technology

Frank DeFreitas With Holographica Postcards

Ever since I met ephemera collector Frank DeFreitas at The Ephemera Network and learned what he does with his collection, I’ve wanted to do an interview with him. So, here it is.

Frank, what exactly is it that you collect?

I collect ephemera related to the Nobel prize-winning field of holography. A practitioner of holography (called a holographer) creates those magically seductive three-dimensional images known as holograms.

Ghostbusters Cereal Hologram

While I do collect (and make) holograms, the biggest part of my collection is paper-based ephemera and memorabilia related to the field: posters, books, advertising art, exhibit catalogs, postcards, brochures, newsletters, patents, documents, letters, magazines, press releases, newspaper articles, announcements, letterheads, envelopes, postage stamps, and many other examples.

Numbering in the thousands of pieces, it is one of the largest collections of its kind (holography) in the world today. However, holography as a topic is a relative newcomer to the field of ephemera, covering the second-half of the 20th Century (my collection ends at the year 2000). Therefore, it is definitely part of what I call the “new wave” of ephemera collecting. Being so recent, I guess the best way to describe it is “contemporary ephemera”.

With holography-related ephemera, if you’re at all geeky / nerdy (even secretly) and think lasers and holograms sound cool, then you’re really going to love this stuff. It runs the spectrum from kitsch to fine art (artists such as Salvador Dali worked with holography over the years).

Museum of Holography Looking Glass Ephemera

When did you start collecting — and what inspired you?

I started collecting in 1976 (for comparison, the Ephemera Society of America was founded in 1980), after attending my first art exhibit of holography. It was an exhibit from the Museum of Holography in New York called “Through the Looking Glass”. I kept the ephemera pieces from that show: a poster and various associated paper. After that, I have spent the rest of my life involved in the field of holography, so I obtained my collection piece by piece, year after year: the items from 1976 were added in 1976, 1986 in 1986, 1996 in 1996, and so on, as the history of holography unfolded in real time.

Also, I wrote an article on holography-related ephemera in 1988, calling it “Antiquarian Holographica”. I started my blog, Antiquarian Holographica, in 2008 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that article. So, while somewhat of a new kid on the block in ephemera circles, I’m actually quite an old-timer. I was just off on my own, doing my own thing for nearly the past 30-plus years. But here I am now.

Sony Wonder, Sony's Instant Holographic Portrait System

What is the shinning star of your collection?

I would have to say that, taken as a whole, the entire collection itself has to be looked upon as the shining star. As for what may be of most interest to others, I would reply that postcard lovers would really enjoy seeing and hearing the history behind the beautiful artwork postcards; commercial art and printing technology students would love looking at and learning about the ads that incorporate holograms into the design scheme. And so on and so forth. There really is something very interesting and unique for everyone, regardless of their interest in ephemera (or holography), since it is a “thematic” collection.

In the past, I have had selected hologram pieces exhibited at such venues as the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. I stepped outdoors after giving a lecture one night, and turned to see the Washington Monument lit up right in front of me. That was certainly a shining star, world-class moment that one never forgets.

Sense Galaxy Theater Brochure, Tokyo, Japan

What’s the furthest you’ve ever gone to add a piece of ephemera to your collection?

The pieces in the collection hail from over 42 countries around the world. The majority of them were sent to me via post, rather than me having to find avenues to obtain them, seeking them out. They were sent for the specific purpose of becoming part of the collection, and to this day I am honored to be their guardian.

This continues today, and every so often I still receive a package in the mail. Someone in holography will be cleaning out a desk drawer or a filing cabinet and send me a box of ephemera. It then gets recorded and entered into the collection. My latest box arrived last week. I’m very fortunate in many ways.

You know that I’ve been fascinated ever since I heard of how you use your collection with middle school through high school students — I just love it when collecting can serve a purpose! Tell us all about that.

Through different programs, including the National Science Foundation and the Urban Systemic Initiative (among others), I work with urban, at-risk youth and, as a holographer, I design educational programs to introduce them to careers in lasers, optics and photonics. One of the most successful ways of engaging them is through making holograms. This has proven itself time-and-time again over the years.

