Contact Info
Archive, Manuscript & Rare Book collections are accessed in Olin Library at the Special Collections reading room.
HOURS: Monday - Friday 9:00-5:00 by appointment
LOCATION: Olin Library, 1st floor, Danforth Campus
REQUESTS / APPOINTMENTS: 314-935-5495 spec@wumail.wustl.edu
*collections stored offsite require advance notice for retrieval and use
Questions about a specific topic? Contact:
University Archives: Sonya Rooney
Rare Books: Cassie Brand
Manuscript: Joel Minor
Local History: Miranda Rectenwald
Modern Graphic History Library: Skye Lacerte
Film & Media Archive: Andy Uhrich
Finding Aids by Subject: Cold War
This guide contains an overview of collections at Special Collections and the WU Libraries that include primary sources of American popular culture during the Cold War period (1947 - 1991). Topics include men's and women's magazines, comic books, movie advertisements, science fiction, and modern architecture.
- Black Film Promotional Material CollectionThe collection contains ca. 2,700 promotional items including photographic stills, programs, advertising materials, lobby cards, pressbooks, and posters, representing approximately 400 films, ranging in date from 1915 to 1980.
- Monsanto Company RecordsSee Series 9 for materials about the "House of the Future" as built at Disneyland
- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) CollectionSeries 02 includes comic books from underground and mainstream press.
- City of St. Louis, Office of the Mayor Records, 1943-1981Links to multiple finding aids, all dating from the Cold War time frame.
- Periodical Collectionsincludes -- Fantasy and Science Fiction; Fantastic Stories of Imagination; Good Housekeeping; Holiday
Online Primary Sources
- Thrill Seekers: The Rise of Men's MagazinesThis online exhibit charts the growth of men's magazines from the 1940s to the 1960s. Drawing from collections in Washington University's Modern Graphic History Library, this exhibit features artwork of some of the most prominent men's magazines of the mid-twentieth century, such as Esquire, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune, as well as lesser-known pulp fiction and girlie magazines. Artists featured include Al Parker, Robert Weaver, Ernest Trova, Robert Andrew Parker, and Cliff Condak, among others.
Secondary Sources
It's a Man's World : Men's adventure magazines : the postwar pulps by Call Number: MGHL Reference book
Front Page by Call Number: NC974 .D87 2003 (W Campus)The Art of Playboy by
Call Number: N6512 B69 1985 (W Campus)St. James encyclopedia of popular culture
Call Number: full-text online
