never be outdated. However, the postal pricing list as a document
will change - its is ephemeral. Like the typeface, the postal pricing list is an agent for
order, categorization and administration, but it needs to be ephemeral to maintain
function, system and relevance. Ideas of time, scale and consumption are brought into play. They function as an unprecious
utilitarian object. This system of renewal highlights a nature of ephemera. And raises
questions as to the possible scales of time for objects, hourly, daily, weekly, yearly that could be employed in re-assessing ephemera in a contemporary context.

Grave Robbing Histories

There are two main lines of interest for the content of ephemeral objects; their print values and personal narrative. When looking through the Ephemera collection it became unsettling to consider the personal nature of the histories being uncovered while contemplating the use of them in our research; much like sneakily scourging through someone’s rubbish bin. Although the majority is massed produced and many are collective documents such as concert or circus programmes, there are very personal items such as letters, bills, cards, invitations, certificates that have been collected in preference to an endless amount of other printed culture because of value placed upon by there original owner and then subsequently institutions.

The collected ephemeral is an object of many ideas. It is an entangled object, where by its complex story involves a dense weave of characters, ghosts, and events that is almost impossible to unravel.

The Collection of ephemera from within the lifetime of the collector is a mnemonic interest. It represents a struggle to maintain memories charging the object with the responsibility of their safekeeping. The memories held with in or locked out by the object are connected directly to identity on multiple scales.

‘

Objects as mnemonics are a complex business intertwined with past experiences, current
constructions and orientations towards future aspirations.’[1]

The collection of ephemera from a history that is not your own is an exercise of “Possessive
individualism”. [The individual surrounded by accumulated property and goods resulting in the
making of the cultural self.[2]] Collections have hierarchy of value to make the “good”
collection. Whincup describes the ‘object as a symbol’ as ‘an agent of cultural
construction…exemplifies past and present.’ he continues to discuss how symbols are
inherent parts of a structure that people exist in and read. ‘The inability to recognize the value
of these constructions place people in other social spaces.’[3]

Arbitrary systems form value and meaning, change historically and socially. The Value of an
object before it enters an institution is personal, and often only rational to the individual. Once
with in the system the object transforms to a specimen of linear history for those visitors that
‘don’t know any better’. Conflicting notions of “ownership” occur when the history of the object
is blurred between personal and collective.

C.M. Hann in, Property relations: Renewing the anthropological tradition describes:

Property, [as] not a thing, but a network of social relations that govern the
conduct of people with respect to the use and disposition of things.[4]

The inability for parties to recognize the values of others results in a lack of judgment to the correct use, nature and respect of the other’s right to ‘property’, and leads to cross-cultural plundering on both sides. This can result in a fear of engagement that produces a psychological sense of taboo through time lost discussion.

I don’t want to enforce a subject of Taboo, but I think it is wise to note the difficulty of representing the concerns of both the individual and collective. These concerns of an inability to critically engage with and honor collective print and personal histories of these objects reminded me of Luke Wood’s essay Trespassers Will be Prosecuted: A B-Grade Horror in
Four Parts, where he discusses the life of his display face McCahon. He describes how wrongful employment of McCahon display face in the McCahon Retrospective at Wellington City Art Gallery by Saatchi and Saatchi produced a freak show [5]– dishonoring the original content of McCahon’s paintings and the histories of the artist’s script that his display face was
based upon.

Wood notes that a corpse can never be re animated ‘whole’ or perfectly as-it was. Reanimation is “an approximation” and should be carefully re-introduced back into culture. McCahon’s use of use of ‘lofty, poetic, and often biblical texts’ and; his formal points of reference… from comic books, advertising, and signage,’[6]allowed Wood to make a decision to allow the use of the display face by Charlies Orange Juice. The decision was keeping in honor of the aesthetic origin of McCahon’s script in roadside hand written fruit stall signage.

The book Joseph Churchward by David Bennewith is a example of honoring histories in a critical manner. A published collection of the life work of a some what disparate figure in New Zealand history at the time, Bennewith started his project with the goal of answering personal curiosities such as; Was Churchward still working? Was he in New Zealand – and if so,
where? What would provoke this man to join a boffin-like fraternity of type designers?

The following pages are an unraveling of a history as it comes to light of Churchward’s, personal and commercial life through the representation of ephemeral documents. Content is honored in attention to display, reproduction and materiality. Bennewith exposes his own research process in admitting letters, interviews, and a fluent personal writing style that avoids a cold historical analysis of Churchward. In considering these two texts it seems grave robbing only occurs when the grave is a shrine of the fanatic mass that have no regard for personal histories. The dishonoring of content and history of the display face McCahon is a practice found often in ethnographic surveys of artifacts in museums. The relatively unknown (like Churchward) is honored in recognition before giving the possibility of being robbed.

References:
[1] Whincup Tony. Imagining the Intangible in Picturing the Social Landscape: Visual
methods and the Sociological Imagination, (2004) pp.81
[2]Clifford James, On Collecting Art and Culture, in The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Litrature, and Art, (1988) pp.217
[3]ibid.
[4]Hann C.M. Ed. Property relations: Renewing the anthropological tradition, (1998) pp.4
[5]Wood Luke, Trespassers Will be Prosecuted: A B-Grade Horror in Four Parts in Printing Types: New Zealand Type Design Since 1870, edited by Jonty Valentine, (2009) pp.51
[6]ibid pp.50

Lexical Distinction

Lexis or vocabulary as described in The History of Book and Print in New Zealand;
‘is the other level besides accent at which New Zealand English is distinctive, in both words and meanings.’
This relates to acquired individual meanings produced in a New Zealand local which are general English. New Zealand words and meanings may or may not have specific reference to New Zealand itself ('mānuka' versus 'mocker' = 'clothes', 'gear'). Also, many are shared with Australian English ('mob' (of sheep etc.), 'mullock'), due to common colonial experience of the two countries.

lexical features are occasional, sporadic, and very much a product of subject and purpose. In terms of print Lexical distinctions can be seen in specifically as New Zealand themes, references to particular social institutions, practices, politics and so on. 'The operation within the narrow constraints of the English Private press tradition, particularly in the 1800’s lead to a preoccupation with printing, typographic layout, and the setting of local literature in foreign types; with little interest for the use or design of local types.'[1] However, developments of Design In New Zealand started to respond to its function and adapted to its local needs rather than opting to maintain a canon of the ‘Motherland’. This developmentis a strong lexical feature and can be seen in The Four square Newspapers distinctively bright hand drawn type and stock images and striking composition, unique to advertisement newspapers of the 1960’s and 70’s.


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References:
[1] Valentine Jonty PRINTING TYPES: New Zealand Type Design Since 1870 (2009) pp.8

The significance of print in New Zealand’s Colonial history

our time and place is distinctively New Zealand. Above all, the meeting of an imported culture based on printing with the oral culture of the tangata whenua forms a special and fascinating part of our island story. [1]

The printed word initially introduced by the Missionaries was not the only printed matter introduced to New Zealand – the European tradition of the pictorial print was employed as well.

The information below has been extracted from M. Anne Kirker’s Thesis: A History of Printmaking in New Zealand, University of Auckland: 1969, Produced for the completion of her Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree. Elam F/A Lib [707.5 K59] . The Thesis give a broad history of pictorial print in New Zealand and highlights interesting facts about New Zealand’s pictorial Print history that require further consideration.

… the first Europeans to practice the arts in New Zealand were men on the staff of Captain James Cook during exploratory voyages…” Engravings were topographical and botanical studies dealt in a traditional approach. Used for their “reproductive” function they were essentially the transference of drawings and paintings to copper/steel plate turned later into coloured aquatints pressed in England. The main concern was for the image to be identifying and familiarizing the monumental and typical landscape. Functionally it employs documentation and survey. “… Aesthetically pleasing and scientifically functional responding to the European tastes of the day… the prints function of reproduction set the general pattern of printmaking for the next hundred years…

French Artists sketched New Zealand in early 19th Century. Lithographs were made by the mid 1830’s and Lithography had almost replaced completely engraving as the predominant reproductive medium.

