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Alternative and Underground Press Publications: Supplemental Materials

Examine the social and cultural history of the 1960s, 1970s, and subsequent decades.

Associations & Organizations

Supplemental Materials

Information on the UPS (Underground Press Syndicate) and other related events and organizations can be found in Box 52 of the Alternative and Underground Press Collection at the Browne Popular Culture Library:

  1. UPS newsletters and membership lists, ca. 1969-70.
  2. Radical publications and organizations list dated May 3, 1970.
  3. “Free Media,” a column on the underground press and other alternative media by Thomas King Forcade.
  4. Pamphlet, “What is UPS ?”
  5. Letter from Liberation News Service (LNS).
  6. Letter from Cooperative High School Independent Press Syndicate (CHIPS).
  7. Packet from the Alternative Media Project.
  8. List of movement center contacts from the Alternative Media Conference, June, 1970.
  9. Underground newspapers order catalog from the Underground Press distributing agency.
  10. Part of a press kit sent out by the Free Ranger Tribe (publishers) to other members of the UPS.
  11. Photocopy of advertisement “Wanted: Alumni of the Underground and Alternative Press” for book by Pierian Press. From the Summer 1990 issue of Reference Services Review.
  12. Listings of periodical articles taken from the Jerome Library's Info Trac system, dated April, 1990 and October, 1990.
  13. Article on the history of the Underground Press from The Canyon Collective.
  14. News clipping: “Changed Underground Press Thriving in Readers, Influence.” (UP wires) The Blade, Toledo, Ohio. 8/20/72.

William F. Ringle Collection

The William F. Ringle Collection (MS-033) at the Browne Popular Culture Library is also a rich resource for the social and cultural history of the 1960s and following decades, especially the counterculture and the psychedelic movements. Boxes 51 A to E and 52 A to E of this collection contain alternative and underground press newspapers (which are indexed in this guide). In addition, Boxes 62 to 65 contain a vast range of contemporaneous resources, such as pamphlets, broadsides, and related materials. A detailed descriptive finding aid to the William F. Ringle Collection is available at the Browne Popular Culture Library.

Underground Comic Book Collection

This collection at the Browne Popular Culture Library is a significant source for understanding the part underground comix played in the larger underground movement that involved shattering the public's norms and expectations of the graphic arts, just as the underground newspapers did to mainstream journalistic news coverage. Currently containing more than 350 titles including Freak Brothers, Zap Comix, and Yellow Dog, this collection complements other resources at the Browne Popular Culture Library on the alternative and underground press movement. The collection is searchable in the BGSU Libraries Catalog by keyword, title, or subject.  Underground comix are recognizable by call numbers beginning with either PN6720.14 or PN6720.24