With 12,000 linear feet of rare and remarkable material filling brand-new high-density shelving, it’s no surprise that the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections in MSU's Main Library houses many treasures.

The library has come a long way since it opened in 1855, the same year the university was founded. Back then, it was a single reading room on the third floor of College Hall, where Beaumont Tower now stands, containing 200 original volumes donated by the Michigan State Agricultural Society. 

Over time, the library’s holdings have expanded and today serve as one of the university’s most significant resources, offering a window into history and a launchpad for exploration. “The materials provide you with a tactile experience,” said Leslie McRoberts, director of the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections at MSU Libraries when she was a guest on Coffee with the Profs in October of last year. “It could even be likened to meeting a celebrity or having your very own discovery, similar to that of Indiana Jones.”

Now that Special Collections has fully transitioned to the newly renovated Main Library’s East Wing — a project four and a half years in the making — a new chapter has begun for the faculty, staff and materials that are now housed in a state-of-the-art space. Here, discover items that were formative to the collection’s evolution, significance and enduring relevance.

Rendered in the evocative strokes of a paintbrush, these portraits pay homage to two pivotal figures in the history of MSU Libraries’ Special Collections. Left, a watercolor made by Gary Bukovnik in 1991 depicts Stephen O. Murray, a sociologist, anthropologist and comparative historian who was Keelung Hong’s life partner. To the right is a painting of Russel Nye, a distinguished member of the MSU faculty and pioneer of popular culture studies. He advocated for the admission of L. Frank Baum’s 1900’s children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to the canon, signaling the growing importance of popular culture theory in academia.

A story of growth and change, much like that of MSU Libraries itself, a first edition of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield” was purchased by Friends of the Library in the 1940s. Offered by a New York rare books dealer, “it started to set the stage for future acquisitions,” says McRoberts. Pictured here are the 19 original monthly serial parts of the English literature classic as they were published in 1849-50: in installments, each part prefaced with advertisements.

Russel Nye, notes McRoberts, “was responsible for the first deposit of comic books to the library's Special Collections of what would become today the world's largest comic book collection.” Spanning the globe and featuring “all eras of comics from the Golden age to the Silver Age,” says McRoberts, from “Tom and Jerry all the way to Marvel,” the collection reveals fascinating thematic parallels and cultural archetypes.

The books featured here are testament to the space travel themes that loomed large in the world’s imagination in the decade before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon. Side by side are two Tintin comics, one a French-language version and the other an English-language version of the seminal Belgian work by the comic artist Hergé from 1954. The volume shown on the second and third slides is “The Simon & Kirby Library: Science Fiction,” published as an anthology in 2013, featuring restored artwork and new colors. Comic book innovators who began producing stories in the 1940s, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created science fiction superhero Blue Bolt and depicted their own version of the race to the moon.

What makes a book a book? This item in Special Collections exemplifies the open-mindedness of MSU scholarship. “American Cheese, 20 Slices,” is a contemporary work of art, part of an edition of 10 by Ben Denzer. Its pages are plastic-wrapped slices of American cheese bound as a hardcover book. Not quite a ready-made and not quite pop art — and definitely not quite a book — it’s one of many pieces by the book-obsessed Denzer that play with the idea of the consumption of art.

From Riot Grrrl-adjacent zines to activist cookbooks, the Special Collections’ array of handcrafted creativity offers a cross section of the thriving youth subcultures of the late 20th century and their photocopier-fueled inventiveness. The selection pictured here features independent zines related to punk, underground rock and feminism that burst with essays, collages and drawings.

Activism takes many forms. At MSU Libraries, the Special Collections’ LGBTQIA+ holdings — one of the nation's first — reflect that by encompassing rare materials of many kinds that intersect with zines, cartoons, cookery, cultural artefacts and literature while making space for diverse experiences.

Special Collections at MSU Libraries is accessible to faculty, staff, students and researchers visiting MSU. Register for an account, request materials to be viewed within the Reading Room and reserve an appointment.

With special thanks to Tad Boehmer, Eli Landaverde, Joshua Barton and Leslie McRoberts.