Special Collections and Archives

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Borowitz Collection

Manuscripts, Ephemera, Archives, and Artifacts

The Borowitz Collection includes a number of archives, manuscripts, ephemera, and artifacts collections dealing with true crime, crime in literature, and crime themes. These items are often closely related to subject areas represented in the book collections. Below are links to finding aids for non-book holdings in the Borowitz Collection. New materials are added on a continual basis.

Manuscripts

Borowitz Crime Manuscripts, 1663-2000 This is a link to another web site

This collection includes a variety of manuscript materials relating to true crime and to crime, detective, and mystery writing.

Charles George Hodgson collection, 1812-1868 This is a link to another web site

This collection includes various correspondence and papers both written and received by Charles George Hodgson who served as Superintendant of the London City Police Force. The collection includes both personal letters and several dealing with professional matters and police business. Letters pertaining to the forgery through photography case of Pietro Rinaldi v. the Queen are also present.

Joseph Bell collection, 1899-1953 This is a link to another web site

The collection includes three letters from Joseph Bell to his longtime friend, the Rev. Hugh Black. The collection also includes correspondence between Black's son, Robert K. Black, and Vincent Starrett. Robert K. Black relates anecdotes that his father had told about Joseph Bell and describes (and transcribes) five Bell letters that his elderly father had found among his papers.

Richard Austin Freeman correspondence, 1920-1941 This is a link to another web site

The collection includes letters to Vincent Starrett discussing Freeman's work, publications, and his hope to become better known in America. There is also a letter to P.M. Stone, describing his writing, and a letter from Vincent Starrett to Dave Borowitz presenting Freeman's autograph letters.

Ephemera

American Crime Pamphlet Collection This is a link to another web site

Pamphlets (usually 32 pages or fewer and bound in paper wrappers) about murders, executions, scandals, outlaws, etc. The majority of the pamphlets were published in the 19th century.

British Crime Pamphlet Collection This is a link to another web site

Crime pamphlets from Great Britain, mostly 18th-19th century publications.

Contains crime-themed board games.

A small collection of book dealer catalogs and trade publications featuring crime literature and related materials.

This collection consists of film stills (photographs) and lobby card posters from crime-related movies.

This collection consists of graphic materials related to true crime and crime themes in literature and the arts. Included are posters, prints, engravings, drawings, cartoons, and miscellaneous printed items.

This collection consists of playbills from crime-related plays, musicals, operas, etc., fact-based or otherwise.

This collection contains miscellaneous postcards related to crime.

Criminal Broadsides of 19th-Century England This is a link to another web site

In the early nineteenth century, much of the news of England's murders and executions was brought to the masses through penny and half-penny broadsides. The execution broadsides, which comprise most of this collection, usually describe the crime, trial, and hanging, and often provide verses emphasizing the sorrow and remorse of the convicted killer.

Criminal Broadsides of America, 1820-1926 This is a link to another web site

This collection contains criminal broadsides of the United States dating from the 19th- and 20th-centuries.

Jack the Ripper collection, 1888-2006 This is a link to another web site

This collection contains ephemeral material related to Jack the Ripper and other "Ripper"-style murderers. Included are films, manuscripts, artifacts, penny dreadfuls (facsimiles), and other ephemeral materials.

Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, Photographs, 1932 This is a link to another web site

A collection of press photographs related to the Lindbergh Case.

Lindbergh Kidnapping collection, 1927-1992 This is a link to another web site

A collection of ephemera, including newspaper clippings, press photos, and other material related to the Lindbergh kidnapping case.

Newspaper Articles Relating to Criminal Cases, 1823-1921 This is a link to another web site

This collection contains newspaper articles and issue relating to various murder cases. Most of the articles are photocopies and are contemporaneous to the time of murders and trials.

Prison Postcards, 1900-1980s This is a link to another web site

This collection consists of postcards of prisons from the United States and a handful of other countries.

Sherlock Holmes ephemera collection This is a link to another web site

This collection contains a variety of ephemeral items related to the Sherlock Holmes stories and character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Included are cigarette cards, postcards, greeting cards, and other collectibles.

Street Ballads of Victorian England, [circa 1850-1870] This is a link to another web site

This collection contains 175 English street ballads, printed on portions of broadside sheets, dating from around 1850-1870. The ballads centered on popular subject matter such as love, sex, marriage, politics, religion, fantastic tales, humorous anecdotes, and social reform.

Artifacts

A collection of artifacts (sculptures, objects, memorabilia, and textiles) related to true crime and its impact on the arts and literature. Many of the artifacts in this collection are related to cases covered in the Borowitz book and archival collections.