It is with bittersweet best wishes and gratitude that we share that our dear colleague Marilyn Scott has retired, and today, November 30, is her final day at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM). After the retirement of Lucy Shelton Caswell in 2010, Scott has been here the longest, serving over 23 years! As all who have visited us know, the BICLM family is a small and tight-knit group, and her absence will be deeply felt. From managing our digitization program and website, to overseeing dozens of student employees over the years, to watering and pruning the plants she nurtured in our lobby and waiting area, Marilyn is one of those behind-the-scenes staff members integral to keeping our operations afloat. Here’s a look at Marilyn’s time at The Ohio State University:

Marilyn graduated from Ohio State with a Fine Arts degree. As a student, she worked at the Thompson and Fine Arts Libraries. Before beginning her career at BICLM in 1998, she also worked at OCLC. Over the past 23 years, Marilyn’s position in Special Collections has continuously evolved with the expansion of BICLM’s programs, facility and staff. In the early years, Marilyn’s job consisted of a wide range of duties including office management, financial oversight, graphic design, collection accessioning and processing, event planning and exhibition installation.   

Throughout her career at BICLM, Marilyn has been an extraordinarily productive contributor. Her list of accomplishments is long! She was instrumental in planning and executing BICLM’s popular triennial multi-day comics event, the Festival of Cartoon Art, from 2001 until 2013. She oversaw the management of BICLM’s extensive art collection, including the transition from an Access database to Past Perfect Museum management software. The system now manages and describes over 123,000 artworks that can be searched by the public. The database is a tremendously valuable resource for patrons, curators, donors and fans of cartoon art and allows BICLM to fulfill its stewardship responsibilities.

Working with students, Marilyn created and maintained the early iterations of BICLM’s website as well as numerous digital exhibitions, adopting multiple technologies and content management systems from HTML to Silverstripe, Drupal and WordPress.

Marilyn successfully managed BICLM’s digitization program, which served many hundreds of patrons and has resulted in a rich and valuable research resource. Marilyn oversaw the digitization of more than 17,000 rare or unique items from BICLM’s distinctive collections, making them discoverable with robust metadata. When Marilyn began this work, BICLM’s digital files were managed on CDs with Excel spreadsheets.  In collaboration with IT, she assisted with the migrations to Media Manager, the Image Management System and Digital Collections.

During Marilyn’s career at University Libraries, she has trained and supervised more than 50 student employees, providing them real-world skills and experience that they have carried forward into their careers.

Her vast knowledge of BICLM’s collections and history, her versatility, her willingness to help wherever she was needed and her cheerful demeanor will all be greatly missed. In retirement, Marilyn plans to pursue her interests in gardening, the arts, home renovation projects, yoga and attending to the whims and demands of her two house cats.

Please join us in congratulating Marilyn on her retirement!

Contact: Caitlin McGurk
The Ohio State University
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
1813 N High St.
Columbus OH 43210-1393
614-292-0538
cartoons@osu.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 15, 2021

Upcoming Exhibition at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Power Lines: Comics and the Environment
&
Dark Laughter Revisited:
The Life and Times of Ollie Harrington

November 13, 2021 – May 8, 2022

Environmental awareness and the political cartoons of Oliver Harrington are the subjects of two unique exhibits opening in November at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Power Lines: Comics and the Environment: This exhibit surveys over 100 years of comics that depict both the pleasures and dangers of human interaction with the environment. We survive and thrive thanks to the earth’s many resources, but we can also cause our planet irreparable harm. From fears about pollution, to the celebration of parks and preserves, to anger at the failures of the Environmental Protection Agency, to recognition of the ways environmental destruction and global warming disproportionately affect people of color: comics have captured it all. Types of work included in this exhibit include political cartoons, underground comix, superhero comic books, newspaper comics, and more. Artists featured include Peter Kuper, Richard Thompson, Eleanor Davis, Bill Watterson, and more. Curated by Jared Gardner and Elizabeth Hewitt.

 

Dark Laughter Revisited: The Life and Times of Ollie Harrington: Throughout his career, Oliver “Ollie” Harrington used his voice and artistic talents as a cartoonist to attack racial, economic and social injustice with razor-sharp wit and insight. Speaking from the perspective of a cartoonist of color, his commentary chronicled many of the events and issues that defined the 20th century from racism and segregation, to war and poverty. Harrington’s life and career intersected with the Harlem Renaissance, World War II, the Civil Rights movement, the post-war Black émigré community in Paris and communist East Germany.

Starting in the 1930s, Harrington’s work was widely published in the Black Press including the Pittsburgh Courier, the Chicago Defender and the People’s Voice. His long-running series Dark Laughter (later known as Bootsie) cast a satirical, yet affectionate, gaze on Black America through the adventures of an observant African-American “everyman.” During World War II, Harrington served as a war correspondent and later worked briefly as the NAACP public relations director. He emigrated from the United States to Paris in 1952 and ultimately to Berlin in 1961 in response to concerns about FBI surveillance due to his outspoken criticism of the U.S. government. Later in his career, he also published trenchant editorial cartoons in the Communist U.S. newspaper Daily World and East German magazines such as the satirical weekly Eulenspiegel. Harrington was an unapologetic activist and critic of racism and capitalism whose powerful cartoons remain relevant and speak to problems that are still unresolved today.

This retrospective exhibition is curated by Dr. Kay Clopton and Jenny Robb and it features numerous original Harrington cartoons on loan from the private collection of Dr. and Mrs. Walter O. Evans. Walter and Linda Evans are active philanthropists and collectors of African American art and literature. The exhibit also includes artworks and archival materials from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s Oliver Harrington Collection.

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About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM), part of The Ohio State University Libraries, houses the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartoons and comics, including original art, books, magazines, journals, comic books, archival materials and newspaper comic strip pages and clippings. BICLM is located in Sullivant Hall at The Ohio State University, 1813 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210. Explore the collection online at cartoons.osu.edu.