Learn More about Manuscript Collections at BPCL
The Browne Popular Culture Library has manuscript collections about genre fiction, comics, radio, television, movies, and more. Many of the manuscript collections are by authors in the aforementioned fields of popular entertainment. Click the link below to learn more about our holdings.
Manuscript Collections about Popular Culture Studies
Archiving Popular Culture Studies
Manuscript collections include the papers created/collected by organizations or individuals. They might include drafts of essays or books, letters/emails sent between many different parties, ephemera from conferences and other events, and even journals, artwork, or swag given out at events. They often serve as extremely detailed records of an organization's past and in-depth biographies of the person who donated their collections.
The Browne Popular Culture Library is the repository for the PCA/ACA's organizational papers, and their manuscript collection is still growing. However, the library has many more manuscript collections from other popular culture scholars and organizations that richly represent the history of the popular culture studies movement. See the list below for links to these collections' finding aids.
- PCL MS 44: The Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) RecordsThe Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) collection consists of proceedings, meeting programs for national and regional conferences, newsletters, copies of academic papers presented at conferences, newsletter and website editorial files, video recordings of select conference panels, microfilm rolls of newsletters and conference proceedings, and photographs. This is an active collection and materials are added as they are received.
- PCL MS 45: Peter C. Rollins PapersPeter C. Rollins was an educator, author/editor of popular culture scholarship, and a President of the national Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association.
This collection is currently unprocessed, but it is available to researchers upon request. - PCL MS 107: Ray Browne CollectionThe Ray B. Browne Collection is comprised of correspondence, files, literary manuscripts and printed materials dating from 1950 to 2011. Dr. Browne established the Browne Popular Culture Library, the Department of Popular Culture at BGSU; he was also instrumental in the formation of the BGSU Popular Press as well as the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations.
- PCL MS 121: Dr. Michael T. Marsden PapersDr. Michael T. Marsden is an alumnus of BGSU and an author of popular culture scholarship. He is the co-founder and co-editor of the quarterly Journal of Popular Film and Television; he has served as in leadership positions of myriad popular culture studies organizations, including the PCA/ACA.
This collection is currently unprocessed, but it is available to researchers upon request. - PCL MS 136: Susan Koppelman PapersSusan Koppelman is an author/editor, anthologist, and scholar of women's history, feminist literary history, and popular culture history. Koppelman is a member of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association which presents the Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Anthology, Multi-Authored, or Edited book in Feminist Studies in Popular and American Culture in a specific year.
- PCL MS 213: The Future of Popular Culture Studies in the 21st Century Conference Collection"The Future of Popular Culture Studies in the 2st Century" was the title of a conference honoring the retirement of Professor Ray B. Browne at Bowling Green State University's Department of Popular Culture on June 4-6, 1992. The collection consists of proceedings, correspondence, session proposals, papers and other documents related to the planning and execution of this conference.
- PCL MS 216: Bowling Green State University Popular Press PapersThe Bowling Green State University Popular Press was begun by Ray and Pat Browne in 1967 as a means to publish the Journal of Popular Culture. By 1969 the press began to publish books. This collection is comprised of author files, inactive author files, unpublished manuscript files and office files related to the press's publication activity and organizational development.
The Popular Press was sold to the University of Wisconsin in 2002.