Subject Collections

These are the subject collections housed in the Browne Popular Culture Library. Please stop by and see us to use any of these collections. Here's an overview of how to use the BPCL.

Note: in 2025, the term "Special Collections" referring to these collections in the Browne Popular Culture Library was renamed to "Subject Collections" to avoid confusion regarding the BGSU University Libraries' Special Collections department. For further information or for citation questions, feel free to contact us.

Advertising Ink Blotters
This is a collection of advertising ink blotters, an absorbent paper used to blot the excess ink off paper and prevent smearing when using fountain pens. With strong visual images on the front of the blotters, manufacturers and businesses gave them away to customers as free promotional items. Advertising ink blotters were used from the 1900s through the 1940s until the ballpoint pen was invented. For a detailed list of categories in this collection, consult the finding aid for the Advertising Ink Blotters Collection.

Advertising Proofs Collection
This is a collection of advertising proofs dating from the mid-to-late 1960s primarily. The proofs include advertising for various products and some list the magazine in which the ads were to be inserted, such as Reader's Digest, Field & Stream, or The New Yorker. Categories for the ads include, but are not limited to, cigarettes, food and beverages, clothing, and household products. This represents a small selection of ads from this time period, but may prove useful for users wishing to examine the advertising process.  For a detailed inventory of this collection, consult the Advertising Proofs Collection finding aid.

Advertising trade cards
An inventory of our collection of these mainly Victorian-era advertising resources is available in the Advertising Trade Card Collection finding aid.

Ann & Billy Wilkinson Ice Cream Card Collection

This collection of ice cream themed greeting cards was donated by Ann Wilkinson and varies in topics ranging from Birthday to Get Well and even Valentine's Day.

Audio Literature Collection

This collection is primarily books on CD and cassette from BPCL manuscript donors. Some other books from BPCL collections are included.

Automotive Vertical File Collection
The finding aid for this collection includes an overview of the collection and its organization as well as an inventory of the entire collection.

Beanie Baby Collection
This collection, donated by Matthew Wilson, includes one box of Beanie Babies of all kinds. To see a detailed inventory of this collection, consult the Beanie Baby Collection finding aid.

Beauty Pageant Collection
This is the finding aid for this collection of photos of Miss America contestants and programs and scrapbooks of articles from the pageants.

Bernard L. Karr Political Pinback Button Collection
The Bernard L. Karr Political Pinback Button Collection is comprised of hundreds of pinback buttons representing campaigns between 1976-2016, including every major Republican and Democratic presidential candidate. To see examples from this collection, check out the political buttons page in the Political Collections in the BPCL LibGuide.  See the finding aid for a detailed inventory of this collection.

Bicentennial Collection
This collection of printed materials and realia (e.g. objects from everyday life) commemorates the American Bicentennial celebration in 1976. For a detailed inventory of this collection, see the Bicentennial Collection finding aid.

Bill Schurk Postcard Collection

Bill Schurk began collecting postcards as a young boy while living in Cleveland, Ohio. He donated his collection to the Browne Popular Culture Library in 2017. Totaling over 11,000, the postcards are organized alphabetically by subject in the same order that Mr. Schurk arranged them.

Bridge Tally Cards

This collection, donated by Laura M. Mueller, contains mainly bridge tally cards and score pads from the early part of the 20th century to the 1960's. For a detailed inventory of this collection, consult the Laura M. Mueller Bridge Tally Card Collection finding aid.

Calendars
This finding aid describes the calendar collection and gives a list of subjects available.

Cigarette Pack Collection
Primarily purchased by sound recordings archivist Bill Schurk between the years 1958 and 1962, from Sam Klein Cigar Company in Cleveland, OH, this collection represents a sampling of the foreign and domestic cigarette brands available to consumers at the apex of cigarette consumption in the United States. For a detailed inventory of this collection, see the Cigarette Pack Collection finding aid.

Comic Art Collection (original)
The Browne Popular Culture Library has acquired a small collection of original comic art since its founding in 1969. These items take several forms, including pen and ink page layouts, prints, comic strips, original sketches, and animation cells. Artists represented include Robert Crumb, Milt Caniff, Art Sansom, Dik Browne, and Basil Wolverton among others.

Cookery Collection

This collection consists of printed recipe booklets and brochures for various food brands and kitchen products from the 1900s to the present. To see a detailed inventory of this collection, consult the Cookery Vertical File Collection finding aid.  To find out a little more about this collection and to see some examples, see the What's Cookin' in the BPCL LibGuide.

Cookie Cutter Collection
This collection contains an array of cookie cutter styles and shapes produced during the twentieth century and made from materials including tin, wood, aluminum, and plastic. Featuring cookie cutters whose shapes coincide with the iconography of national, ethnic, or religious holidays, this collection highlights seasonal celebrations and American foodways. See the Cookie Cutter Collection LibGuide for information about the collection and the finding aid for a more detailed inventory.

Display Photos Collection
A 3-box collection of black and white photographs of window displays from the Best & Co. store in New York City from 1933-1934. The displays garnered the Socrates' High Award of the Year in 1934, a competition for department store window displays in New York City. Photographs of the display manager, Richard Terhune, and his assistant, Mary Clark, are included. Information about this collection is available in the Advertising Resources LibGuide and also in a finding aid that gives more detailed information.

Fanzines @ BGSU

Flip Movies
The Flip Movies Collection consists 34 flip movie books featuring older cartoons like Tom and Jerry, Droopy, Wood Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Barney to more recent cartoons such as Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. The collection also includes flip movies such as Universal Movie Monsters and the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. For a detailed inventory, see the Dave Simmons Flip Movie Collection finding aid.

The Frank Kalan Romance Cover Art Collection
The Frank Kalan Collection provides researchers with the opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the most important elements of romance novel marketing- the cover. In addition, the BPCL already holds copies of many of the books created from Mr. Kalan’s work. The ability to consider this particular combination of creative process and published product is unique among academic archives, and will be a tremendous resource for scholars of romance fiction, one of the fastest growing aspects of popular culture research.

Games Collection
This is the finding aid for the Games Collection. Background of the collection and an inventory are included.

Gary C. Hoppenstand Adventure Fiction Collection
Dr. Gary Hoppenstand has given an extraordinary collection of British and American adventure fiction. The collection contains nearly one thousand monographs and features rare, first edition classics from the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and the early twentieth century.

Greeting cards
This gives an overview of the collection. A more detailed online inventory is in progress, with a print inventory in the BPCL reference area.

Hong Kong Cinema Laser Disc Collection
Amassed primarily from the holdings of now-defunct video rental stores, this collection contains a host of Hong Kong films that have never received a commercial, U.S. home video release. Offering a look at early performances of actors such as Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, and Donnie Yen alongside the formative works of Ann Hui, Ang Lee, John Woo, and Wong Kar-wai, this collection helps illustrate the transformation of Hong Kong actors and auteurs from regional celebrities into transnational superstars.

Hoosier Archives
Amassed by Walter Buchanan, this collection reflects the interest of many who played the game Diplomacy via the mail beginning in the 1960's.

Jeffrey Shore Collection

This is a collection of videos (VHS & DVD) dating from the 1980s-present and a small selection of miscellaneous materials; primarily related to Mr. Shore's work at E! Entertainment Television as well as videos submitted for Emmy consideration.

Liebig Cards
This collection of advertising trading cards consists of the colored lithographed cards found on the packaging of the Liebig products. The production of these cards started in 1870 and ended in 1975, spanning more than 11,000 different types of cards.

Little Blue Books
The Little Blue Books were published by the Halderman-Julius Publishing Company of Giraud Kansas from 1919-1978. The small staple-bound books were designed to fit into a working man's pocket. Emanuel Haldeman-Julius and his wife Marcet published them to foster ideals of American socialism and to provide basic education to the working classes. The books included classics of Western literature as well as books that dealt with current social and political issues. They were enormously popular until the 1950s when the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, put Halderman-Julius on its' enemies list.

Little Leather Library volumes

Mail-order catalogs
There is a company and subject list available, as well as an overview of the collection.

Marie Wakefield Star Trek Collection

The Star Trek Collection includes Star Trek memorabilia given to the Popular Culture Library principally by Marie Wakefield, but also contains items received from Sandra Springer, and items from other miscellaneous sources. The collection contains a wide range of materials including, but not limited to, books, journals, clothing items, models, posters, games, puzzles, greeting cards, playing and trading cards, and calendars.

Matchbook covers
These are arranged by subject and detailed list of categories is available in the Matchbook Covers Collection finding aid.

Mike Douglas Show
This is a collection of black and white still photographs from his Philadelphia show and a detailed inventory can be found in the finding aid for the Mike Douglas Show Collection.

