The 48 Hour Ephemera Challenge is Back!

What is the 48 Hour Ephemera Challenge?
Well, you see, I have this problem. I am attracted to antique stores and antique malls. When I walk through them I can't helped but be pulled by each piece's history. The what ifs...the I wonders...consume me.

I am especially drawn to ephemera...those letters, postcards, those photos, those books, etc., that were never meant to last forever, but against all odds they've managed to survive giving me a glimpse of yesteryear...of days gone by...of people's lives and stories. And when I find ephemera that has identification of some kind on it, I buy it.

Then I research it. Well, I used to research it by myself, but now I research it with other people for fun, for practice, and for discovery. I created the 48 Hour Ephemera Challenge forum so that interested researchers could take a break on their own research and tackle a fresh problem with their own talents and skills and with other researchers' talent and skills through collaboration. It's always interesting to see how others research...their go-to online resources...their workflow. I think I learn at least one new thing from someone else with every challenge. And somehow those new skills are catalogued in the vastness of my brain and pop up again when I need them in my own research endeavors.

And? Those who don't want to research it publicly can just watch for purely entertainment reasons or watch for educational purposes. It can be very fun and enlightening to see a family story {or stories} unfold in front of your eyes in real time.

---

And the best part? I mean, the very best part? The forum and all the research is completely Google searchable. This means that if a family member is searching Google, the collaborative work we do in the forum can be found. If they contact me {and, believe me, they do}, then I mail the ephemera piece(s) back to them.

We are Ephemera Whisperers and using our research skills we coax the family stories from these long-forgotten pieces of family histories in hopes of the piece being returned to the family where it belongs.

We took a break, but now we are back. This Friday {tomorrow}, April 6th, 2013, sometime in the afternoon the new Ephemera piece will be posted, and it's not a small piece either...a Red Velvet Victorian Album once owned by a woman from Ottawa County, Ohio, and it's full of photos - some identified and some not. And it has this typewritten message on a separate piece of paper just full of clues. The photos and paper indicate several families. How are they all related? How did they know each other? What is their story? Where did everyone come from? What did everybody do for a living? Can we make a guess as to the identifications of the 4 tintypes that are in the album? Can we tell their story?

---

Can the Ephemera Whisperers put these families back into history where they belong? In 48 hours?

There's only one way to find out. Will you join us this weekend and help us discover the family stories behind this Victorian album? Will you be an Ephemera Whisperer?

The Victorian Album Case will be posted tomorrow afternoon in the 48 Hour Ephemera Challenge Forum.

~Caroline

Update: The challenge has now been posted in the forum. Good luck! =)

---