#the billy ireland cartoon library and museum

[hamshamwitch]

Had a great time at Nancyfest at OSU's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum yesterday

[copcomco]

The Nancy Show in on!

This book's full title, The Nancy Show: Celebrating the Art of Ernie Bushmiller – A Catalogue Accompanying the Exhibition at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum – pretty much sums it up.  For those of you who don't expect to be able to visit the exhibition in person, this horizontally formatted, 12" x 9", 152 page, flexicover volume does a great job of presenting it to you in the comfort of your reading chair.  It features 72 big pages of high resolution scans of the original Bushmiller art along with 36 pages of full color reproductions of Nancy Sunday pages, plus plenty of pics of Nancy memorabilia and ephemera, an essay by exhibition curator Brian Walker amd more – including a Special Bonus Gift: inserted in the rear of the book is a fold-out sheet of Nancy gift-wrapping paper, composed of a collage of dozens of classic Nancy panels, suitable for wrapping the book itself or anything else one might give to a Nancy lover, yes – BUT, you're more likely to want to frame it and hang it on the wall!  So, with all that on offer – and for a quite reasonable price, we might add even those who managed to make it to the exhibit in person are likely to want to take a copy home with them.

Now in stock at Copacetic and available HERE.

[bluearchivedrive]

Free Online Archives

There’s a number of free (and legal!) online databases. Here’s just a few I use frequently:

BILLY IRELAND CARTOON LIBRARY AND MUSEUM: focused on comics and a bit of animation, much of their vast archive is digitalized and available to the public. Link here

MAYDAY ROOMS: focused on history of marginalized/underground cultures. Takes donations! Link here

THEOI: database on Greek mythology. Link here

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY: Focused on philosophers (as the name would suggest). Link here

GOOGLE SCHOLAR: a great way to look for specifically scholarly research. Link here

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DIGITAL COLLECTIONS: Much of the Library’s digitized collection is available to the public even without a library card. Link here

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: Much of thier collection is available to view online, and there’s over 1000 essays on the artworks and their history. Link here

FOR MORE RESOURCES, CHECK OUT THE GOOGLE DRIVE IN OUR PINNED POST!

[tsunflowers]

after otherworld we went to the billy ireland cartoon library and museum! another highly recommended columbus destination. the osu library's collection has

with free exhibits showcasing "treasures of the collection" and a reading room where you can view cartoons and comics from their archives

[tootern2345]

The Harrison-Gould staff animating on a Krazy Kat cartoon circa 1928

Left to right: Ben Harrison, Manny Gould, Sid Marcus, Al Rose and Art Davis

From the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum website. I DO NOT own any of the stuff here. If someone wants me to take this down, I will!

[rosscountyhistoricalsociety]

In honor of Chillicothe native and longtime Columbus Dispatch editorial cartoonist, William Addison “Billy” Ireland, we would like to welcome Head Curator Jenny Robb from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.  Jenny will be here on October 16th to give a presentation on political/editorial cartoons.  This will coincide with our Historical Presidential Campaign Exhibit in the McKell Library.  

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum houses the world’s largest collection of comics and cartoon materials.   Jenny will present highlights from the collection, including work by Chillicothe’s own Billy Ireland and cartoons from Presidential elections of the past.  

Billy Ireland grew up just down the block from RCHS, on Sixth Street. After graduating, he began working for The Columbus Dispatch at the age of 18.  He worked for the paper for 37 years.  

Please join us for this presentation on Wednesday, October 16th and view items from Billy Ireland’s original collection in the McKell Library.  

[plasticbabyhead]

It’s “The NANCY Show”!

