The Atomic Age Opens Collection

The materials in the collection all date from 1995 through 1996, with the exception of the book of the selected papers from the conference, published in 1997.

Material related to the conference includes a promotional flier, a mailer with the tentative program and registration information, a booklet, and the book of published papers.

Material related to the mail art exhibition includes copies of the call for submission postcard, the exhibition catalog illustrating 186 images that were received, and two scrapbooks. The scrapbooks contain 158 mail art postcards and various other sized mail art and related material sent for the exhibition from April 1995 through February 1996. For purposes of storage, the oversized material found in the two scrapbooks was removed and filed separately in folders. (See the inventory for a complete listing.) It should also be noted that some of these materials are in Japanese, Spanish, and Italian.

In addition, the collection contains a typewritten copy of the exhibition script "The Atomic Age Opens: Selections from the Popular Culture Library" and a newsletter with an article about the conference and the exhibitions.

This manuscript collection does not include the final conference program, but it is cataloged as part of the Browne Popular Culture Library's holdings (POP HN 58.A75 1995). In addition, it does not include the microfilm edition of other selected papers from the conference, but two copies are available at the Jerome Library (film HN 58.A76 1997 and cac MMS1478 mf).

These materials may prove to be useful to the researcher interested in mail art or the responses of American scholars, students, and artists to the 50th anniversary of the dawn of the atomic age.