EPHEMERA
PLURAL NOUN
1Things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time.
‘there were papers, letters, old boxes—all sorts of ephemera’
1.1Collectable items that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity.
‘Mickey Mouse ephemera’
Here’s classic example, an enormous matchbook brought in by a helpful faculty member:
The back is equally impressive:
You can’t really know for sure but it seems to date from the late 1950s–Hamman Hall, Keith-Weiss, and M.D. Anderson Biological Labs were all finished in 1958. That’s a pretty long time for something that was meant to burn up.
Bonus:
Extra Bonus: My favorite picture from Homecoming–abandoned shoes, 8:56 a.m. Sent in by a reader alert enough to notice, yet not quite alert enough to keep his finger out of the photo.