Holography in Scientific American, 1965

However, for my initial orientation, I provide an exhibit of historical ephemera, mostly of what I call “holography in print”.

This gives the students an opportunity to see how holography has been used in real-world applications, and also allows them to make a historical connection to the modern world.

So, ephemera plays a very important role during the most critical part of the program: the beginning. If it fails to engage, then the rest of the program is on shaky ground. So far it has performed its task admirably AND every student knows how to correctly pronounce the word “ephemera”!

What are typical reactions to the educational program — what do you hear from kids then, in the moment?

Since most of the ephemera that I use contains three dimensional holograms, it is usually a reaction of astonishment. “Whoa!” is a usual reaction from the students.

POLSKA Hologram Stamp

You still seem to have the same reaction yourself — after all these years. *wink*

One day, everyone reading this interview will see images projected into their homes, schools and workplace as three-dimensional holograms. We will leave the “flat” two-dimensional images that we are so accustomed to behind. These holographic images will be so real, that you will want to reach out and touch them… But your hand will pass right through them. I don’t know if I will live long enough to see it, but this is the future of holography, and this is the history — in the making — that I collect.

Your passion for holography is equally matched by your passion for collecting ephemera; tell us about your latest project.

I’ve recently started a podcast centered around ephemera and the people who collect it. I have been broadcasting a similar show for holography online since 1996. I hope to feature two ephemera interviews per month. I’ve seen many interviews take place on web pages with text, but I thought that by hearing people in their own voices, it would make it much more personal. Also I would like to explore other options such as educational modules and events coverage as well.

The show can be streamed online, or it can be downloaded to a portable mp3 device such as an iPod. I hope you visit and listen to a show!

Oh, you know I will — thanks , Frank!

Hologram Trade Card

If anyone would like to receive more information on Frank’s holography ephemera collection, and/or the opportunity to have the collection exhibited along with a lecture/presentation at your school, gallery, library, club or organization (Frank makes it available at no cost to regional non-profits in his general area: PA, NY, NJ, DE, MD, CT, etc.), please contact him:

Frank DeFreitas
815 West Allen Street
Allentown, PA 18102

email: holoservices@gmail.com
phone: 610-770-0341

We hear a lot about how American life changed from the atomic 50s to the rebellious 60s, but let’s take a look-see at some of the changes in material culture via The Saturday Evening Post (scans of issues from 1959 & 1960).

Television sets were BIG.

(I think I made one of those wooden birds on a stick in wood shop class… Now I have to look for that.)

Big ol’ console sets continue in the bottom part of the GE ad.

Not only were the sets big, but the screens were getting bigger too: “Owens-Illinois put more picture into your television picture tube.”

Cars, however, were getting smaller, as this 1959 feature “The Big Three Join The Revolution” shows us.

Above, Robert S. McNamara, Ford vice president, shows off his new “baby,” the Ford Falcon; small side photo shows “another proud parent,” Edward N. Cole, General Motors vice president, with the rear-end aluminum engine of Chevrolet’s Corvair. Below, the Corvair compared with a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air.

Below, the Falcon at a picnic.

A quote from the article gives us some haunting insight:

Detroit has not now and never had any intention of producing a so-called austerity car in which style, comfort and performance are too greatly sacrificed for low first cost and high gas mileage. What the auto makers have produced are cars which are nimble, cost a little less, use less gas, but are still six-passenger automobiles. In doing so, however, the producers have made a tacit admission — that their conventional smallest, lowest-priced three are no longer small enough and low-priced enough for an increasing number of customers who want something somewhat less splendid.

Above: “Sneak view of the Valiant, Chrysler’s economy candidate. A little more exotic than the other two, the Valiant will be introduced soon.” Which is odd they’d show such a blurry sneak-peek when they also include another photo of the Valiant (below), saying, “This picture, published prematurely by a newsmagazine, nearly destroyed Chrysler’s plans for secrecy prior to October introduction of the car.”

