Other Descriptive Information

Note from the collector:

How I Came to Collect Seattle Handbills

In the middle of the 1960s I became aware of the social political climate building in America, personified by the Civil Rights movement, the anti Viet Nam War forces and later the Counter Culture. I began to collect samples of this angst, etc., in the form of handbills (leaflets and flyers). They range from garage sales and lost pets to anti war rallies, liberation movement, ecology and new wave thinking. I walked several thousand miles collecting the 10,000 plus handbills one at a time from telephone poles and bulletin boards in the Seattle area, especially from Capitol Hill and the University District.

Thanks to the refinement of the [Xerox] machine, the spirit of Thomas Paine flooded the American fabric with handbills. It was a huge paper explosion from an extraordinary diverse public -- everyone suddenly had a cheap printing press all their own! It was truly the voice of the people on a national and unprecedented scale. All across America people were dealing with a staggering amount of issues and other radicalizing forces. Since it was happening everywhere, Seattle could be a good example of this silent revolution of paper.

Vashon Island historian Garland Norin wrote: "Your thesis that grassroots handbills throughout a quarter of a century period truly focuses on issues that eventually brought about social and political change. Your proposed book on handbills shows the power of the movement and its expansiveness. Your record of this worldwide time of discontent as illustrated by handbills reveals the historical significance of this picture form of communication."

I hoped to put the best examples in a picture book someday so I [xeroxed] the best examples of years 1967 to 1996 as a mock up for the book. It was to be titled Democracy in Action.

...This paper explosion is basically over, with the Internet taking its place. The passion represented by these handbills has subsided by comparison, also.