Paper Doll Collection

This is a collection of a variety of paper doll sets primarily dating from the twentieth century. Most of the dolls are of motion picture celebrities, such as Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. Famous child celebrities are also represented, including Shirley Temple, Margaret O’Brien and the Dionne Quintuplets. For a detailed inventory of this collection, see the finding aid for the Paper Doll Collection.

Personal Growth Leaflets
These appeared in the early 20th century as commencement messages for young people.

Pin-back buttons
Many of these are displayed at the entrance to the BPCL. The rest of collection are arranged by subject. Take a look at the finding aid to read more about these buttons.

Pokemon Collection
This collection consists of American and Japanese Pokémon memorabilia dating from approximately 1998-2002.

Political Collection
The Political Collection is comprised of newsletters, pamphlets, booklets, transcripts, press kits, and various forms of realia primarily pertaining to American political figures, movements, and causes. Consult the Political Collection finding aid for information about the collection and a detailed inventory.  For examples of items in this collection, consult the Political Collection in the BPCL LibGuide.

Popular Entertainment Photo Collection
Photographs from TV programs, movies, TV movies, radio programs, and others. Come take a look.

Postcards
Arranged by country, state, and city, or by subject.  

Posters
The BPCL has several different kinds of posters: movie posters, World War I and II posters, movie lobby cards, and miscellaneous themed posters. To see any of these, stop by the BPCL Service/Reference Desk.

Radio City Music Hall Collection

This collection is comprised of magazine and newspaper articles, programs from decades of shows, photographs of the theatre itself as well as those who have performed there, and many other printed materials about Radio City Music Hall and the world-famous Rockettes.  See the finding aid for a detailed inventory of this collection.

Radio scripts
These are searchable by title with Library Search. They are also browsable by local call number radioscripts and by the subject heading radio scripts. There is also a finding aid available with the titles in the Du Pont series "The Cavalcade of America."

Rawhide Collection
This is a select collection of Rawhide (Television program) memorabilia.

Realia
These are arranged by subject or format. There is an item list available with the finding aid in the BPCL reference area. These typically are toys or memorabilia.

Religious Materials Collection
This collection is comprised of various types of religious materials used to evangelize and educate fellow believers.

Romance Publicity Collection
This is a collection of printed materials used for marketing romance Author/Publishers and books.

September 11 Collection
The September 11th Collection consists of 70 items related to al-Qaeda's attack on targets in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The collection is home to newspapers (mainly local) printed the day of and the days following the attacks in addition to periodicals, high school and university publications. The collection also contains other printed material such as advertisements, trading cards, a calendar, bumper stickers, a puzzle, and other items. A few video tapes round out the collection.

Somerville Gates Collection

Star Trek
This is the finding aid for this collection. See also the collection announcement from 1997, when the collection was donated.

Tim Conway Collection

A collection primarily of Dorf videos by Tim Conway

Titanic collection
Andrew Anthos was an avid and devoted Titanic collector based in Detroit, Michigan. Through his generous donation, the Browne Popular Culture Library holds a treasure trove of information regarding the film, its release, its worldwide reception, its stars, and the historic Titanic.

Trading cards
This collection is arranged by sport and non-sport categories. Click on either the sport or non-sport links to see a more detailed inventory.

Twin Peaks Collection
This collection of printed materials and realia is related to the Twin Peaks television series (1990-1991). These were donated by Frank Sciacca in 2019.

Vertical file
There is a listing available of subjects covered as well as a finding aid in the BPCL reference area.

The Vivian Stephens Collection

In the summer of 2018, the Romance Writers of America donated to the Browne Popular Culture Library a collection of books formerly used by Vivian Stephens during her days at both Dell and Harlequin. The collection includes books on women’s sexuality, editing and writing romance fiction, the publishing industry, as well as academic works on romance writing. A list of the books can be found in our catalog as The Vivian Stephens Collection.

World War I Collection
This is a collection of printed materials and ephemera from the United States during World War I.

World War I posters
These are arranged by issuing agency. See BPCL personnel for assistance.

World War II Collection
This is a collection of printed materials and ephemera from the United States during World War II.

World War II posters
See BPCL personnel for assistance.

World's Fairs Collection
Materials taken from the BPCL's Vertical File and Realia collections combine to make this intriguing collection of materials from various World's Fairs. See the World's Fair LibGuideand the finding aid for the World's Fair Collection.

Yearbook Collection
The Yearbook Collection is a selective set of 85 yearbooks from colleges around the U.S. Years range from 1891 to 1987.