“Ephemera” is the catch-all term for the miscellaneous category of printed or handwritten materials intended to be kept for a short time then discarded. Greeting cards, calendars, ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, broadsides, and even match boxes are examples of ephemera. Advances in printing technology, such as chromolithography (the process of printing in color), die-cutting, and embossing, allowed presses to create ornate advertisements that could be kept as keepsakes or art. The Press Ephemera collection focuses on ephemera from American private and specialty presses, dating primarily from the 1980s to the present. Many items in the collection are prospectuses and offerings of new books by the presses that are printed on unusual handmade paper or with special printing techniques. Items from many presses listed in this exhibit can be found in the Press Emphemera collection.