Ephemera Events, News & Exhibitions

The Ephemera Society Summer & Winter Fairs 2023

A window into the past for both the curious and the collector — find rare, unusual and historic paper items, priced from £2 to over £2000. A huge range of ephemera will be on display. The fairs will be on for one day only so make a note in your diary now, we look forward to seeing you there!

• Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury
• Coram Street
• London WC1N 1HT
• United Kingdom
• Entry £3 · 11am - 4pm · All welcome
• Members from 10am

Executions: explore 700 years of public punishment in London

Public executions were a major part of Londoners’ lives for centuries. The Museum of London Docklands is bringing the stories of those who died and those who witnessed executions to a major new exhibition.

Executions will showcase a range of fascinating objects, paintings and projections, including the vest said to have been worn by King Charles I when he was executed, a recreation of the Tyburn gallows with an immersive projection, last letters of the condemned, and much more.

Many of the items going on display have rarely been seen in public. Discover how over nearly 700 years, public executions came to shape the city we know today.

• Museum of London Docklands
• No 1, West India Quay
• Hertsmere Rd
• London E14 4AL
• UK
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• Image: Execution broadside seller. "What was executed this morning".
  Printed & published by Engelmann, Graf, Coindet & Co. London January 1, 1828.

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To Be Read at Dusk: Dickens, Ghosts and the Supernatural

Spirits, phantoms and spectres, Dickens’s stories are full of ghostly apparitions. For over 30 years Dickens wrote, told and performed tales about the supernatural. To Be Read at Dusk examines Dickens’s interest in the paranormal, his ‘hankering after ghosts’, and how he became a master ghost story teller publishing over 20 spooky tales.

The display will showcase that Dickens not only wrote ghost stories but also performed them to friends, family and the paying public, as shown through original tickets and playbills. His ghostly tales, particularly those centred on Christmas, were a key part of Dickens’s public reading repertoire.

Dickens’s interest in supernatural and performance also spread into mesmerism and magic tricks. The display will explore Dickens’s own views on the supernatural, emphasising that he was a fascinated sceptic, as shown by correspondence asking about the location of a supposedly haunted house, which will be on display in the museum for the first time.

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• Charles Dickens Museum
• 48-49 Doughty Street
• London, WC1N 2LX
• UK

Aide-mémoire: Shopping Lists

This new display shows a collection of over 200 shopping lists. It is an intimate look at our consumer habits in the 21st century. Each list gives a personal insight into trends and tastes, the continuing popularity of old favourites, the mundane and the downright bizarre.

From the spelling and handwriting to the paper they are written on and the order they are written in, the lists expose people's choices, their habits, their celebrations, and the things they find important.

They show a snapshot of everyday domesticity in 21st century England and share a glimpse into a person’s life through the items we buy and the little notes we leave to ourselves.

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• Museum of Brands
• 111 – 117 Lancaster Road
• Notting Hill
• London W11 1QT
• UK

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