The collection behind Matchbook Relics began in the late 1930s, when Jack Barnes started saving matchbook covers from restaurants, hotels, roadside stops and other everyday places. What began as a young man’s hobby became an 82-year pursuit.
Jack was an active member of the Rathkamp Matchcover Society and built the collection through conventions, auctions, trades and friendships with collectors across the country. Over the decades, it grew to nearly one million covers representing businesses, communities and landmarks from across America and around the world.
The collection eventually passed to Jack’s son, Warren, and Warren’s wife, Jane. Together, they created Matchbook Relics to preserve the collection’s history and help its individual pieces find their way to people who value them.
A matchcover may advertise a long-vanished restaurant, a hometown business, a military base, a racetrack or a hotel remembered from a family vacation. To someone else, it may preserve a connection to a parent, grandparent, former employer or community that has changed beyond recognition.
Matchbook Relics shares the stories behind these small pieces of advertising history while placing the original covers into the hands of collectors, local historians, families and others with a personal connection to the places they represent. Sometimes the smallest artifacts carry the largest memories.