Bert Hansen Educational Comics collection, 1941-2004

Summary Information

At a Glance

Arrangement

• Series I: Eight Educational, Promotional, and Advocacy Comic Books, 1972-circa 2003
• Series II: Three Christian and Fundamentalist Comics, 1976-1982
• Series III: Seven Early Issues of "True-Adventure" Comic Books, 1941-1947
• Series IV: Seven Later Books, 1977-2004
• Series V: Thirty One Issues of Vidas Ilustres
• Series VI: Three issue of Vidas Ilustres
• Series VII: Six Mexican Comics Other Than Vidas Ilustres
• Series VIII: Ten Original Tijuana Bibles
• Seris IX: Seven Modern Imprints about Tijuana Bibles

Description

Content Description

While comic books have often been considered detrimental to learning, or literature for the illiterate, there is actually a long tradition of comics specifically created for pedagogical purposes. Some of the comic books included here had university professors on their advisory boards. For those interested in the less well-known history of comic books, or of educational literature for children, this collection makes a nice adjunct to the two boxes of uncataloged educational comics at the end of the Jonathan Zeitlin collection.

• Series I: Eight Educational, Promotional, and Advocacy Comic Books, 1972-circa 2003

• Series II: Three Christian and Fundamentalist Comics, 1976-1982

• Series III: Seven Early Issues of "True-Adventure" Comic Books, 1941-1947

• Series IV: Seven Later Books, 1977-2004

  Using characters from older comic books (some were promotional give-aways)

• Series V: Thirty One Issues of Vidas Ilustres

• Series VI: Three issue of Vidas Ilustres

  That are not in the article by Boaz Adler (as not people in the STEM fields)

• Series VII: Six Mexican Comics Other Than Vidas Ilustres

  With heroes in the health professions

• Series VIII: Ten Original Tijuana Bibles

  [These little "8-pagers" are all stapled from the front except for Rex Morgan. It is not clear if any of these examples dates from the 1950s or if they are later replicas. All ten were flea-market purchases in the early 1990s]

• Seris IX: Seven Modern Imprints about Tijuana Bibles

Using the Collection

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Conditions Governing Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Bert Hansen Educational Comics Collection. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Columbia University.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Bert Hansen, July 2018

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Revision Description

2018-08-03 File created.

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Biographical / Historical

Bert Hansen is a professor emeritus of history at Baruch College. He has been collecting graphics published in popular media for over thirty years, and has donated parts of his collection to Fordham University and Yale University. His book, Picturing Medical Progress from Pasteur to Polio: A History of Mass Media Images and Popular Attitudes in America (Rutgers University Press, 2009), was honored with an award from the Popular Culture Association and named to the "2010 Best of the Best" for Public and Secondary School Libraries by the American Library Association.