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-dzmec-15fc075 May is “Nancy “ month at Blockhead and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum with “Nancy Fest” and “The Nancy Show” a two-day celebration  and exhibition celebrating Ernie Bushmiller’s comicstrip masterpiece! Festival organizers, Brian Walker, Tom Gammill and Caitlin McGurk join Geoff to discuss the events, the exhibition and just what…

[jerzydrozd]

Music & Comics Duets

Last Monday I attended the Feeling Heard concert performance at the Ohio State University. A partnership between the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, and the OSU School of Music, this concert explored the overlaps between musical and comics storytelling through some “duets” where the musicians performed pieces in response to cartoon art, and art responded to music being played. Here’s…

[lumber]

[Repost from Jan 2021. This was/still is the coolest feeling.] ❤️❤️❤️ This made me feel, surprisingly, not like a jerk. 😏 In the words of the great Navin R. Johnson, "THE NEW PHONE BOOK'S HERE! THIS IS THE KIND OF SPONTANEOUS PUBLICITY I NEED. MY NAME IN PRINT. THAT REALLY MAKES SOMEBODY. THINGS ARE GOING TO START HAPPENING TO ME NOW!"- #TheJerk, 1979 (dir. #CarlReiner). But seriously tho- what a ludicrous honor to be listed amongst such immense #Cartooning giants and legends. I don't know who screwed up on their paperwork there, but thank you to whomever it was at the prestigious, some would also say #Holy, @cartoonlibrary/#BillyIrelandCartoonLibraryAndMuseum! ❤️😇💕 As soon as this #Covid19 nonsense is safe and relatively done with, Xaviera/@xavisaurus and I would love to take a road trip to visit the #Library/#Museum and pinpoint just what of my #ArtsyFartsy stuff is all up in there chillin'. It's an honest to goodness #CartoonMystery! 🔎👀🕵️‍♂️ Completely truly honored and flabbergasted. ❤️💯❤️ #Thankful #Grateful #SwipeThru #SwipePost #SteveMartin #JeauxJanovsky #JeauxJ #JeauxJanovskyArt #BillyIreland #Comics #Comix #ReadMoreComics #ComicArt #Cartoons #Animation #CartoonArt #AnimationArt #Calarts #CalartsAlumni #OhioStateUniversity The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

[worldrandom]

Ohio state facts

came form the ohio river

the great river 981 miles, 24ft deep

7 presidents were born there

1908 1st professional fire department

1865 1st ambulance service

largest comic books billy ireland cartoon library and museum

cedar point

cincinnati zoo 2nd oldest

cleveland metro parks system largest urban parks 23,000

buckeye state- buckeye tree

rock and roll fame

avon ohio duck tape capital of the world

state capital columbus

state size 44,825 sq miles

population 11.1756.058

state hood 3-1-1803

highest point campbell hill 1549ft

lowest point 455ft ohio river at indiana burder

length 220 miles width 220 miles

national parks cuyahoga valley national park

state motto with good all things are possible

state nick name buckeye state

nobel prize 8

famoius people 5

state song hang on sloppy

state fossil isotelus

state flower scarlet carnation

state wildflower white triltium

state bird cardinal

state reptile black racer snake

state gemstone ohio flint

state tree buckeye tree

state fruit tomato

state native fruit paw paw

state groundhog buckeye chuck

state aritfact the sdena pipe

[demospectator]

“A group photograph of Lepers, taken at the ‘pest house’" c. 1880s. Photographer unknown, albumen print with Schoene's imprint (from a private collection).

Chinese Lepers and San Francisco's "Pesthouse"

The rare photo of a group of Chinese quarantined ostensibly for leprosy remains notable not only for its profound sadness but also serves as evidence of the shameful weaponization of public health and medical scapegoating of the early Chinese community in San Francisco.

“To the sanitarians of the 1870s," Joan B. Trauner wrote in 1978 for the California History journal, “Chinatown was more than a slum. It was ’laboratory of infection,’ peopled by ‘lying and treacherous’ aliens who had minimal regard for the health of the American people. The general acceptance of the germ theory in the 1880s did little to dispel the popular belief that epidemic outbreaks were directly attributable to conditions within Chinatown. As before, medical theorization was inseparably linked with social attitudes and prejudices. . . . Proposals to quarter the Chinese outside of the city limits of San Francisco were advanced at this time, primarily under the sponsorship of the Anti-Chinese Council of the Workingmen's party. Similar proposals had been set forth since the 1850s and would recur again in the 1800s and at the time of the bubonic plague crisis in the early 1900s.”