The New Zealand Company and Canterbury Association sent men from England as surveyors and topographical draughtsman. Drawing and paintings produced in New Zealand were later turned into propaganda Lithographs. Acting as Public illustrative texts displaying the beneficial aspects of settlement. These Emigration posters featured picturesque natives, industrious settlers, romatizeied barren hills and plains with toned down colour. “… the interest in ‘obscure corners of the world’, stimulated by the scientific voyages, encourage migrants from abroad to settle in New Zealand.”

The First Lithograph in New Zealand was executed in Wellington 1842 ‘Village of Richmond’ by Peter Pait a surveyor of The New Zealand Company. The original is in the Alex Turnbull Library.

By 1900 different forms of photo mechanics had been invented depriving printmaking of its function as a means of reproducing paintings and drawings. The medium changed to a vehicle of personal expression in New Zealand. Originally manifested itself chiefly in small black and white relief of intaglio.

T.V. Gulliver “Gulli” was a self-taught printmaker and started making etchings and woodcuts in 1911. “As far as it can be ascertained, this man, a civil engineer by profession, was the first New Zealander to make woodcuts.”


In 1916 the “Quoin Club” was founded, composed of members practicing printmaking in Auckland. It had more than forty members including T.V. Gulliver, Trevor Lloyd, J.Fitzgerald, D.J. Payne, A.F Goodwin, A.H Hooper, E. Warner, H. Tornquist, A.J. Brown and P. Bagnall.

Club goals:

“To foster all arts and crafts”
“To found and maintain a Library”
“To provide a common ground in which workers in the art and crafts may meet”

Members mounted no individual shows during the 13 years of the clubs existence. Quoin Club published two portfolios of etchings, lithographs, colour prints and wood cuts and had three group member shows. They Lithographed a Club book for private circulation. The Club Ledger is in the Auckland Public Library.

Auckland Herald: May 4 1922

Essentially a graphic arts club, its main object to popularize the black and white… not (being) commercial in anyway, merely comprising a body of earnest workers, and in their endeavor to further their educational aspirations are issuing a limited number of portfolios of representative works.

The Quoin Club wound up October 1918 due to financial difficulties.
The first one –man show of Black and White drawings, etchings and woodcuts brought together in New Zealand was held by T.V. Gulliver in 1932.

Diversity of subject matter was characteristic of a more modern approach produced in the 1960’s. Predominantly Black and White with the exception of coloured linocuts. The 1950 – 60’s influenced printmakers towards the production of multi-coloured images. Colour images tended to out weigh monochrome. The new awareness of colour in printmaking contributed largely to the recent invention of serigraphy. Local shows of individual printmakers increased in the 1960’s and New Zealanders were sent represent the Nation in exhibitions at the Tokyo Print Biennials (1962 – 1968) and the International Print Exhibition – Yugoslavia (1967 – 1969).

The formation of the Print Council of New Zealand in September 1967 was modeled alongside a similar organization in Australia. Members were predominately collectors. The organization acted as a contact opportunity between graphic artists as well as the possibility of exhibitions together. There were two yearly exhibitions in one of New Zealand’s art galleries.

One of the aims of the Print Council was to give the average man on the street a chance to acquire an original artwork without being beyond his means. Each original exhibited with in the two annual Council shows averaged at $20 each.

The council aimed to facilitate a closer and more stable association between printmaker and collector. Gained 165 members since 1967 (two year period)

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M. Anne Kirker’s Thesis: A History of Printmaking in New Zealand, presents a transition point in New Zealand print history. When researching 'the history of print in New Zealand' there is little written on the subject beyond Newspapers and the introduction of solid language to New Zealand. From practicality to artisan; Kirker presents a refreshing concise journey rarely discussed.


