ISSN: 1544-9548
WINTER 2008
• Special Collections holds the papers
Vol. 5, No. 1
and published works of three Pulitizer
Prize winning authors: Russel B. Nye
(1945), Robert Coles (1973), and
Richard Ford (1996).
• While Special Collections does not
loan books, last year it received over
900 interlibrary loan requests of which
560 could be filled by copying materials
electronically. Almost all of the filled
requests were for magazine articles or
small pamphlets from our popular culture Who’s Who of
and radicalism collections.
• Dan Gerber has donated his
American Comic Books
manuscripts and papers to Special Archive joins the Comic Art Collection
Collections as part of the Michigan
Writers Collection. Gerber, a graduate MSU’s renowned Comic Art Collection negatives of his amazing personal microfilm
of MSU, is an award winning poet, is now home to the archive of library of golden age comic books. These
novelist, and essayist. His latest work, A questionnaires and correspondence used 350 reels hold about 7,000 comic
Second Life, A Collected Non-Fiction, to compile the Who’s Who of American books from the 1940s, and all are now
is published by the Michigan State Comic Books. The Who’s Who was listed in our online catalog. Both of these
University Press. created by Jerry Bails, a popular faculty remarkable collections are available for
member at Wayne State University, consultation now, and are dedicated to
• Special Collections has acquired one affectionately remembered as “the father helping future researchers build on the
of the artists’ books from the Guild of of comic book fandom.” massive accomplishments of Dr. Jerry G.
Book Workers 100th Anniversary show. Bails.
Reliquiae: An Abecedarium of Martyred First published in the 1970s, the
Saints, by the book artist Karen Jutzi Who’s Who immediately became a key – Randall W. Scott, Comic Art
will be added to the growing Book Arts reference work for the study of comic Bibliographer
collection for use by book arts classes in books. Bails continued to update the
the new Residential College in the Arts directory for more than 30 years, until
and Humanities. his death in 2006, and it was his
intention that the primary source material
• In spring 2007, MSU undergraduate associated with the Who’s Who become
Robin Roots won first place in the part of MSU’s Comic Art collection.
annual MSU Student Book Collection The archive includes the original
Competition for her collection, Picture handwritten questionnaires submitted by
Books for Peace and Social Justice. hundreds of artists, writers, and editors,
In addition to winning $500, Robin correspondence between Bails and
was automatically entered in a national comic art creators, art samples and press
collegiate book collecting contest clippings.
sponsored by Fine Books & Collections
Magazine. Along with the Who’s Who archive,
MSU has received many hundreds of
Jerry Bails’ books and comic art fanzines,
plus a working set and the master
Celebrating the Art Later in the year, Special Collections
hosted “The Book of Origins: A Survey
of the Book
of American Fine Binding,” showing
the work of ten U.S. binders who
participated in the exhibit “Le Livre des
The fusion of word and image – literature Origines.” Organized by the French
and the visual arts – came to life in two Canadian bookbinding society Les Amis
recent exhibits in Special Collections: de la Reliure d’Art du Canada, this
the Guild of Book Workers’ 100th international exhibit featured a “set piece,”
Anniversary Exhibition, and an exhibit of meaning all participants bound the same
American fine binding called “The Book book: a fine press printing of the Native
of Origins.” American Huron tribe’s origin myth. The
exhibit displayed a rich array of artistic
Ranging from the traditional to the interpretations of this single literary text.
avant garde, the works in both exhibits
challenged viewers to see books not The “Survey” exhibit was also a
merely as vessels of knowledge, but as art homecoming for one of the works:
objects worthy of study and appreciation. Special Collections owns a copy of the
The emphasis on master craftsmanship Book of Origins bound by conservator
elevates the physical manifestation of a Eric Alstrom.
literary work to the same realm as the
literature itself. Both exhibits have catalogs available
online: The Guild of Book Workers’
The Guild of Book Workers’ 100th 100th Anniversary Exhibition can be
Anniversary Exhibition featured more found at . The Survey can be found at
bindings in full leather with gold tooling .
in the shape of crowns and bird’s nests.
