Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

If you are among the lucky who have set foot behind the scenes of the current location of the Cartoon Library, you know that our massive collection holdings cannot be contained to just this space. For many years, the Cartoon Library has occupied two offsite storage facilities for housing proofs, merchandise, and many of our bound volumes, as seen in the images below.

The expanded storage space in our new home in Sullivant Hall will afford us the ability to consolidate one of these entire additional housing areas into our archive home-base. Over the past few months, Assistant Curator Susan Liberator and Associate Curator Wendy Pflug have led our dedicated team of student workers in preparing these offsite materials to prepare for our move at the beginning of August.

The students have been sorting and rehousing items that will be relocating with us, and have come across a number of gems along the way. Of particular delight for the students was a large collection of various pop culture merchandise and memorabilia from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, containing figurines, board games, oddities and artwork.

Below, some of our favorite finds:

Colorforms Star Trek Adventure Set. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

We swear we fought the urge to play with the Star Trek Colorforms. Except for just a little–for the sake of making sure all pieces were accounted for, of course.

Warner Brothers plush toys and Smokey the Bear Appli-Press set. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

The students also came across some vastly varying Disney memorabilia of yore:

Disney-inspired Mexican souvenir. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Giant Disney wall watch. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Student assistant Eddie Pisarczyk unpacking a wood wall decoration from Disney’s Jungle Book. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Student assistant Hannah Schobel with a Disney toy shovel. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Mickey’s Haunted House antique pin-ball game. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

All of these items and more have been wrapped in archival packing materials and rehoused in storage boxes, to be ready to go on moving day.

We truly could not be making this move without the help of all of our student assistants, who have accomplished so much during this process and kept us laughing the whole way. Thank you for all of your help!