Strom Thurmond Collection Cartoons
Series
Identifier: Mss-0100-29
This series contains primarily political cartoons that Strom Thurmond collected throughout his years of public service. With few exceptions, the subject of the cartoon is either Thurmond or a current event in which he was involved.
Many of the cartoons are original drawings, sent to Thurmond by the cartoonists or their editors. Originals may be identified by a brief description, such as "ink on illustration board" or "pencil and ink". If there is an inscription, it is included in the description. Cartoons without this descriptive information are photocopies, though a couple of reproductions are signed by the artist. Descriptive information is often followed by the publication in which the cartoon appeared or the topic of the cartoon. Topics are varied and include the military muzzling investigation of the early 1960s, civil rights, military topics, Thurmond's switch from the Democratic to the Republican party, Supreme Court nominations and campaigns and elections.
The printouts from the original database and a compact disc with a Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheet of the data are included with this series.
1.6 Cubic Feet
English
The cartoons are arranged in chronological order. The printout of the early database created by Special Collections is found at the end of the series.
The cartoons were originally processed in the mid to late 1980s. They were arranged by date, then by Clemson University Special Collections accession number within that date. A database of all cartoons was created, probably in Macintosh Hypercard, with headings for artist, topic, size, date, publication and notes. Three sets of printouts allowed users to search by date, topic or artist.
In 2009, Clemson University Libraries was awarded a South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board grant to convert finding aids to Encoded Archival Description. Staff archivist Jen Bingham prepared the database printouts to be converted to EAD. In early 2011, numerous cartoons from later Thurmond accessions were found while moving and processing other parts of the Thurmond Collection. Since accession numbers, when known, are pencilled on the back of each cartoon, the earlier accession number arrangement was abandoned in order to facilitate the interfiling of the additions. Jen Bingham, with assistance from student assistant Rebecca G'Nosa, re-processed the collection, arranging it in chronological order and making note of medium and inscriptions when applicable. This project was completed in February 2011.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository