Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Dime Novels

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Dime
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
1860-1963
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.55 Cubic feet
consisting of 1 box, 1 folder, 2 oversize folders.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Dime Novels forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists primarily of literary publications cheaply mass produced by publishers and other materials relating to these items. The publications mostly consist of dime novels but include other literary works. Publishers of dime novels paid writers to create series of stories generally with the theme that virtue was rewarded and evil was punished. Dime novels were popular from the 1860s until the 1890s when they were replaced by pulp magazines and comic strips.
Other materials include correspondence, short stories, adventure stories, comic almanacs, novels, bulletins and catalogues. Some of these materials are from the publishers of dime novels. There is also some information relating to the history and collecting of dime novels.
Includes bibliographies published from 1860 to 1928; catalogues; and News Trade Bulletin, 1899-1903.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Dime Novels is arranged in two subseries.
  • Dime Novels
  • Trade Literature and Miscellaneous

Administration

Author
Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Dime Novels is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections.
For this subject, minimal processing included arrangement to the folder level, based on prior processing and preservation action, with retention of the pre-existing arrangement when possible, if applicable. Otherwise, an order was imposed by the Processing Archivist. Some materials were consolidated to eliminate excess bulk but items within folders were not arranged further. The guide may or may not include a more refined lists of folder contents. Non-archival housing was replaced for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
Minimal level processing and machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechydnen, 2017 August.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use note
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Materials in the Archives Center

Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)

Forms Part Of

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
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