Search the Catalog for Popular Culture materials
Browne Popular Culture Library
We are the largest and most comprehensive collection of American popular culture materials in the United States. Our collection strengths include research materials on popular fiction, popular entertainment, and the graphic arts.
BPCL Special & Manuscript Collections
Many of our materials are not searchable in the library catalog, but can be found via finding aids.
Special Collections - from posters to postcards, find out what different kinds of formats we have
Manuscript Collections - organizational records, author's manuscripts/papers
- we're moving to a new system, so some are in ArchiveSpace
How to Use the BPCL
- Our hours are more limited than the main floor, but we're open late on Monday and Tuesday.
- We're an archive/repository, so most of our materials cannot be checked out.
- Most of our collection is not open for browsing. You need to request materials at our reference desk with your university ID or a photo ID. You will also need to fill out a request form.
- The reference collection is open for browsing! It's the best place to get started with popular culture research.
- We have a copier/scanner available for duplicating materials that cannot be checked out. There is a charge for copying, but no charge for scanning.
- We also have a planetary scanner for use.
Interim Head Librarian
Browne Popular Culture Library
University Libraries
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403
Need Help? Contact Us
Much of the collection is Library Use Only and available on the 4th floor. Our manuscript collections are available off-site, so if you would like to use these resources, please allow a few days to move the materials to the BPCL.
3 Ways to Contact Us
We're on the 4th floor of Jerome Library.
Email us at bpcl@libanswers.bgsu.edu.
Call us at 419-372-2450.
What does the BPCL have?
Here are some ideas for materials based on your topic areas.
Civil War
We do not have a lot of materials that cover this time period, but we do have story papers, which were publications like newspapers, but marketed to the entire family. There would be: news items for the father/husband; serialized fiction, poetry, recipes, and music for the wife/mother; games and serialized fiction for the kids. They had graphics, though not a lot of them.
To find story papers, you can browse the list of titles and issues. Note: many of these are very fragile and shouldn't be touched, so if there is one you'd like to view, we'll see if we can find it digitized somewhere.
Tulsa Riots
We do not have any materials on this particular riot, but we do on riots in general. There may be articles in some of the periodicals of the time, though. If interested in looking at those, contact me at the number listed on the left of the page
- From race riot to sit-in, 1919 and the 1960s : a study in the connections between conflict and violence byCall Number: pop PN1 .D7 A-557Public and private violence : 1919 -- The premonitory riots -- The Washington riot -- Chicago : riot and response -- Chicago : the riot studied -- The jailhouse riots -- Arkansas : riot and response -- Arkansas : the riot adjudicated -- Responding to violence -- The role of police -- Public and private violence : the 1960s -- The emergence of creative disorder -- An attempt at order -- Riots again -- Creative disorder and party politics -- The meaning of creative disorder -- The control of conflict -- Minor racial violence in 1919 -- Posters in Negro areas of Chicago during the 1919 riot
- Violence as protest : a study of riots and ghettos byCall Number: pop HN90.V5F64 1971bPart of the William F. Ringle Collection
Second-Wave Feminism/Women's Liberation
Our holdings for this topic are fairly thorough. We have different kinds of materials that could be used: vertical file materials like newsletters and such, periodicals, alternative press publications, writings from the beginning of the movement, etc.
- Female liberation newsletterPublication Date: 1969-Issues for Feb. 19, [1970]-[Jan. 30?, 1971)] published by Twin Cities Female Liberation Group; for 2/15/[71]-3/1/71 published by Female liberation newsletter staff; for [Apr.? 1971]- published by Twin Cities Female Liberation Communication Center
Here She Is by Call Number: POP CULT HQ1220.U5 F75 2020ISBN: 9780807083284Publication Date: 2020-08-25A fresh exploration of American feminist history told through the lens of the beauty pageant world.- It ain't me babe byPublication Date: 1970-
- Notes from the second year: women's liberation; major writings of the radical feministsCall Number: pop HQ1426 .N66Publication Date: 1970
- The Politics of Women's Liberation byCall Number: pop HQ1426.F84ISBN: 9780679302841Publication Date: 1975-01-01The roots of revolt -- The origins of the women's liberation movement -- The National Organization for Women -- The small groups -- The "mushroom effect": a partial profile -- The policy impact of the women's liberation movement -- Policy and movement
- WomanewsPublication Date: 1979-Published by Womanews Collective, Apr. 80-
"New York City women's liberation newspaper."