All invited the reader to interact with – Eric Alstrom. Library Conservator
the book, whether through the tactile
pleasure of turning pages, the visual
puzzle of examining multiple layers, or the
creative act of using slotted tiles to build Headbanded Strip (created in 2004) by Susan
towers of words. Joy Share, was among the works featured in the
Guild of Book Workers’ 100th Anniversary
Exhibition. Photo by David Broda (Syracuse
University Photo and Imaging Center).
Supporting
African Democracy
and Freedom
Special Collections is the home for • the American Coordinating Committee
MSU’s new African Activist Archive, for Equality in Sport and Society
a project of the African Studies Center. • the Boston Coalition for the Liberation
Dedicated to preserving the history of of Southern Africa
activism in support of African struggles • Educators Against Racism and
against colonialism and apartheid, the Apartheid
archive will preserve organizational • the Seattle Coalition Against Apartheid
records, personal papers, photographs, as well as the personal papers of Mary
oral histories, and ephemera such as Louise Hooper, an American Quaker
posters and buttons. who served in the 1950s as personal
secretary to Albert Luthuli, President
From the 1960s through the 1980s, of the African National Congress and
hundreds of organizations and individuals winner of the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize.
around the world mounted protests
of apartheid and advocated economic The African Activist Archive Project
sanctions against South Africa. In East website (www.africanactivist.msu.edu)
Lansing, the Southern Africa Liberation provides a directory listing archives in
Committee lobbied the East Lansing City depository institutions in the U.S. and
Council, the MSU Board of Trustees, abroad and an expanding collection of
the MSU Foundation, and the Michigan multimedia materials documenting the
Legislature for divestiture of holdings from African solidarity movement, including
companies operating in South Africa. The buttons, posters, photos, written (and
Patricia L. Beeman SALC Collection, soon video) remembrances.
housed in Special Collections, details the
activities of this organization. For more information or to help with the
project contact: David Wiley (wiley@
With the establishment of the African msu.edu) or Project Director Richard
Activist Archive, MSU Special Knight, (rknight1@juno.com). To enquire
Collections has received the records of about recently received library collections
several other organizations, including: contact: Peter Limb (limb@msu.edu)
517-432-6123 ext. 239.
— Peter Limb, Africana Bibliographer
Top: a letter from African National Congress
president Oliver Tambo to a young correspondent.
Bottom: children in a New York City public
school perform a play about apartheid in the early
1990s.
Both from the Educators Against Racism and
Apartheid Archive.
New: The Latino Film Collection
Though the majority of items relate to
American film and television, the Latino
Film Collection also has examples of
Expanding Cultural Studies at MSU Cuban, Mexican, and South American
films, and ephemera from Britain, Italy,
Students of film and Chicano and Latino The collection also provides significant Mexico, Cuba, and East Germany.
history now have a major new resource insights into the treatment of Latino
For more information about the Latino
at the MSU Libraries: the Latino Film characters in film and television as it
Film Collection, please contact Diana
Collection. This unique archive of rare has evolved over the decades. Early
Rivera, the library’s specialist in Ethnic
ephemera dating back to the 1916 silent films portrayed Latino characters almost
Studies, at dianar@mail.lib.msu.edu or
film era includes nearly 600 scripts, exclusively as Mexican, often using
517-432-6123 x252.
lobby cards, photoplay editions, press negative stereotypes. In the silent era,
books and press kits. for example, actresses like Lupe Velez —Diana Rivera, Ethnic Studies Librarian
and Dolores Del Rio were often cast as
The Collection offers researchers an “Mexican spitfires” or sultry seductresses.
unmatched opportunity to examine how In the 1930s and early 1940s, stars like
Latinos – the descendents of Latin Cesar Romero and Carmen Miranda often
American immigrants to the US – and portrayed characters in lighter comedies
Mexican Americans have been portrayed and musicals, and after World War II, a
in American films over the past 90 years. new generation of Latino actors emerged
Scholars of gender studies, cinema, to wider recognition, including Ricardo
ethnic and Latin American studies, and Montalban and Fernando Lamas.
American history and culture will all find
valuable primary resource material here.
The collection focuses on American-made
films with Latino characters, and includes
the full range of roles played by the
great Latino movie stars, including Rita
Hayworth, Anthony Quinn, Lupe Velez,
Cesar Romero and Duncan Reynaldo.
Colorful vintage movie
posters are part of the rich
holdings of the new Latino
Film Collection.