MANUSCRIPTS

Punk Concert Flyers

Punks on Paper, a comprehensive look back at the history of North Carolina Punk and Hardcore through detailed show listings, flyers, posters, and ticket stubs, went online in 2014 as the personal website of John Rivera. By 2019, the collection had grown to over 5000 show entries and over 3000 flyers ranging from the late 70s early waves of punk rock, through the developing 80s hardcore scene, the 1990s indie and grunge days, and on into the current times. The site documented everything from DIY garages and basements to music halls to hole in the wall clubs to pizza parlors. Including the bigger names like The World Famous Milestone Club, Cat’s Cradle, The Brewery down to the more “locals only” spots like the Miracle House of Rock, Dick Street, and Posidome of the great state of North Carolina. Rivera passed away in 2024, and a permanent archive of the material from the site was added to Gateway at https://gateway.uncg.edu/punksonpaper. The collection went online in 2024 and we are accepting new submissions.

RARE BOOKS

Edward Gorey, Master of Gothic Macabre Humor

Rare Books recently acquired a complete set of Edward Gorey’s “Three Books from the Fantod Press” series. The first series is quite scarce, especially with the envelope, the rest are less so—unless they are in fine condition as all of these are. Each set had relatively small print numbers of around 500 copies each. The Fantod Press, established by Gorey in 1962, served to publish his own works. While the Fantod Press gave life to Gorey’s imaginative works, he gave new life to the word “fantod” – it was a 19th-century term that refers to a state of irritability, anxiety, or restlessness.

The Mysteries of George Baxt

George Baxt, who tried his hand as an agent, infamously turning down James Dean, and a scriptwriter, penning City of the Dead (1960) and Payroll (1962), among others, turned his mind to murder mysteries in 1966. Baxt created the first openly gay Black homicide detective, Pharoah Love. (The spelling error of his first name is purposeful.)

The first of the series, A Queer Kind of Death (1966), proved so remarkable when it was published that it was reviewed in The New York Times multiple times. Baxt was genuinely surprised by the response; he hadn’t thought it was that unusual. He was essentially writing about the people and the life he knew in Greenwich Village and the rest of Manhattan. Recognizing a lucrative opportunity when he saw it, he quickly followed with two additional titles in the series, Swing Low Sweet Harriet (1967), and Topsy and Evil (1968).

Baxt is also represented in the Robbie Emily Dunn Collection of American Detective Fiction due to his Plotkin and Van Larsen series, featuring Sylvia Plotkin, schoolteacher, who assists the private detective, Max Van Larsen. Interestingly, the first of this series, A Parade of Cockeyed Creatures: Or Did Someone Murder Our Wandering Boy? was published the same year as Swing Low, Sweet Harriet.

Rare Books acquired the first three Pharoah Love titles, increasing our representation of LGBTQIA+ authors and characters in our collections.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Performing Arts Collection

Documenting Vaudeville-Era Impersonators

Early female and male impersonator performers are often lost to audiovisual history, yet can be discovered in the artwork for the sheet music that featured their famous performances. Two such creators are included here, Karyl Norman and Florenze Tempest.

‘Karyl Norman’ (1897-1947) was born in Baltimore, leaving home at the age of 16 and performing vaudeville on the west coast of the United States. He billed himself as “The Creole Fashion Plate”, and was known for his gowns, mostly made by his mother with whom he traveled. Norman was a key performer as part of the ‘pansy craze’ which emerged in New York in the 1930s, where gay subculture emerged as mainstream entertainment during the Prohibition era. He was known for his Southern style songs which he mostly wrote himself, quick costume changes, and a fine voice.

‘Florenze Tempest’ (1889 – 1932), born in Kentucky, began her vaudeville career with her younger sister, Marion Sunshine, where Florenze played the boy and Marion the sweetheart. Tempest went on to create a headlining solo act as a male impersonator. She was featured on the cover art of sheet music in masculine suits and caps tilted at a jaunty angle, sometimes smoking a cigarette.

WOMEN VETERANS HISTORICAL PROJECT

1951 recruiting brochure for the U.S. Women’s Army Corps reprinted from the U.S. Army’s Recruiting Journal.

1942 Newsletter for U.S. Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) recruiters issued by the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.