Mom’s life also got easier as GE offered mom a first: The General Electric Filter-Flo Washer with Automatic Bleach Dispenser.

Hey, it not only stored (& dispensed) a months’ supply of bleach, it was in that cool pink.

And, last (for today), but certainly not least… Little Friskies introduces boxed cat food.  Such a new idea, it took an entire page of explanation including approval from a crazy old cat lady and proof that cats would eat it.

The word ephemera comes from the Greek word ephemeros, meaning ‘lasting but a day’, and so ephemera refers to anything transitory, short lived, or not meant to last. From a collector’s point of view these items are treasured because of their temporary status, regardless of their age. While there are many interpretations (or definitions) of ‘what is ephemera’ by collectors themselves, many people consider paper to be a key component.

Paper in and of itself is flimsy enough to lead a short-lived life and many ‘every day’ items of seeminly little consequence are on paper. When one thinks of ephemera, one thinks of such things as matchbooks, postcards, receipts, bills, brochures, photographs, flyers, stickers, advertising, packaging, letters etc. The things most of us throw away on a daily basis.

Again, these items need not be old to have value to collectors and historians. The thrill of collecting lies in the combination of the story the items tell, the rarity due to their temporary nature, and ironicly, the lack of interest by the general population to see any value in the items at all. Because these are things not meant to be saved, ephemera literally is the treasure picked from the trash of another.

Given this sort of a definition of ephemera, I see a new area in ephemera collecting: digital ephemera.

Today, technology and the internet offer us new possibilities of ephemera. I don’t refer to paper print-outs of emails, websites, and document searches, but to the digital format of these things themselves.

Many libraries and universities are creating digital collections. This allows them to keep the material, without the storage and maintenance issues paper requires. But there is more to the digital world than the mere preserving of paper and saving of space. There is tangible in the seemingly intangible. For example, entertainment.

MP3s are now just another means of listening to music — as were Edison cylinders, vinyl LPs, bootleg recordings, and import CDs. Will MP3s be valued for themselves? Many music collectors currently covet digital duplicates of rare recordings they would otherwise never be able to obtain, but perhaps MP3s themselves will charm collectors on their own. As will other sound, game, and video file formats. And why not? There are so many small bands, performance artists, flash animators, game hobbyists, etc. which work in digital mediums — with many works not available in any other format. (Or at least so few copies are made, and many are considered ‘toss-able’ too, to make for nary a one to be found in a decade!) What will happen to them as technology advances? Surely not all will be converted to the new media.

Think back and remember Beta video, early laser disc movies, and even the early silent films themselves… Not all of these were preserved, let alone copied to the latest technology. It would be vain and naive to think all of today’s films and other forms of entertainment would be saved when many of the great (and not-so-great) creations of the past have not.

I’d like to believe collectors will jump in and do the preserving.

The folks behind the Wayback Machine must feel similarly, for they now archive Moving Images, Texts, Audio and Software along with Web Sites. I imagine soon others will feel even more passionate and not only expand the categories, but will take it upon themselves to collect and store what appeals to them the most, ‘art’ or not.

For the ephemera collector not only preserves the art of the past, but they collect the mundane items too. Will databases and spreadsheets be as collectible as catalogs and ledgers? Will blogs be as desirable as diaries? Will signature lines, emoticons, avatars and chat room conversations be added to the collections of business cards, calling cards, photos, and correspondence? Aren’t the flash intros to corporate websites as valuable as their brochures? Aren’t the skyscrapper and banner ads as relevant as any other advertising? (Think of all that has already been lost to document the dot.com boom and bomb!) If one can find paper Wal-Mart receipts riveting, then isn’t the opportunity to save Spam, in its original format, equally as illuminating or entertaining?

I envision that in the not-to-distant future, there will be digital ephemera collectors as diligently saving the mundane scraps of our digital existence as paper folks do now. Only instead of protecting fragile paper in acid-free scrapbooks free from sunlight, these digital collections will require special archival needs of their own.