References:
[1] Sourced from:
Waite Noel BOOK & PRINT IN NEW ZEALAND : A GUIDE TO PRINT CULTURE IN AOTEAROA, Introduction
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-GriBook-_div1-N1057B.html 29/11/09

Holloway press

Not featured in the Auckland City Libraries Ephemera collection is the Holloway press. The Holloway press is interesting because of its commitment to hand printing and the artisan book and is an asset to the University of Auckland.

The History of the press: http://www.hollowaypress.auckland.ac.nz/index.htm
The Holloway Press was established at The University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1994. It is named after Ron Holloway (1909-2003) of The Griffin Press, Auckland, who donated equipment, books and archives to the University. The Press was set up in the Library of the Tamaki Campus under the management of Alan Loney, poet and printer. All books published up to 1998 were designed and printed by Alan Loney. Most Holloway Press Books are now designed, printed and bound by Tara McLeod.

The publication policy of The Holloway Press is to publish a range of texts appropriate to the technology of hand-printing which have unusual literary, artistic, scholarly and/or historical interest and which are unsuitable for commercial publication. Wherever possible Holloway Press books include illustrative material. After some years of inactivity since Alan Loney’s retirement in 1998 the Press resumed an active publishing programme in 2001.

In 2000, 2002 and 2003 The Holloway Press received grants from the Vice-Chancellor’s Development Fund. Management of the Press is located within the Department of English, under the general editorship of Associate Professor Peter Simpson.

New Zealand Presses: noted from the Auckland Central Library Ephemera Collection

In the Presses noted down from items found in the Auckland City Libraries Ephemeral Collection, It is interesting to note the range of printers that are involved in the production of Ephemera. The Presses are not all romantic notions of the private artisan press; on the contrary most items are produced for commercial business outcomes.

Newspapers such as, Otago Daily Times Print produced many documents especially inserts.
Many of the Presses no longer exsist and a few have changed their business name such as, Bryant and Gadd a small Hastings business established in the 1920's is now known as MR PRINT GROUP. The current owner and Managing Director Mr John Single purchased the business in 1976 and in 2002 he purchased another prominent printing company and merged them together to begin trading as MR PRINT GROUP.

Others have maintained their name and moved their production towards contemporary commercial expectations such as, Cox and Dawes of Penrose, Auckland. Cox and Dawes specialize in multi-colour printing of promotional material, brochures, company reports, prospectus, annual reports, stationery, newsletters, calendars, posters, showcards. 7 day printing service, die-cutting and embossing. Te Rau Press, Gisbourne now known as Te Rau Design & Print has an impressive pedigree dating back to the 1870s. The first printing press was based at Te Rau Kahikatea to fulfil the printing needs of early missionaries. The Maori name Te Rau literally translated means ‘the leaf’. The press now operates with commercial clients and within their community. Wilson and Horton now operates as W&H Print Ltd; the commercial print subsidiary of APN. APN is New Zealand's major news & information company, operating in four key areas: newspaper publishing (nine daily newspapers and 32 free community papers); new internet-based media; specialist publishing (including two leading weekly magazines).

Definition of the Private Press:

"In Private Presses (2nd ed. 1983) Cave … suggests that a private press is an unofficial press that runs not for profit, but to produce works of some aesthetic merit for a restricted audience. … the same press prints the material as publishes it, had until the 1980s little relevance in New Zealand, where most publishers had their own printing arm. Enthusiasm for printing is clearly a prerequisite and most presses are informed by a strong craft ethic. The anachronism that is the hand press has also increasingly come to be associated with the reprinting of rare or obscure texts… In Vinculum 8 Parr offers the following definition of 'Private Printing in New Zealand': 'There is a PRIVATE PRESS when the operator runs it:—for his own enjoyment, being in full control of every choice, with persistent effort to improve techniques, without seeking financial gain (although he may sell some items to help cover costs)'. "

Sourced from: Waite Noel BOOK & PRINT IN NEW ZEALAND : A GUIDE TO PRINT CULTURE IN AOTEAROA, Private Printing
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-GriBook-_div2-N11366.html#name-200195- 29/11/09

Re: Historically Important Books from Victoria, Australia

This note about private presses is from a website that showcases some of the significant books of the State Library of Victoria in Australia.

http://www.mirroroftheworld.com.au/innovation/private_press/index.php

Printing Types: New Zealand type design since 1870

http://www.objectspace.org.nz/publications/viewPublication.php?documentCode=1953

Objectspace, October 21, 2009.

