Historical, Political & Space Items - General

Historical memorabilia includes any items associated with famous historical people, events, places, or organizations. The item must be associated with something or someone historical. This of course includes a huge range of collectible items, so collectors usually focus on one category within this area of collecting. For example, some people collect circus posters, others collect labor union memorabilia, and still others collect police and firefighter memorabilia.

One specific area of collecting that falls within historical memorabilia is political collecting. This includes any items, both historical and modern, that are associated with politics. Campaign buttons are very popular with political collectors, as are bumper stickers, posters, banners, watch fobs, medals, and other items that were produced for political campaigns. More specific yet is the area of space memorabilia, which involves collecting items associated with various space programs. Autographed photos and movie footage of space landings are popular with space collectors.

Historical memorabilia is often faked or reproduced, so collectors need to be knowledgeable about originals and aware of approved reproductions. Some types of reproductions are required by law to be labeled as such.

Quick Facts

• A historical reproduction is a copy of an already existing original piece of historical memorabilia. A fantasy item is an item that is made to represent a historical person or event that never really existed
• Many collections of historical memorabilia have been donated to museums, where the collections are cataloged and available for viewing to the public. Some photographs of collections have been posted online. These collections are good resources for collectors who want to see examples of original items
• Reproductions of historical campaign buttons were required to be marked as reproductions beginning in 1973