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morgandawn“A University of Iowa Special Collections Online Exhibit of Fanworks is a 2017-2018 photographic description of only a few of the many fanworks held by the University of Iowa Fanzine Archives.
This online exhibit, a fanwork in itself, was created by TheGempath after their own visit in order to celebrate fan creativity, as well as the physical collection at Iowa.
The Road Trip Leading to This Online Exhibit
I first visited the University of Iowa’s Special Collection in September 2017, having learned of it via Fanlore.
While I expected the array of zines, newsletters and such, I wasn’t expecting the non-printed material. Make no mistake, this is a library collection - printed material is their focus. But they’re also preserving other items that capture and reflect the broader scope of fannish creativity and the history of fandom, anchored in the late 1960’s and what grew from and around Star Trek.
Included in the collection are items by names known from the early days of Trek fandom: the dolls sewn by Devra Langsam, the IDIC stringart by Monica Miller, original zine art by Leslie Fish, Leah Rosenthal’s humorous write up of the 1977 Star Trek America convention (interesting not only because that was my very first convention but also to see how her art has evolved over the years… yep, her trademark eyebrows are there). Plus a freakin’ original set of Spock’s ear tips from way back in the days when the studio gave them out (who the heck would want those pieces of foam, anyway?). Then there was the convention program books and T-shirts, the Man from UNCLE “popping” guns and more. Printed material one expects to find in a library collection. But these items…?
Thus the idea was born for this online exhibit in the form of a Fanlore wiki page, with the intent of making more fans, historians and the just plain curious aware of what the University of Iowa’s Special Collection holds and what may be held in other institutional collections.
The items below were selected across named collections, fandoms and categories to try and illustrate the scope and range of the collection as well as to highlight unique items. A few zine associated items are included, though zines as a whole are not as they are extensively covered elsewhere in Fanlore. This is only a small sampling of the overall collection of fanworks. The items were photographed in April, 2018.”
Other Fan Trips to Iowa
Since the University of Iowa Fanzine Archives Special Collection opened in 2009, many fans have taken road trips (one might even call them pilgrimages) to the Special Collections Fanzine Archives. Three fans, darksnowfalling, Aralias, and Meandthreeandthree have reported on their respective visits. “