The Wasp, Vol. 8, No. 304, published on May 26, 1882. Created by George Frederick Keller (from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum).

In the last quarter of the 19th century, local officialdom deflected criticism of their repeated failure of sanitation programs and policy by attributing various outbreaks of smallpox, syphilis and bubonic plague to the residents of San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Thus, the presence of lepers in the Chinatown area produced great concern for both the medical community and the general public. It was observed that by 1875, a significant number of lepers with particularly repulsive appearances had migrated to San Francisco from different parts of the state. Although a few sought treatment at the Twenty Sixth Street Lazaretto (at Army Street), public health officials believed that the majority were concealed in underground dens of Chinatown.

During the 1870s and early 1880s, according to Trauner, very little was known about the causes of leprosy. It was assumed to be hereditary, contagious, incurable, more prevalent among males than females, and possibly something that could be eradicated through improved hygiene. One city health officer, John L. Meares MD, suggested in 1876 that leprosy among the Chinese population was “simply the result of generations of syphilis, transmitted from one generation to another.”

Others believed that leprosy was inherent in the Chinese people and had been spread to the Caucasian race through the smoking of opium pipes that had been handled by Chinese lepers.

“5964 White women in Opium Den, Chinatown, S.F. Copyrighted by I.W. Taber, May 31st 1892 (from the Marilyn Blaisdell Collection). This and another photo were staged with an actor playing a Chinese man, looking at two women asleep on couches.

“5965 White women in Opium Den, Chinatown, S.F. Copyrighted by I.W. Taber, May 31st 1892 (from the collection of the Bancroft Library). This and another Taber photo were staged with an actor playing a Chinese man, looking at two women asleep on couches.

As early as 1871, the Chinese were accused of introducing the feared “Mongolian leprosy”" to the West Coast. During the leprosy scare of the 1870s, health officers decided that lepers should not receive hospital care at the city's expense. Dr. A. B. Stout, a prominent physician on the Board of Health, supported the admission of Chinese individuals to the city hospital. He believed there was no reason to exclude Chinamen and argued that they had an equal right to demand hospital admission. However, others strongly objected, considering it an outrage to mix Chinese individuals, suffering from various unclean and incurable diseases, with civilized citizens. Although local authorities were hesitant to admit Chinese patients to municipal facilities, they were also reluctant to provide sanitary services within Chinatown.

"A Leper" no date, taken in San Francisco CA. Photographer unknown (from a private collection).

Instead, they insisted that the Chinese associations should take care of them and send them back to China. Thus, each district association (or “wui gwun”) in San Francisco maintained a small medical facility for their elderly or sick members. The facilities were often simple and minimal, consisting of just a few empty rooms furnished with straw mats. Despite violating city health codes, local officials permitted their operation. In 1876, an amendment to California's general police law was passed, making it illegal for individuals with leprosy to have regular contact with the general population. It stipulated that such individuals should be confined to “lazarettos” or lepers' quarters. From August 1876 to October 1878, known lepers were housed in these Chinese "hospitals."

Professor Guenter B. Risse, MD, PhD, who has written extensively about the politicization and weaponization of public health and about disease throughout San Francisco and US history, wrote about the fear-mongering and racialization of leprosy against the Chinese as follows:

On the morning of September 19, 1878, Charles C. O’Donnell, a physician with dubious credentials and the leader of the rabidly racist Anti-coolie League, seized a Chinatown dweller grotesquely afflicted with highly visible leprous sores. Forcing the man to mount an open delivery wagon, this practitioner turned politician proceeded to parade the disgraced individual through the streets of San Francisco. Stopping at several key downtown intersections before reaching Market Street and reaching the swanky Palace Hotel, O’Donnell harangued a growing and terrified crowd, emphasizing the great danger of contagion posed by his repulsive “moon-eyed leper ” At the same time, pamphlets were distributed featuring the drawing of a Chinese face ravaged by the disease and proclaiming the existence of “a thousand lepers in Chinatown.”

