Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbc.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2020365000
Collection material is primarily in English.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
John J. and Hanna M. McManus and Morris N. and Chesley V. Young jointly presented their magic collection to the Library of Congress in 1955.
The original archivists who worked on the McManus-Young Collection retained Morris Young’s original order of the items. Arrangement of the series in the collection and descriptions at the folder level follow Young’s own pattern. However, it was decided that the Magic Clipping series would best be served by indexing the two series. Item-level description of these series is organized by author and by subject.
The status of copyright for the McManus-Young Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.)
The McManus-Young Collection is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: box and folder number, McManus-Young Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
John J. and his wife Hanna M. McManus and Morris N. and his wife Chesley V. Young had become acquainted through their shared interests, collecting over 20,000 items in total. Jointly, they gifted their collections to the Library of Congress in 1955. Today this vast collection is known as the McManus-Young Collection.
This finding aid outlines the magic clipping portion of the collection focusing primarily on content from the United States and England. Careers of famous magicians are covered, primarily Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone, Dante, Howard Thurston, Hardeen, C.A. George Newnann, Nicola, and Elbern Calvert. Topics include conjuring, fraudulent gambling, fraudulent spiritualism, hypnotism, and ventriloquism.
With a date span of 1870 through 1955, the McManus-Young Collection provides a rich survey of the literature of "illusion practices," which includes works on conjuring, ventriloquism, fortune-telling, spiritualism, witchcraft, gambling, hypnotism, automata, and mind reading comprised of a gathering of thousands of pamphlets and offprints. This ephemeral literature is the backbone of modern magic. Through these small publications, tricks are revealed and outlined, techniques are discussed and performances are detailed.
At this time, the finding aid focuses only on the clippings in the collection which are comprised of three series: Magic Clippings by Author, Magic Clippings by Subject and Miscellaneous. The current release of the finding aid completes the listing by author series and includes the first three boxes of the second series. Additional installments towards the completion of the second series will be forthcoming in future releases. There remain several unprocessed components of these series including unindexed oversized materials (clippings, “Tabloid Size,” and “Newspaper Size”) and the Morris Young’s card file (11 card catalog drawers). Future series of this finding aid may expand to include other genres of the McManus-Young Collection.
The magic clippings are arranged in three series: Magic Clippings by Author, Magic Clippings by Subject and Miscellaneous Magic Clippings. The author series is organized alphabetically by author with, some of the important items included by title, if anonymous. Magazine articles, if anonymous are filed under the name of the magazine. The subject series is arranged alphabetically by subject, or individual name, or magazine title, (if article author is unknown). The Miscellaneous Magic Clipping series includes that have not been formally processed with the major portion of the collection and are listed in the order they have been found in.
Future series will include:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2020365000
This series lists the magic clippings in alphabetically order by author.
This series lists the magic clippings in subject order alphabetically.