To Evelyn: Posters From The Stars

posted by Robyn Pitts June 3, 2019

To Evelyn is a collection of local entertainers posters from a working mens club in a small Yorkshire pit village. Published by CentreCentre, known for their limited edition books featuring unexpected collections and archives, To Evelyn is a celebration of a bygone era.

The posters were originally collected in the 1990s by local personality Evelyn Short. At the close of each night at the local working mens club she frequented, posters would be removed from the events board and signed To Evelyn. If the posters weren’t at hand, bad photocopies or even Bingo slips served as substitute autograph books, and some photos not to be missed were also mailed to her home. The posters, now assembled by her grandson David after he inherited the collection exhibit how pre-internet and social media, this was one of the few ways to create another you, presenting an identity far removed from the day to day.

Evelyn was a proud archivist and proponent, cracking open the collection for any visitor to her home, a role inherited by her grandson David. The posters are artefacts of eccentric pastimes, of a community brimming with enthusiasm and creativity, and of an extraordinarily ordinary pocket of time. For Evelyn, these stars were worth immortalising and the ephemera worth cataloguing.

The book explores national identity and sense of self, reminding us that with the right imagination we can transform into anyone or anything. The posters, many signed “To Evelyn” celebrate those identities, the weekend superstars, in all their glory.