Found Photo Paper Ephemera Collection — Gina Clyne Photography

Hello my friends, welcome to the fifth installment of Wednesday Ephemera!

What is “Wednesday Ephemera” you ask? Well, it is a weekly Show and Tell of sorts, a place where I can share pieces from my collection of paper ephemera. Click here to read my extended introduction.

Today I bring you a Chevron promotional wall calendar from the year 1964, each page flip sharing a photograph taken at various places of American scenic wonderment (all apparently very accessible by the good ol’ automobile of course). I’m not exactly sure why I’ve become such a collector of calendars from years long gone; I own quite a few other calendars spanning from the 1960s until just a few years ago. Three of these calendars hang at different points in my apartment at this very moment: this particular 1964 Chevron calendar hangs from my bedroom wall, a 1966 Chimpanzee calendar hangs from one of my living room walls, and a 2010 Paper Chase Press artist calendar hangs on a wall that runs alongside the stairs that lead up into my apartment. Perhaps the intrigue lies in owning an object, its sole purpose to measure and mark time, long after the pages of its allotted time have expired. Is an object of time instantly deemed irrelevant once it phases out of its present and future uses? I personally do not think so, but I’m not necessarily one of many utilitarian sensibilities.

Don’t forget to click on any of the images below to take a closer look!

Above is the surprisingly discrete cover of this promotional wall calendar. The cover image is completely free of any corporate logos or clever sales taglines, which actually lends itself to a rather pleasant and almost mysterious first impression. The caption reads, “Olympic National Park, Washington… smoke rises from a fire in the Solduc shelter cabin among the huge evergreen trees of the Rain Forest.” Photo credit goes to Ray Atkeson.

Left: Calendar months September and October, caption reads, “near Bishop, California… this is a popular recreational area; the stream is well stocked, there are fine campgrounds and a good road into town.” Photo credit: Dwight Perry Right: Calendar … — Left: Calendar months September and October, caption reads, “near Bishop, California… this is a popular recreational area; the stream is well stocked, there are fine campgrounds and a good road into town.” Photo credit: Dwight Perry
Right: Calendar months January and February, caption reads, “Akaka Falls, on the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii, drops 420 feet into a green pool surrounded by lush vegetarian kept brilliant by its spray.” Photo credit: Josef Muench

This is one of my favorite spreads of the calendar. If you look closely you will see a small woman and child, surrounded by vast country, looking as if they have just pulled off the side of the road… to take a photograph perhaps? Oh boy, what an automobile they have with them. I asked my mechanic friend what kind of station wagon he thought this was and he said it may be a 1963 Ford Galaxie Country Sedan Wagon. (I’m sure my friend loved my 8:51 am wake up call to inquire specifically the make and model of a tiny station wagon that is pictured in an ancient calendar. He was a good sport about the whole thing, much love to you Joey!). This caption reads, “Haines Highway, Alaska… eleven miles from Haines, end of the Inside Passage. In the background, Cathedral Peak; foreground, the town swimming hole.” Photo credit goes to Bob and Ira Spring.

Above are calendar months November and December, their caption reads, “Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona… here is Castle Rock, an historic landmark in the Canyon; so representative of the Oak Creek-Sedona Red Rock Country.” A close up of this spread shows hand written notes on the month of November. There are no hand written markings on any other month, but this month has notes like, “1 shirt, 3 dresses, .90”, “2.00”, “2 white, 6 shirt, 4 dress, 3 fuels shirts”, and “Meter read” written in cursive. Just makes me wonder what kind of establishment this calendar may have originally called home. Photo credit goes to “Ray Manley from Shostal”.

Here you will find calendar months July and August, which I will shamelessly state is my favorite spread of the entire calendar. I have never quite grown out of the childhood habit of opening up a calendar for the first time and flipping past all the other months to find my birthday month of July. It’s almost as if the sum of all its parts are not even important if the graphic representation of the month of July does not personally please me. A little silly, I know, but I suppose I’m alright with indulging in this little slice of juvenile selfishness. The caption for this photograph reads, “Lake Tahoe… a beautiful little granite-studded cove on the Nevada shore provides a refreshing dip for a family on a hot summer day.” Photo credit goes to Ray Atkeson, once again.