Ephemera For Everyone

A collector of holographic ephemera, Frank DeFreitas, recently explained his passion for vintage paper. "Ephemera plays a role by anchoring people to history. It allows others to hold a piece of history in their hands: a document, card, poster, book, or other item that was there at the time. It lets people of today know that living, breathing people of yesterday were there as well. That those of today are not isolated in time and place, Stacker 3 but are part of a continuum."

A perfect example of DeFreitas explanation lies in two postcards from the early 20th century. The postcards cost less than a dollar (US). The purchaser bought them because of the curious paragraph about Joseph von Wachter printed on the back of one of the cards. Those words began an information quest and provided the owner with hours of enjoyable "speculation" as to the postcard's historic roots.

Today with computers and the internet to enhance our search for information, researching a postcard's heritage can provide both a learning experience and an entertaining hobby. There is more to collecting postcards than affixing them to an album or framing them for an interesting wall decoration. Below is the story of two postcards:

The first postcard is a "real photo postcard" with the silhouette of a young man printed upon it. It is a studio portrait and the buildings, somewhat out of focus, featured in the background are likely a backdrop, a painted scene. The card signature, in pencil, is written "Yours truly Prof. Joseph von Wachter." There is no address or canceled postmark on the divided card which contains a "Place Stamp Here" imprint.

The second card is of a dog sled with five dogs, a snow covered building, and an inset close-up of a young man is posed above the dogs. The young man is Joseph von Wachter and this card is a professionally printed postcard with the following written on the front in pencil: "To Miss M. M. Anderson with love Joseph von Wachter Sept.28.15" On the back, the personal message "Remembering the evening of the Sept. 29. 1915 at the Hofbrau." This is a one cent card, divided, but never addressed or sent. This card bears the story:

"Joseph von Wachter from Nome, Alaska to New York, 10,742 miles. "Walking." Left Nome, Alaska, October 19, 1914. Covered 4,192 miles with dog team in Alaska, visiting Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Panama-California Exposition, San Diego, California."

Finding these cards caused a flurry of googling and a research quest that eventually led to a visit to a bricks and mortar library. A large wall map of the US helped to visualize the length of the walk much more clearly than a GoogleEarth image on a 15" computer monitor.

The quest for von Wachter's history also led to the home of a local genealogist whose grandmother visited the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, California. The family had a scrapbook filled with souvenirs from that World's Fair. Now von Wachter history was placed in the correct time frame and in geographic relevance.

Google offered more information. It seems von Wachter (who later dropped the "von") was an accomplished pianist who migrated from Vienna, Austria to Alaska - just in time for the Gold Rush. A sickly young man suffering from tuberculosis, Joseph decided a trip to the tundra would either make him well or kill him. He met Jack London and the details are a bit hazy but apparently London convinced von Wachter to take an Eskimo cure and eat, drink, partake of sea kelp and other natural elements. When sufficiently healthy, he began the trip from Alaska to New York. This trip and the sea kelp would greatly improve von Wachter's health. He went to San Francisco in 1932 and founded Wachter's Organic Sea Products Corp. -- a company which still exists today.

Joseph von Wachter went from pianist to scientist to entrepreneur. It's a fascinating story that continues in 2008. Just read this from the Wachter's company website:

"In 1932, a visionary scientist, Dr. Joseph Wachter, founded Wachters' Organic Sea Products Corporation, a family owned business dedicated to bringing the bounteous nutrition of sea plants to humankind. Dr. Wachters' unique "Blend of Sea Plants" attained great reputation, which spread by word of mouth, among people in many countries, making Wachters' Organic Sea Products the largest manufacturer of food supplements in a base of The Blend of Sea Plants. The Wachters' Exclusive Blend of Sea Plants(TM) contains a full range of minerals, trace minerals, and essential elements."

Two postcards. Two black and white pictures sparked an informational treasure hunt. What can you find out from postcards? The stories are as vast as our world itself.

Portfolio development and management of monetized websites. Veteran of the USAF, serial entrepreneur particularly interested in emerging dot tv properties market. I was a speaker at Global.tv's Expo in 2008. Buy Ephemera would be an example of my work.