American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Printed Ephemera

This site furnishes more than 10,000 items of ephemera—"transitory documents created for a specific purpose, and intended to be thrown away." Items come from the U.S. and London, and date from the 17th century to the present, though the majority are from the 19th century.

Materials include posters, advertisements, leaflets, propaganda, and business cards, and relate to subjects such as the American Revolution, slavery, western migration, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, travel, labor, education, health, and woman's suffrage. Users can search by keyword or browse by author, title, genre, or printing location. The site offers a special presentation on popular types of broadsides and ephemera. This is valuable for studying popular print and consumer culture and issues of public concern to ordinary people.