Scrapbooks, Posters, and Miscellany, 1910-1969 and undated

In addition to collecting loose ephemera, John Percival sorted and secured some ephemera in large scrapbooks. These scrapbooks include magicians’ promotional materials, business cards, holiday greetings, membership cards, invitations, event flyers, and programs. Much of the material is related to magicians and magic organizations, although Scrapbook 2 also includes a significant number of materials from dances, civic organizations, religious organizations, clubs, and the Telephone Society of Rhode Island, of which Percival was a member. (Note that, while the cover of Scrapbook 3 reads “Convention Programs Scrap Book”, it contains various items related to magic and magic conventions, including name tags, news clippings, tickets, and lecture notes.)

In addition to Percival’s collection of ephemera, this subseries contains a folder containing a short memoir and collection of ephemera compiled by magician Edward C. French of North Dighton, Massachusetts and mailed to Percival. It also contains a bound manuscript volume of “Mysteries” by New York magician John J. Goodwin; the volume has a hand-drawn, red and black Society of American Magicians logo on the first page. According to a notation on the flyleaf, the volume was bound by J.R.H. Ellis and donated by C.J. Hagen of NY.

Finally, this subseries contains several folders of ephemera that are unidentified or do not fit neatly into the other subseries. Many fun, uncategorizable items reside here, including a number of novelty games and cards, cardboard false mustaches, fake money, and a magic apparatus consisting of a board with cards featuring shapes.

The folder of photographs included here is truly miscellaneous--one older photo is of an unidentifiable object, and another shows the hand of a suited man holding out a belt.