(Objectspace kindly has the accompanying publication available as a PDF for download.)

"Printing Types: New Zealand type design since 1870 is an occasion to consider the work of local type designers. This is an important project because as curator Jonty Valentine says 'it is remarkable how un-heroic and invisible the history of type design has been here'. While type design has been the focus of a local journal (The National Grid) and an international conference staged in New Zealand (TYPESHED11) Printing Types is the first exhibition and related publication completely focused on contemporary and historical New Zealand type design." (Source: http://www.objectspace.org.nz/programme/show.php?documentCode=1806)

Just Hold Me

http://www.objectspace.org.nz/publications/viewPublication.php?documentCode=2013

Objectspace, September 23 2006.

(Objectspace kindly has a PDF of the accompanying publication available for download.)

"Just Hold Me presents the work of 19 leading publications designers and design houses from around New Zealand. The works in Just Hold Me, some of which are out of print, have been selected by the featured designers and range from the substantial to the ephemeral and from short-run to commercial scale print run works. These publications firmly position publication designers as the makers of many of the most beautiful and interesting objects that we use". (Source: http://www.objectspace.org.nz/programme/show.php?documentCode=472)

Link to the introduction chapter of Book & Print in New Zealand: A Guide to Print Culture in Aotearoa (Victoria University Press 1997)

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-GriBook-_div1-N1057B.html

The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing

http://www.sharpweb.org/

The concept of authorship took hold as a result of the development of the printing press.

Regarding private printing in New Zealand

From: Book & Print in New Zealand: A Guide to Print Culture in Aotearoa; Victoria University Press, Wellington 1997

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-GriBook-_div2-N11366.html

New Zealand Private Presses and Printers

This page is an ongoing project to list private presses and printers in New Zealand, past and present.

http://www.letterpress.org.nz/Private_Presses.html

Ephemera as souvenirs and collection items

The function of ephemera as souvenirs and within collections can be considered by way of the chapter Objects of Desire in Susan Stewart's book On Longing (Stewart, S; On Longing. Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection; Duke University Press, London, 1993). Stewart draws attention to the capacity of objects to serve as 'traces of authentic experience'. (pg 135). "We need or desire souvenirs of events that are reportable, events whose materiality has escaped us, events that thereby exist only through the invention of narrative. Through narrative the souvenir substitutes a context of perpetual consumption for its context of origin. It is an object that arises from longing and the demands of nostalgia, not use value or need". (pg 135) The author goes on to talk about the souvenir as a metonymic object in the sense that it's a sample. It moves history into 'private time'. (pg. 136 - 138). "The delicate and hermetic world of the souvenir is a world of nature idealised; nature is removed from the domain of struggle into the domestic sphere of the individual and the interior". (pg. 145) She distinguishes between the book and the souvenir as narrative vehicles. Then she examines the nature of the collection, saying it's metaphor rather than metonymy. "The collection replaces history with classification, with order beyond the realm of temporality. In the collection, time is not something to be restored to an origin; rather, all time is made simultaneous or synchronous within the collection's world". (pg. 151).

http://www.aucklandcitylibraries.com/aboutthelibraries/collections/Special-Collections/ephemera.aspx

Auckland City Libraries categorises ephemera by Type and Subject - the library has PDFs available detailing items from the collection according to these systems. Not all libraries have such detailed systems for categorisation. 'Collections' in others consist of boxes of 'stuff'.

The ordering and meaning created by systems in turn sets up narrative structures within and between categories.

Systems can be fixed as agencies for classification, but the material they administer is not fixed. Accordingly they are conduits of an inherent ephemerality, while retaining an appearance of authority.