As technology changes, our definition of ephemera may not change — but it will surely expand. There must be collectors eager to gather our now-new technology as it becomes the retro stuff of yesterday, the vintage data of nostalgic memory, and even the quaint antiques of times gone by.

The technology of today is quite simple, by comparison: it works well, it does what it needs to do with the minimum of instruction, and when it stops doing so, it’s thrown out and replaced. When we think back to the “good ‘ol days,” much of the memories are of how we dealt with the stone-age technology we were stuck with. We remember that combination of steps to get the car started (choke out, turn it over, count to ten, push the choke in, hold the gas down). We knew to stop the VCR just before it’s done rewinding, lest horrible tape destruction occur. We marvel at those archaic computers that required you to stop what you were doing, put in a new disk or cartridge, and reboot to start a new program. Frankly, we wonder why we remember those days so fondly.

There are many among us, however, who not only love that technology, but devote their free time to making those intricate and fragile pieces of machinery work. On and off, I’ve been a collector of all things computer. In my basement is a TRS-80 III, my first computer, still in relatively working order. The “E” key requires extra pressure to get it to work (a habit I continued even in later computers), and floppy disks had to be aligned just right to work. I’ve been a temporary collector, holding on to computers only long enough to prepare them for resale, but those days spent squeezing any usability out of those computers are delightfully fun. Recently, a Apple ][e ended up in my hands — complete with an original copy of Oregon Trail. I played for hours, trying to beat the game, since I never did during my gradeschool years (I still failed). Thousands of these computers were made, ditto on the software, so neither were particularly rare, but that combination of computer and software has a particular value to everyone who attended gradeschool in the 1980s. Despite newer versions of Oregon Trail being available, the early versions have a nostalgic value that you can’t get any other way. There are Atari 2600s, with their horrible sound and mediocre graphics, being played, right now, while XBoxes sit idle nearby. Sure, they might have to blow on the contacts and insert the cartridge just right to get the 2600 to play, but it is not discouraging enough to toss out the machine. The attraction isn’t the highest quality, the greatest usability. The pleasure is in getting just as much out of these machines now as twenty-five years ago.

Vintage Harleys and classic cars might have their quirks and troubles, but they’re still street legal, and for the most part you can find a mechanic. Finding a repair shop to fix your Intellivision is a bit tougher — the technology is obsolete, and unusable to anyone but collectors. Collectors of obsolete technology know what they’re in for by taking on their hobby. They want their technology to remain usable and functional, despite any availability of spare parts. Phonograph collectors hoard needles and belts to keep their collections running. Typewriter collectors ration their ribbons as best they can. 8mm movie connoisseurs watch eBay for lamps and film.

The king of obsolete technology, however, is the steam thresher afficianado. These machines amount to a railroad engine that has left its tracks; they are steam-powered behemoths that chug across open ground, pulling farm machinery behind. Modern gasoline and diesel technology rendered steam power obsolete before even my grandfather’s time (and a new generation of collectors are restoring early gasoline tractors, too), leaving most of these rusting in shelter belts or sold for wartime scrap. One of the few places you can still see these machines is the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher’s Reunion in Rollag, MN. Once a year, these skilled collectors (who must be licensed to operate the steam boilers that power their machines) gather, fill their tanks with water and stoke the burners, and putt-putt around Minnesota’s lake country. Running these machines is hot, can be frustrating if a machine is being tempermental, and could even be dangerous if something goes wrong. The collectors, however, smile brightly, in their blue-and-white striped overalls, red bandanna tied around their neck, face coated with a haze of soot.

For whatever reason — nostalgia, proof of expertise, or simply to see if they can do it — collectors love to show off the things that shouldn’t work, and prove that, yes, they still do. Their collections need not be complete, or even rare. These collectors are not accumulating things, objects to be passively observed. These collections exist because they do something, even if there’s a simpler or better way to accomplish the same tasks. They live for the moment when they press ‘go’ on their collection…and it does.