For help with your cartoon research, please contact us at cartoons@osu.edu.
OSU Catalog - Search for books, e-books, and other materials owned by OSU Libraries, Columbus and regional campuses. You can also search with the mobile version of the OSU Catalog. Help with the OSU Catalog
OhioLINK Catalog - Combined catalog of a consortium of 88 Ohio university and college libraries, the State Library of Ohio, and more. Have materials delivered to OSU. Help with OhioLINK Catalog
WorldCat Local@OSU - Searches materials at OSU, OhioLINK, and libraries worldwide.
Columbus Metropolitan Library - Searches materials within the Columbus Public Library system. With a valid Columbus Metropolitan Public Library card, items can be requested for pickup at Thompson Library.
The OSU Library Catalog has materials from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, a Special Collections Library focused on building cartoon resources. Institutions that contribute to OhioLink, and WorldCat have collections related to cartoons and popular culture.
To get started, the following subject terms can be used to gather general resources about comics, comic creators, and comics history.
Comic books, strips, etc. -- History
Comic books, strips, etc. -- History and criticism
Comic books, strips, etc. -- United States -- History and criticism
Searching for cartoon related books by keyword may be the best way to start. Begin by exploring one of the catalogs above, using a keyword search for a title, an author, or a subject.
To find books at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, search the OSU Library Catalog. "Modify" or "Limit" your search to look for items held in the "Location" of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
Magazines
Searching for cartoon related magazines by keyword may be the best way to start. You will want to search one of the catalogs above, using a keyword search, for a title, an author, or a subject.
In addition, you can search using these subject terms:
American wit and humor -- Periodicals
Caricatures and cartoons -- [Country] -- Periodicals (e.g. Caricatures and cartoons -- United States -- Periodicals)
Newspapers
Searching for cartoon related magazines by keyword may be the best way to start. You will want to search one of the catalogs above, using a keyword search, for a title, an author, or a subject.
In addition, you can search using these subject terms:
American newspapers -- Databases
This database contains selected historic American newspapers that have been digitized.
ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers
This database offers full text, including images, for several African-American newspapers from the 20th century.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
This database offers full text, including images, for several prominent newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries.
To search these collections, you can use:
ArchiveGrid contains over four million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.
OhioLink Finding Aid Repository
The OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository contains descriptions of archival collections from contributing institutions in Ohio. Collection descriptions are fully searchable. Researchers can view brief summaries of collections or the entire text of finding aids with search keywords highlighted. The Browse, Search, and Advanced Search options allow users to browse the entire repository, do a focused search for specific topics, or limit search results to a specified institution.
Archival Collection inventories may be found in the library catalog by searching your keyword using the discover tool and selecting the "Special Collections" tab.
Subject Terms:
Cartoonists -- [Country] -- History -- Sources
(e.g. Cartoonists -- United States -- History -- Sources)
Archives + Limit Search to include the Location of "Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum"
To find cartoon related images, you may want to search these locations:
Articles about cartoons and cartoonists can be found using the following tools:
From the OSU Library home page, select the "Articles" tab and search from here. Your search will comb through over 40,000 journals.
May be a starting place for an article search. Start with basic keywords to gain an overview of titles or authors to explore in WorldCat.
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Biographical Files
The biographical files contain cartoon and article clippings organized by the artists’ last name.
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Topic Files
The topic files contain cartoon and article clippings organized by subject.
These journals contain writings about comics, their creators and the genre:
Comics grid (Online : Serials Solutions)
The Comics journal / [electronic resource] / ed. by Gary Groth
Journal of graphic novels & comics
Inks: cartoon and comic art studies
International journal of comic art (Online : Serials Solutions)
Journal of graphic novels & comics (Online)
The following institutions contain collections of cartoons:
Browne Popular Culture Library, Bowling Green State University
Caroline and Erwin Swann Collection for Caricature and Cartoon
Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum
Comic Art at Princeton University
Comic Books, Popular Culture Collections, Library of Congress
Directory of Comics Research Libraries
Editorial Cartoons of J.N. “Ding” Darling
Gillray Collection, Princeton University Digital Library
Kyoto International Manga Museum
Michigan State University: Comic Art Collection
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA)
Popular Imagery Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texast at Austin
Simon Fraser University Library Editorial Cartoons Collection
Additional resources
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