The pamphlet issued in the Fall of 1878 by Charles O'Donnell of the Anti-Coolie League (from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University).

In 1878 and again in 1883, health authorities took action in Chinatown, identifying the lepers and relocating them to the Twenty-Sixth Street Hospital. This decrepit facility, also known as the "Leper Asylum" or "Pest-House," primarily served the purpose of housing Chinese patients with leprosy and smallpox. This policy accomplished the purpose of segregating Chinese patients to this hospital and eventually repatriating all Chinese lepers to China.

“A Group of Lepers at the Door of the Pesthouse,” Drawing published in the San Francisco Call, July 1, 1896. Illustrator unknown (from the California Digital Newspaper Collection).

“Pesthouse Annex.” Drawing of the isolation establishment with a view of the surroundings, trees, and fence, as well as two inmates. The rickety building housing chronic cases, notably leprosy sufferers, is propped up with supporting beams; the roof is caving in and there are holes in the walls. Drawing published in the San Francisco Call, January 3, 1896 (from the California Digital Newspaper Collection).

The city-sponsored "pesthouse" remains a little-known and unattractive part of San Francisco history. The usage of terms such as "lazaretto" or even "hospital" was calculated to mask an undesirable disease and the offensive affliction of a despised segment of the population. Administrators began referring to the institution as the “leper hospital” and eventually simply as the "26th Street hospital." However, and as author Guenter B. Risse has observed, one frustrated health official, Martin Regensburger, the president of the San Francisco Health Board, proclaimed in the early 1890s that the Pesthouse was aptly named, as it truly represented its nature. Upon seeing the deplorable state of the 26th Street compound, Regensburger protested and suggested that it would be better to keep afflicted individuals in their homes rather than send them to a dilapidated facility.

“Patients Awaiting the Coming of the New Remedy in the Corridor of the Pesthouse.” Drawing published in the San Francisco Call, July 1, 1896 (from the California Digital Newspaper Collection).

As Trauner wrote 35 years ago, the federal quarantine law of February 15, 1893, gave the United States Marine Hospital Service direct responsibility for administration of port quarantine. The new federal law triggered a series of jurisdictional disputes between the quarantine officer of San Francisco and officers of the Marine Hospital Service into the next century and hindered effective administration of quarantine procedures.

Unfortunately, the politicization of disease and demonization of Asians has continued to this day – heard in the rhetoric of a US president who repeatedly referred to COVI-19 as the “China” virus and the “Kung Flu” to applauding crowds around the country.

A Board of Health inspector meets with patients at the San Francisco Pesthouse. Drawing published in the San Francisco Call, January 3, 1896 (from the California Digital Newspaper Collection).

As for the Chinese men seen in the old Schoene photo, little is known about their fate. Out of the 128 lepers admitted to the 26th Street lazaretto between July 1871 and April 1890, 115 were classified as "Mongolians," and, ultimately, 83 of them were sent back to China.

For further reading:

Trauner, Joan B., “The Chinese as Medical Scapegoats in San Francisco, 1870-1905,” California History, Vol. 57, No. 1, The Chinese in California (Spring, 1978), University of California Press.

Risse, Guenter B., Driven By Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco’s House of Pestilence (Univ. Illinois Press 2016).

[graphicpolicy]

Around the Tubes

Some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup #comics #comicbooks

The weekend is almost here! What geeky things are you all doing? Sound off in the comments below. While you wait for the weekday to end and the weekend to begin, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web. The Beat – Raina Telgemeier exhibition coming to Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum next month – Very cool! Kotaku – Conservatives Want To Pull A Manga From Libraries Over School…

[confessionsofatextmexhoarder]