American Revolution
We do not have materials original to this time period. What we do have, though, are materials (i.e. fiction, drawings) that are set in that time period.
Japanese Internment Camps
- Farewell to Manzanar : a true story of Japanese American experience during and after the World War II internment byCall Number: pop E184.J3H63 1974Publication Date: 1974
They Called Us Enemy by Call Number: POP CULT D769.8.A6 T355 2019, JUV 92 Takei 2019ISBN: 9781603094504Publication Date: 2019-07-16A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love.
BPCL's copy is on Main Reserve.
Black cowboys in the American West
This topic is a little more challenging to cover. There are a couple of secondary sources listed below that can help identify some sources, but we may not have some of those sources. There are issues in our Nickel Weekly Collection that feature Black characters, but they are mainly negative stereotypes. However, there are a few issues that do not have negative stereotypes and here is one:
- Buffalo Bill, Jr., and His Band of Dead Shots in Wide Awake Library, June, 18, 1897
There are collections of nickel weeklies and dime novels at other institutions - many are digitized - and they may have issues/titles that we do not. Here are a couple:
- Black Samson : a narrative of old Kentucky / by Samuel Fletcher in Beadle's Frontier Series: No. 89, 1909
There are a lot of Westerns with black characters, but more often as sidekicks or comic relief, with a few exceptions. The first one that comes to mind is Texas Jack, the Prairie Rattler (https://dimenovels.lib.niu.edu/learn/spotlights/texasjack). The character Ebony runs Texas Jack’s ranch and, while they’re not equals, they are portrayed as partners and friends. This is a friendship between a former Confederate soldier and a former slave. Ebony appears in multiple Texas Jack stories.
Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos by Call Number: hoppenstand PS153.N5 J645 2014ISBN: 9781617039287Publication Date: 2014-01-30Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos undertakes an interdisciplinary exploration of the African American West through close readings of texts from a variety of media.- Black Hat Jack byCall Number: hoppenstand PS3562.A557 B57 2014ISBN: 1596066776Publication Date: 2014-09-30In fact, a full third of the cowboys of the Wild West days were African-American, Hispanic, or of mixed blood. This is a tribute to the real deal, as well as to the great mythology of the Old West
Women's Collegiate Athletics - Before and After Title IX
Game Face by Call Number: pop GV709 .G36 2001ISBN: 0375506020Publication Date: 2001-06-26Combines more than 175 photographs with personal stories, chronicling the dynamic growth of female sports and the impact of athletics on a woman's sense of self and her role in society.- National collegiate championships byCall Number: pop GV741.N37aPublication Date: 1960-Annual: 1960, 1961, 1963-1967, 1970, 1972
Native American Civil Rights Movement
Sacred Places by Call Number: pop BL580 .S92 1990ISBN: 0939680661Publication Date: 1990-04-01Supporting Lovelock's thesis that the Earth is a living being, Swan suggests natural sites such as Serpent Mound, Machu Pichu, and Kilauea Center have the power to move us in ways modern science cannot explain.- Warrior women (DVD) byCall Number: POP CULT DVD 3177Publication Date: 2018Warrior women is the story of Madonna Thunder Hawk, an AIM leader who cultivated a kindred group of activists' children, including her daughter Marcy, into the "We Will Remember" Survival School as a Native alternative to govenment education. Together, Madonna and Marcy fought for Native rights in an environment that made them more comrades than mother-daughter.
