MARBL

Dooley and his entourage visit MARBL during Dooley's Week 2013

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This week, MARBL was fortunate enough to have a surprise visit from Dooley and his entourage. Dooley came to MARBL and asked to see some University Archives materials relating to him and his time at Emory. The obvious first choice was to show him the Dooley Collection, which contains Dooley memorabilia and correspondence written by Dooley from the 1980s and 1990s.

Dooley and his entourage in MARBL

But beyond theses archival materials, there are plenty of publications that feature Dooley as well. One such publication is, Dooley's Rib, a guide for female students that was created just after women were allowed to enroll at Emory. The pamphlet features a female-incarnation of Dooley and advises students about dress-code and dorm life, among other things. Dooley and his entourage definitely enjoyed seeing this glimpse into what student life was like in the 1950s.

Dooley's Rib

What we weren't able to pull in time for Dooley was the original article about Dooley from 1899 entitled "Reflections of a Skeleton," which was published in the student literary magazine The Emory Phoenix. Written from the perspective of a skeleton living in one of the classrooms on campus, this article can be traced back as the origin of Dooley as we know him today. This article and other publications featuring Dooley are available for anyone to request and come view in MARBL.

A view of the now-empty shelves which previously held MARBL's book collections

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We at MARBL would like to thank everyone for their patience while we created a new space for our books and technical services teams. From the loud, sometimes disruptive, construction, to the recent, hectic book move, we appreciate everyone who came on board and made this whole process a great success! While this new area will remain unaccessible by the public, we wanted to include some during and after images to show you what an undertaking it was completely transforming a floor and making it a new, secure space for our important collections.

The very early stages of construction

You may be happy to learn that all of our books are now located on-site and we no longer have to make use of our off-site storage facility when it comes to our rare book collection. You also may not have known that previously the books which were located here were housed on two separate floors, and that our staff had offices scattered throughout the Woodruff Library. This new construction has given us the opportunity to bring all of our behind-the-scenes staff, as well as our book collection, to one unified space. We hope this process helps to make MARBL a more efficient, collaborative machine from which our patrons reap the benefits.

Sledgehammer used to demolish a concrete wall.

As you can see from the below image, we've upgraded to electronic compact shelving similar to that which is used throughout the stacks in the rest of the Woodruff Library.

Installation of the wiring for the compact shelving.

While our collections highlight the past, modern improvements to preserving and securing them are always positive steps forward. We hope these changes will help us to continue to guide our collections well into the future.

A newly occupied book shelf in MARBL's new space

Keep On Truckin' Poster, R. Crumb, 1967

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The Raymond Danowski and John Martin collection of R. Crumb material is a new addition to the manuscripts at MARBL and has recently been fully processed. Robert Dennis Crumb (R. Crumb) is the most prominent member of the underground comic book genre, or "comix," and is usually referred to as one of the "fathers" of the movement.

Crumb was born on August 30, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was one of the five children of Charles and Beatrice Crumb. While Crumb developed his comics career outside of the mainstream comic publishing industry, he began his work in art as an illustrator for American Greeting Corporation in 1962, taking a job in Cleveland, Ohio after high school. In 1967, he left Cleveland, for San Francisco, California, and became involved with the counterculture whose members gravitated to his work. While he is probably most known for his "Keep Truckin'" comics, other popular characters include Mr. Natural, Devil Girl, and Fritz the Cat. In the 1980s, he created the magazine Weirdo to feature other graphic artists outside of the mainstream. Several years later, Crumb's friend Terry Zwigoff produced the documentary film Crumb, which received an Oscar nomination. In 1984, Crumb moved to the south of France with his second wife, Aline Kominsky Crumb.

The collection, itself, consists of materials collected by Raymond Danowski and John Martin, relating to R. Crumb and his work. Most of the records are published items--many are comics by Crumb -- but there are two unpublished versions of his graphic novel, Big Yum Yum Book: Oggie and the Beanstalk (1963), printed and spiral bound. In addition to his art, there are a number of articles about Crumb and also written by him. Many of these articles were published periodicals dedicated to comics and the culture, but there are a number of articles printed in popular magazines such as People, Esquire, Newsweek, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine.  There are also a number of foreign presses represented in the collections with Crumb's work being featured in El Vibora (Spain), Jymy-sarjat (Finland), and Ekstremisten (Norway).  Other printed material includes posters of Crumb's work as well as artwork by his second wife, Aline, and his younger brother, Maxon.

Danowski and Martin also collected a variety of memorabilia. Included in the collection are trading cards that Crumb created for the Topps Chewing Gum Company in 1965 as well as card packs he created with Yazoo Records, a company that used those images on many of the LP records also included in the collection. In addition, there are a number of assorted items -- a testament to the varied and erratic interests of Crumb -- including a box of Devil Girl chocolates, a bottle of "snake oil," a bicycle wheel patch kit, rubber stamps, figurines and statuettes, and t-shirts depicting Crumb's characters and artwork. There are also compact discs, VHS tapes, contact prints, and LP records. The VHS tapes are copies of the film, Crumb, produced by Terry Zwigoff, and the contact prints include images of Crumb and his wife, Aline. The compact discs and LPs are either musical contributions by Crumb's band, R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders; music inspired by Crumb's work; or albums that feature Crumb's artwork on the cover, including Big Brother and the Holding Company's "Cheap Thrills" album.

The Raymond Danowski and John Martin collection of R. Crumb material is an interesting collection that will add to the continued research and interest in American literary culture. The work itself documents the underground comics genre and captures a view of this counterculture movement during the 1960s through the 1980s. Crumb's satire and distinct view of the world highlight a culture that was brought about by the sale of Zap! Magazine on the street corners of San Francisco in 1968, weird and disturbing and even offensive, but personal and autobiographical.