​From my research, it appears that this bookmark was produced in 1947 as part of the "Keep Germs to Yourself" campaign, by the Queensland Health Education Council (Australia).  Many QLD newspapers published the Council's missive.  Here is one example...

Queensland Times (Ipswich), Tuesday 20 May 1947, page 2
HEALTH SERVICE (Issued by the Queensland Health Education Council).

KEEP GERMS TO YOURSELF
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Many of the ailments of this country are spread by droplets. If anyone sneezes in your face you will know what droplets are right enough. But there are many hundreds more than can be seen by the naked eye.
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The point about these droplets is not just that they are wet and unpleasant. They contain thousands upon thousands of germs and these germs cause disease; the disease the sneezer or cougher suffers from.

It is important to remember that such infections as colds, influenza, bronchitis, pneumonia, and many infectious diseases of childhood-are caused by germs.

The main problem facing the germs is how to get from one body into another. The unbroken skin forms a stout barrier against germs. So It is not surprising that they choose such an easy way in as the mouth, nose, and throat. There they settle down and multiply and, when they are ready to attack somebody else, they irritate the nose and throat so that they are blown out into the air by a cough or sneeze. In this way they can easily spread from a careless cougher or sneezer to an unsuspecting friend, acquaintance, or stranger.

COVER UP THAT SNEEZE

Everything possible should be done to stop those germs getting out of your throat into that of another. This can be done in a number of ways. But the golden rule is that you should never cough or sneeze without placing your handkerchief over your mouth or nose. This is especially important in trains, trams, buses, theatres, and other crowded places. The handkerchief will stop most of the germs getting into the air and so into other people's noses and throats.

If you have droplet infections  - a cold or influenza - you should go to bed at once. By doing so you avoid infecting others and will cut short your period off work.

Whatever your circumstances, do all you can to prevent these germs getting out of your mouth, nose, and throat on to the man, woman, or child next to you. Make sure your children are trained to do the same.

SOURCE: Purchased; Donations

Another Christmas has come and gone and it got me thinking about Christmas bookmarks.  I have several delightful vintage Christmas Greetings Bookmarks in my collection, some very recently added.  I am not sure of the date of any of them and my research has not greatly enlightened me thus far.  From comparing them to other bookmarks and cards I have found online however, the ones I have featured here are likely to have been published circa 1930s and 1940s.

The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the United Kingdom in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole.  At some point, bookmarks with Christmas Greetings also became popular and were exchanged widely in countries such as the UK, USA and Australia.  Some of these bookmarks were stand alone (like all the ones shown here) and some were included as part of a card.

ESPERANTO

Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language. It is the most widely spoken constructed language in the world.  The Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, Unua Libro, on 26 July 1887. The name of Esperanto derives from Doktoro Esperanto ("Esperanto" translates as "one who hopes"), the pseudonym under which Zamenhof published Unua Libro.

Zamenhof had three goals, as he wrote in Unua Libro:

1."To render the study of the language so easy as to make its acquisition mere play to the learner."
2."To enable the learner to make direct use of his knowledge with persons of any nationality, whether the language be universally accepted or not; in other words, the language is to be directly a means of international communication."
3."To find some means of overcoming the natural indifference of mankind, and disposing them, in the quickest manner possible, and en masse, to learn and use the proposed language as a living one, and not only in last extremities, and with the key at hand."

The first World Congress of Esperanto was organized in France in 1905. Since then, congresses have been held in various countries every year, with the exceptions of years during the world wars.

Although no country has adopted Esperanto officially, “Esperantujo” is the name given to places where it is spoken worldwide. Esperanto was recommended by the French Academy of Sciences in 1921 and recognized by UNESCO in 1954, which recommended in 1985 that international non-governmental organizations use Esperanto. Esperanto was the 32nd language accepted as adhering to the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" in 2007.

Today, Up to 2,000,000 people worldwide, to varying degrees, speak Esperanto, including about 1,000 to 2,000 native speakers who learned Esperanto from birth. The World Esperanto Association has members in 120 countries. Its usage is highest in Europe, East Asia, and South America.




















ESPERANTO: GREEN STAR

Since the earliest days of Esperanto, the colour green has been used as a symbol of mutual recognition, and it appears prominently in all Esperanto symbols. The Verda Stelo (Esperanto: Green Star) was first proposed in an 1892 article in La Esperantisto for use as a symbol of mutual recognition among Esperantists.

In a letter to The British Esperantist in 1911, L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, wrote: "It seems to me, that my attention was drawn to the color green by Mr. [R. H.] Geoghegan and from that time I began to publish all of my works with green covers . . . Looking at one of my pamphlets that I had entirely by chance printed with a green cover, he pointed out that this was the color of his homeland, Ireland; at that time it came to me, that we could certainly look at that color as a symbol of HOPE. About the five-pointed star, it seems to me, that at first Mr. de Beaufront had it imprinted on his grammar [of Esperanto]. I liked that and I adopted it as a symbol. Afterward by association of ideas, the star appeared with a green color."

To this day, the green star is a prominent feature on the Esperanto flag.

LITTLE BLUE BOOKS

Little Blue Books were a series of small staple-bound books published in 1919-1978 by the Haldeman-Julius Publishing Company of Girard, Kansas. They were extremely popular, and achieved a total of 300-500 million booklets sold over the series' lifetime. 

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, an atheist-Jew, socialist, and newspaper publisher, and his wife, Marcet, set out to publish small low price paperback pocketbooks that were intended to sweep the ranks of the working class as well as the "educated" class. Their goal was to get works of literature, a wide range of ideas, common sense knowledge and various points of view out to as large an audience as possible. These books, at approximately 3½ by 5 inches (8½ by 12¾ cm) easily fitted into a pocket. The inspiration for the series were cheap 10-cent paperback editions of various expired copyright classic works that Haldeman-Julius had purchased as a 15-year-old. 

The works covered were frequently classics of Western literature. Goethe and Shakespeare were well represented, as were the works of the Ancient Greeks, and more modern writers like Voltaire, Émile Zola, H. G. Wells. Some of the topics the Little Blue Books covered were on the cutting edge of societal norms. Shorter works from many popular authors such as Jack London and Henry David Thoreau were published, as were a number of anti-religious tracts written by Robert Ingersoll, ex-Catholic priest Joseph McCabe, and Haldeman-Julius himself. A young Will Durant wrote a series of Blue Books on philosophy which were republished in 1926 by Simon & Schuster as The Story of Philosophy.

Love this concept created by Igor “Rogix” Udushlivy, a graphic designer and illustrator, which I discovered today on his icoeye  website. The new concept, created by him uses dust jackets and bookmarks together to create a unique image of a book.

Fabulous! 

All the best with making your concept a widespread reality Igor.