Hyatt Regency Greenwich Hotel
1800 East Putnam Avenue
Old Greenwich, CT 06870
Driving Directions
Mark your calendar for the Ephemera Society of America’s thirty-seventh annual conference, “American Ingenuity: What's the big idea?.” When Chicago hosted the Columbian Exposition in 1893, the United States led the world in the technology of manufacturing and communications (photography, the telegraph, a prepaid mail system, bicycle travel). By the next Chicago world's fair in 1933, even more "big idea" advances had been made in travel on land and by air. Speakers at our Friday conference - museum curators as well as independent collector/scholars - will present images of inventors and invention, focusing on innovative ideas and how they were disseminated for good (the freedom of bicycle travel) or ill (the chicanery of patent medicine).
Schedule of Events:
(For full description of presentations and speaker bios, click here.)
THURSDAY:
9 a.m.– 4 p.m. — Board of Directors’ meeting, Belle Haven conference room.
4:30 p.m. Roundhill Room
Student Sessions
The Student Session provides a forum where undergraduate and graduate students can discuss the ways in which ephemera has informed their studies. Student presentations are lively, varied, and always offer thoughtful insights into the role ephemera has played in American cultural and social history.
FRIDAY:
Four morning conference sessions: Roundhill Room
8:45 a.m.
Welcome and Introduction
Barbara Loe, Chairman and Bruce Shyer, ESA President
9:00 a.m.
What’s the Big Idea?
Richard Sheaff
10:00 a.m. — 10:15 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m.
Up in the Air
Tom D. Crouch, Sr. Curator of Aeronautics, National Air and Space Museum
11:00 a.m.
Sparking the Imagination
Diane DeBlois & Robert Dalton Harris
11:45 a.m.
What Does Not Kill You Makes You Stronger
Erika Piola, Associate Curator, Prints and Photographs and Co-Director, VCP at LCP
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Lunch Break
Four afternoon conference sessions:
Roundhill Room
2:00 p.m.
The Future Begins in Chicago
Russell Lewis, Executive Vice President and Chief Historian, Chicago History Museum
2:45 p.m.
Images of Enterprise
Jeremy Rowe, Senior Research Scientist at New York University
3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m.
Private Prepaid Mail Systems
Larry Lyons, Executive Director of the Philatelic Foundation
4:30 p.m.
The Bicycle - Two Wheels that Changed the World
Lorne Shields, Author & Collector
5:30 p.m.
Meet the Authors!
Book signings of notable books from our speakers and members will immediately follow the conference outside of Roundhill.
Also Friday:
• 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. — Dealer Set-up
• 7–8 p.m. — Silent Auction Preview in Roundhill.
SATURDAY — Ephemera Fair Opens today!
• 8:15 a.m. — Memberships will be sold at the Ephemera Society desk at the entrance to the fair in the Grand Ballroom.
• 9 a.m. — Members-only fair preview ($10) for the Society’s 37th Annual Ephemera Fair in Grand Ballroom. Membership cards will be available at registration desk.
• 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. — Exhibits open in Laddins Rock.
• 10 a.m. — General public entry. Admission is $15.
• 12 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. — Silent Bid Auction in Roundhill. Many Lots. Bid early and often!
• 5 p.m. — Fair closes; reopens 11 a.m. Sunday.
• 5:30 p.m. — Silent Auction final bids close in Roundhill Room.
• 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. — Cash Bar outside Mead ABC.
• 6 p.m. — Live Auction outside Mead ABC — Auctioneer: George Fox
• 7:00 p.m. — Ephemera 37 Banquet and Presentation — Mead ABC. Reservations required.
After Dinner Presentation
Innovation in Play
Nicolas Ricketts, Curator, The Strong National Museum of Play
SUNDAY
9:00 a.m. Members annual meeting, Mead AB
All members are urged to attend.
9:45 a.m.
Exhibitor Roundtable
• 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. — Ephemera Fair in the Grand Ballroom.
• 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. — Exhibits open in Laddins Rock.
• 4 p.m. — Ephemera 37 closes.