Vintage Halloween Collectibles Research (1900-1979)

THR's Archive Collection Rarely seen content by Beistle The Halloween Retrospect librarian doesn't have a great deal of time for photo-hyping the THR collection online - preferring instead to keep most items safely in storage until time to examine for deeper research and/or photographing for inclusion in reference guides such as recent art-book surveys So, the newest shelf display (above) full of vintage Beistle Halloween collectible envelopes is a bit of a rarity... dreamed up on a lark... as both a means to consider possible subject matter for future publications while simultaneously celebrating the existing six THR books for sale on Etsy . See the Instagram post (below from @halloweenretrrospecs ) for additional detail views of these vintage Halloween collectibles by Beistle . There are nearly 50 original envelopes (most with original content) of various products ranging from complete party outfits to individual envelopes for select items such as invitations, etc. (Note tha...

THR Halloween Collector Guides 2nd Anniversary Review As of July 2025 (two years since THR's first book release) there are now five  guidebooks available on the subject of vintage Halloween collectibles! There are  four volumes of The Halloween Retrospect digests as well as one art survey Halloween Artifacts  and there is more material under development for the near future! Regardless of whether it is a digest or survey, all are created for Halloween collector's book shelves to offer different types of references material on the vintage Halloween market via primary sources (mainly on-hand ~635 catalogs as well as material from archives and libraries across the United States), Guidebooks for the vintage Halloween collector with a focus on vintage research through vintage sources. If catching up to The Halloween Retrospect archive library as an independent publisher, see the  Home page  (of the THR website) for an intro including two years worth o...

Vintage Halloween Collectible Guide: THR's New Visual Survey of Lanterns The Halloween Retrospect  ( see THR's bookstore on etsy here ) is pleased to announce that as of the end of September 2024 nearly 200 books by THR have sold since the first research digests arrived for sale in June 2023. Perhaps that is relatively a small number, but the archive librarian feels this ain't too shabby give the niche subject matter, and that THR (publications) is a small do-it-yourself enterprise available only via the etsy bookstore .  And, at that, most of those books were wordy research digests based on data from THR's archive library (!!!) but now, just over a year later, THR begins a splashy new series of visual survey books that are more like art-books in their presentation of vintage Halloween collectibles. That said, the content remains focused on using that archive library of catalogs, newspapers, etc., to show the market availability of the items' as seen from the vinta...

Vision-wary Architects freebie mailer: By way of quick introduction, the photo above is a visual celebration that shows all the postcards that went out in a batch mailer the week of July 21, 2024 - to all who previously purchased any volume of The Halloween Retrospect guidebook reference . Thank you!!!  Sending out a mailer in such numbers really proved to this author how much support has found its way to The Halloween Retrospect archive library . A head-spinning number of crossword cards going out to those who in past purchased any volume of The Halloween Retrospect. The story behind the postcard is this.... Since the release June 2024 of new reference  THR,  Vol 3  ( link here to THR book store ) the author has been continuing in background with the creation of brain-teasers for autumn fans. You might recall that Volume 3 is the first in the THR series to contain a "Puzzle Bulletin" with a vintage-Halloween themed crossword "Afterworld Lodger" inspired by th...

UPDATE: October 17, 2025 As of Oct today THR publications have tripled since this post. The digest series( seen below) reaches 4 volumes and a new survey series Halloween Artifacts is on its second release. See current vintage Halloween collectible reference books at  Etsy THR Bookstore . Thank you!