Browne Popular Culture Library

Introduction | Biographical Sketch | Scope and Content | Series Description | Inventory

Introduction 

Michael B. Corbett is a collector of and participant in Mail Art. Thirty-four separate exhibits as well as miscellaneous articles and letters comprise the core of the collection.

In 1995 Michael B. Corbett transferred the original collection of mail art to the Browne Popular Culture Library. Additional donations in nine installments were collected through 1998, and additions to the collection are anticipated. The collection is open for research, but the photocopying of manuscripts must comply with applicable copyright laws. This register was compiled by Kirk Richardson under the supervision of Jean Geist, Popular Culture Library Associate II.

Biographical Sketch 

Michael Corbett was born in Camden, NJ, on March 20, 1963. Before moving to Baltimore, MD, to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art, he lived in Barrington, NJ, Ogletown, DE, and Centreville, DE. He graduated summa cum laude in 1985 with a BFA in Ceramics and continued his study, first at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and then at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, where he eventually earned an MFA in Art in 1988. Currently, he resides in Preston Park, PA.

Scope and Content 

The Michael B. Corbett Collection houses thirty-four parcels of Mail Art. Each bundle is comprised of approximately forty individual pieces of Mail Art.

The collection should be of use to researchers interested in the avant-garde movement of Mail Art. Mail Art is the exchange of art and ideas among visual, audio, and literary artists. Rather than emphasize the idea of the artist as a master creating a priceless individual piece, Mail Art encourages mass-production and free distribution of art. The Mail Artist's tools often include custom-made stamps, photography, the photocopy machine and other printing techniques as well as more traditional media such as pencils and water-colors.

M.B. Corbett wrote, "While the mailing or opening of a letter certainly can constitute the exhibition in mail art, many pieces are made specifically for public showing in the traditional sense. Such exhibits have been held in museums, galleries, alternative spaces, shops, cafes, nightclubs, parks, the street, at festival fairs, and on people's bodies. Since mail art now encompasses diverse pursuits including video, audio, and performance, the term 'networking' has come to denote this greater umbrella of activity. Hence, I refer to myself as a networker."

Series Description 

General Files

Series

Mail Art

1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998

Arranged chronologically by date mailed

Inventory 

Back to A-Z Listing of Manuscript Collections