BALL EPHEMERA + FLYERS

Archiving Ephemera

Ballroom artists often leave their effects (costumes) after they perform at the Library. The Sheridan Libraries are archiving these pieces of ephemera as material evidence of our events.

“Ephemera…is linked to alternate modes of textuality and narrativity like memory and performance: it is all of those things that remain after a performance, a kind of evidence of what has transpired but certainly not the thing itself.”
–José Esteban Muñoz, “Ephemera as Evidence: Introductory Notes to Queer Acts,” 10.

“Gay and lesbian cultures often leave ephemeral and unusual traces…Memory becomes a valuable historical resource, and ephemeral and personal collections of objects stand alongside the documents of the dominant culture in order to offer alternative modes of knowledge.”
–Ann Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings, 8.

Peabody Ballroom ephemera is cataloged here. The public may request to view materials at JHU Special Collections.