The Halloween Retrospect archive library is an evolving reference collection of vintage information objects including (as of 11-5-2025) ~650 vintage catalogs (1900-1979), with additional books, magazines, advertisements, etc. These are primary source materials gathered to recapture the original market of vintage Halloween collectibles.
Image – Updated October 2025 – six Halloween collectibles books from THR online bookstore.
The various images here (see banner, image above, and image at bottom) offer examples of archive materials and objects from THR library shelves and collection used to research Halloween products available from early-20th-century to mid-century and later time periods. The resulting THR publications (often part of these collages) now include six books about vintage Halloween collectibles, all on sale from THR’s online bookstore. It is hoped you too will enjoy celebrating such data that reveals the yesteryears of Halloween products and the larger history of Americana (often with international connections to the development of expressions we observe).
PLEASE NOTE: THR does NOT employ AI-generative technology. Content is created by human biological entities to ensure results engage accurate research with mindful artistry.
latest blog posts from THR’s archivist librarian
Below, are some on-site snippets of information (as on-site blog) expanding upon various content of THR volumes. The goal is to offer a selection of additional treats – such as behind-the-scene views of THR, or bits-and-pieces of text/images that didn’t fit a final print volume.
Toy Tales Halloween 2025 Archivist – The Halloween Retrospect by Joanna Hauser – Oct 31, 2025 The Friday Five. What a most wonderful surprise! This Halloween 2025 is a special treat for The Halloween Retrospect! The archive has once again been interviewed by the fun-loving folks at Toy Tales (independent toy …
NEW Sixth reference for Halloween! Announcing Halloween Artifacts, Volume 2: Festoons which is book six (!!!) in a two-year+ publication venture from the archive library of The Halloween Retrospect! This will continue the Halloween Artifacts series with large-scale full-color photographs spanning 114 pages. This bigger 8-1/2 x 11 format offers multiple …
Non-Invasive Restoration of Existing Honeycomb The above image shows the before and after of af Beistle novelty dancing figure Lasansky dates 1930-1937. Note the facial features will change across the decades in latter versions. Over a decade earlier in days of initial blog The Sane Halloween Observer a musing is penned …
Digests & Art Surveys: 2 Years of THR Guidebooks The above image reviews some of the various vintage Halloween collectible guidebooks and art surveys published by The Halloween Retrospect since July 2023. Not to toot one's own holiday noisemaker, but The Halloween Retrospect wishes to take a moment to review it's …
Miniature Standees Seeking new discoveries and/or ways of looking at old data are standard methodologies here at the Halloween Retrospect archive which began studies (for THR, V1 released July 2023) with no more than 480 primary source catalogs which have since increased (as of June 2025) to about 635 . So, …
School Holidaze From THR's archive library, the recent digest The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4 features a two-part article recalling certain individuals working toward educational improvements in the United States. Some may surprise. For example, while audiences today associate Milton Bradley with games, there is more to the founder (see also Milton …
Above image is a repeat of this blog entry's banner with Halloween collectibles research tools used by THR, V4 including: copyright, patent, & archive library materials. A World of Halloween Sources One reason THR guides published here since 2023 as The Halloween Retrospect differ, than many past guidebooks on the subject …
Volume 4 Vintage collectibles Guide The archive librarian returns in a big way to its digest series of vintage Halloween collectible guides with The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4. This new release book not only continues solving mysteries of old holiday products (via research of 625+ catalogs 1900 to 1979) but this …
Other Holidays Unlocking Halloween Product data As collector these past twenty-something years, it becomes apparent very early that numerous holidays (Christmas, Easter, et. al.) provide data relative to vintage Halloween collectibles, (and this writer thinks of their own multi-seasonal forays for Bindlegrim as creative maker). Thus, even though The Halloween Retrospect …
Great Tastes in Books With recent inclusion of Halloween Artifacts, Volume 1: Lighting among books about vintage Halloween in the Practical Peculiarities household library (and see Nikk's latest cookbook Peculiar Baking), it seems a perfect time to review some of the items shown in Nikk's 2023 AND 2024 specials… and offer …
Art books & Research Digests (THR) Image Updated March 2025 to include The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 4: A selection of book publications from The Halloween Retrospect archive library – featuring vintage Halloween collectibles guides in small digest volumes and the newest art-book survey Halloween Artifacts. Since the first THR archive library …
NEW! Full-Color Halloween Guide Halloween Artifacts, Volume 1: Lighting is the newest guide for vintage Halloween collectibles. The book is expected to have a sales release date of September 21, 2024 from the THR bookstore on Etsy. And while the new survey book series will shift into picture-book style with big …
Primary sources & The Halloween Retrospect V3 Do you know where your guidebook gets its data, and will future research be able to use it as a citable source? This question is a continuing concern at THR's archive library, and it is a distinguishing direction with its own series of vintage …
Reference Books for Vintage Halloween collectors Updated April 23, 2025 If you are just now encountering The Halloween Retrospect archive library and its in-house publishing of Halloween reference material, please see the Home page (for introduction and a list of numerous blog entries) or check out various pages such as About or Publications. In the meantime, …
Volume 3 Vintage collectibles Guide The next reference for vintage Halloween collectibles is expected for sale in early summer 2024 with The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 3. As with earlier volumes, the newest book in the series will continue to delve more deeply into certain subjects of the vintage Halloween market, offering …
Hallmark Vintage Packaging Part 3: 1970-1979 This entry is Part 3 in a short blog series examining Hallmark (1950-1980) ephemera – mainly assembly, honeycomb, and pop-ups. As stated in Hallmark Halloween: 1950's and Halloween Hallmark: 1960's, THR is writing these entries to develop data for vintage Hallmark Halloween centerpieces to assist …
Hallmark Vintage Packaging Part 2: 1960-1969 As mentioned in previous entry Hallmark Halloween: 1950's, THR is developing data for vintage Hallmark Halloween centerpieces (those near and bit later than mid-century) to assist an article (on a different yet related topic) in works for collectors' guide Volume 3 of The Halloween Retrospect. …
Hallmark Vintage Packaging Part 1: 1950-1959 The archivist-librarian has been seeking data on vintage Hallmark Halloween collectibles now that articles are underway for Volume 3 of The Halloween Retrospect (a research series from THR's bookstore). And so, as a sneak-peek to future content for faithful readers (noting importantly that this blog …
Vintage Inspirations Developing cover art for The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 2, I remember much of the inspiration came by way of vintage textures, colors, and sales copy found in vendor catalogs – with the cheeky idea that one would view the front or back sides of a vintage collectible dependent on …
Toy Tales Collector Interview The Halloween Retrospect’s catalog collection is a market history seen through vintage pages filled of gewgaws, thingamabobs, whatchamacallits, doohickeys, and holiday curios (including my personal favorite Halloween) dating 1900 to 1979. Since the library began as a bit of a side-project as a relatively new venture built …
Image (clockwise) above left: THR catalogs B Shackman (1927-1928), The Beistle Co. (1923), Sears (1946), American Tissue Mills (1928), March Brothers Publishing (1917). Above right: Vintage Halloween chalkware figure. Below right: THR catalogs Slack MFG Co. (c. 1957), Granger Fréres (1931), Sally Distributors (c. 1962), Dennison’s Bogie Book (1914), Einzinger’s Narrenfibel (1968-1970). Below left: San Francisco Chronicle, Magazine Section newsprint cover (1922).
PLEASE NOTE: THR does NOT employ AI-generative technology. Content is created by human biological entities to ensure results engage accurate research with mindful artistry.
