University Libraries
Special Collections

In some cases, the catalog record describes a group of related materials collectively. The staff of the library locations can provide further information about materials within their collections, including items not yet represented in the catalog. For many collections, finding aids are available in the appropriate library.

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Hours: Call for hours

The Cartoon Research Library's primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to the collections. It is the largest and most comprehensive academic research facility documenting printed cartoon art.

Materials concerning animation are collected only as they relate to the library's printed cartoon collections. Current holdings include more than 370,000 graphic materials, such as 240,000 original cartoons; more than 20,000 books, including a notable collections of Japanese comics known as manga; more than 13,000 serial titles; and more than 2,800 linear feet of manuscript materials and archival collections related to the profession of cartooning such as the records of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, the National Cartoonists Society, and the Newspaper Features Council, as well as extensive files pertaining to the Cartoonists Guild. The biographical registry of cartoonists has files on more than 3,000 cartoonists; and the library also maintains a clipping file organized by cartoon-related topics.

CGA also holds collections of more than 125,000 file posters and stills. Ohio State University's collections of photographs are available here. Of special importance is the Floyd and Marion Rinhart Collection of nineteenth and early 20th century images. In addition to the Jon Whilcomb Collection, the history of magazine illustration is documented by the Will Rannells Collection. A small but interesting variety of posters, expecially those issued during the two world wars is available.

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Hours: Weekdays 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

The Hilandar Research Library has the largest collection of medieval Slavic manuscripts on microform in the world. The more than 5,000 Slavic manuscripts from twenty-one countries and more than eighty different monastic, private, and national collections, are used by scholars from all over the world. Of special interest are more than 1,000 Slavic manuscripts from different monasteries on Mount Athos, Greece, including the entire Slavic collection of Hilandar Monastery. These materials on microform are now accessible to women scholars for the first time. Other collections, such as those of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Hungary, that are remote and/or generally closed, are also available. Half of the HRL holdings come from various repositories in Russia.

The Hilandar Research Library also contains a large collection of early Cyrillic printed books on microform, as well as a large specialized reference collection, print and microform, and numerous microform readers, a reader-printer, and microcomputers.

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Hours: Weekdays 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

The Lawrence & Lee Theatre Research Institute houses materials which document Western theatre from the 16th century through contemporary times. Primary areas include regional theatre, scene and costume design, and individuals active in the 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century American theatre and theatrical dance. The John H. McDowell Film Archive holds rare theatrical documents from the 16th through early 20th centuries on microform acquired from libraries and museums internationally.

TRI holds collections for individuals such as playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Don Nigro, Tom Eyen, and members of the International Centre for Women Playwrights; choreographers Twyla Tharp, Bebe Miller, and Randy Skinner; actors Eileen Heckart and Madge Kendal; producers Jed Harris and Doris Cole Abrahams; actor/director Robert Breen; photographers Ray Lee Jackson; New York Post columnist Earl Wilson; Best Plays editor Otis Guernsey, music educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, and many others.

Original designs include work by Mordecai Gorelik, Simon Lissim, Alexandra Exter, Boris Anisfeld, Robert Edmond Jones, Alexander Benois, Daphne Dare, William Pitkin, the Armbruster Scenic Studio, and many others.

Archives of theatres, theatre companies, producing organizations, and theatre organizations include the American Playwrights Theatre; the Los Angeles Theatre Center; the Contemporary American Theatre Company (CATCO); Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati; the Harmount Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company; the Hartman Theatre; Horse Cave Theatre (KY); Players Theatre Columbus; Playhouse-on-the-Green; Reality Theatre; the Columbus Symphony Orchestra; Columbus Children's Theatre, the American Theatre Critics Association; the Black Theatre Network; and U/RTA.

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Hours: Weekdays 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. or by appointment

The Medical Heritage Center (MHC) is the joint effort of the OSU Prior Health Sciences Library and the Columbus Medical Association and is located on the fifth floor of the Library. This is the only health sciences history collection in the central Ohio area.

MHC holds historical books, journals, medical archives, manuscript collections and antique health related artifacts. The various collections focus on health sciences in central Ohio, prominent local health professionals and The Ohio State University Health Sciences Center. General health-related subjects of historical significance are also available. Of special interest are the collections of William H. Havener MD; James V. Warren MD; Richard L. Meiling; William G. Myers MD, PhD; Robert M. Zollinger MD; Ohio Public Health Association and the Ohio Hospital Federation.

The Center houses a historical display gallery; rare book reading research room and a large meeting facility for lectures, symposia and special events. Two temperature and humidity controlled areas house the historical collections.

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Hours: Weekdays 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Among the strengths of Rare Books and Manuscripts are the Talfourd Linn and related collections of the work of Cervantes; the Stanely J. Kahrl Seventeenth-Century Drama Collection; science fiction, including extensive runs of British and American magazines and a full set of Star Trek scripts; American popular sheet music; Reformation era history; the Peter D. Franklin Cookbook Collection; the Emanuel Rudolph Children's Science Collection; the Ingh Collection, and the writing of such authors as W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, John Gardner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Jack London, Anais Nin, and Jesse Stuart. The Avant Writing Collection of books and manuscripts is rapidly becoming among the greatest collections of its kind in the nation.

The comprehensive James Thurber Collection includes some 20,000 pages of manuscript and 375 original drawings. Other important holdings include manuscripts by Samuel Beckett, W.W. Charters, Hart Crane, T.J. Holmes, Ralph D. Mershon, Jessica Mitford, and F.L. Utley.

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Hours: Weekdays 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

The University Archives and its Photo Archives contain materials that document the history of the University community. Included are publications (such as histories of the University and its departments and buildings, directories, catalogs, and yearbooks), committees' minutes, office files, and clippings. Papers of distinguished faculty, general biographical information concerning faculty and administrators, and the records of many student organizations are also in the Archives. The Photo Archives has photographic images of the University from the 1870s to the present.

Located in the University Archives, the historical collections of the Byrd Archival Program document the activities of explorers and scientists in polar regions. Most noteworthy are the papers of Admiral Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957), Sir Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958), and Dr. Frederick Cook (1865-1940). They contain correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, and films of their expeditions to the North and South Poles.

In addition, the Archives also contains the original documentation of John Glenn as a war hero, astronaut, and U.S. Senator.

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Hours: Weekdays 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

The William Charvat Collection of American Fiction is nationally recognized for its outstanding holdings of American fiction from the eighteenth century to the present. While the number of earlier American fiction titles, 1787-1900, is comparable to similar collections at Yale and the Huntington Library, the Charvat Collection is particularly strong in the period 1876-1900. For twentieth century American fiction, the collection’s holdings for the years 1901-1925 are rivaled only by those of the Library of Congress.

Twentieth-century fiction titles are augmented by manuscripts and papers of contemporary authors, including Nelson Algren, William S. Burroughs, Frederick Busch, Raymond Carver, Lin Carter, Tess Gallagher, William Bradford Huie, James Purdy, Helen Hooven Santmyer, William T. Vollman, and the contributors to the literary journal, Conjunctions.

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