Overview
Collection consists of zines, underground periodicals, and do-it-yourself one-offs, the vast majority of them American, and related materials.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1950-2010
Conditions Governing Access
Restricted: limited access; consult curatorial staff.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
244.5 linear feet (163 boxes)
The collection consists of approximately 9,000 zines, underground periodicals, and do-it-yourself one-offs, the vast majority of them from the west coast of the United States, and on a variety of topic. Among the genres and subjects represented are fiction and poetry; punk, indie, electronic, hip-hop, metal and avant garde music and culture; science fiction; cyberculture and hacker culture; sexuality; visual arts (including comics, mail art, rubber-stamp art, sticker art, street art and graffiti); and film, video, and popular culture. The majority date from the 1990s and early 2000s, but there are some from as early as the mid-twentieth century.
A significant number of titles were sent to Fact Sheet Five for review during the period that R. Seth Friedman was the editor from 1991-1998. Many titles have alphabetization markers indicating that they were made available in browsing order.
Collection also includes non-zine material boxed separately (CDs, newspapers, magazines, comics, catalogs, programs, fiction, prose, poetry, political pamphlets).
Arrangement
The collection has not been arranged.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
Compiled by an anonymous collector and purchased by Widener Library in 2012. Zines included in this purchase are also held by Widener Library and the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2015M-154. Transfer from Widener Library.
Separated Materials
Zines included in the original purchase of the Printernet zine collection were separated and are now held at Widener Library, Harvard University, and Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
General note
If you are a zine creator and you come across your work and would like it to be removed, please contact us: Houghton_library@harvard.edu
Processing Information
Processed by Anna Ryerson, Alina Lazar, Johnna Purchase, Christine Jacobson, and Betts Coup, along with several additional student employees at Houghton Library.
Processing Information
These materials were listed over the course of several years and were not rearranged physically or rehoused in folders. Boxes are quite full and may take additional time to prepare for use. Boxes with related but non-zine materials at the end of the collection in boxes 147-163 which have not been described thoroughly at the time of publication, 2023.
Genre / Form
- Books
- Catalog -- Publishing
- Comics -- Criticism
- Comics -- Mini
- Comics -- Politics
- Prose & Poetry
- Reference
- Reviews.
Topical
- Adult
- Adult -- Comics
- Anarchism -United States.
- Animal rights--United States
- Art
- Art -- How-to
- Art -- Reference
- Catalog
- Comics
- Design
- Ecology--United States
- Education
- Film & Video
- Fine Press/Book Arts
- Food & drink
- Foreign language
- Games
- Health
- How-to
- Humor
- Media
- Music
- Music -- Punk rock
- Parenting
- Personal
- Philosophy
- Politics
- Politics -- Anarchism
- Politics -- Animal rights
- Politics -- Ecology
- Politics -- Labor
- Politics -- Race
- Pop Culture
- Publishing
- Punk rock music.
- Queer
- Science
- Science Fiction & Horror
- Theology
- Transportation
- Travel
- Women
- Work
- Title
- Printernet. Printernet collection of American zines, circa 1950-2010 (MS Am 3420): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- February 8, 2023
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03527
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu