Goldberg (Rube) Papers, [ca. 1903-1960]

Summary

Title:

Rube Goldberg Papers,

Dates:

[ca. 1903-1960]

Creators:

Goldberg, Rube, 1883-1970

Abstract:

Correspondence; over 5000 original drawings for comic strips and for editorial cartoons covering national political campaigns, World War II, and postwar international and domestic affairs; clippings; scrapbooks; Mss. of articles, stories and songs; books written by him; photographs; records; film; artifacts, including junior plug hat from the University of California, Class of 1904.

Extent:

Number of containers: 4 boxes, 3 cartons, 8 volumes and 1 oversize folder

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Rube Goldberg papers, BANC MSS C-H 163, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Background

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Bibliography:

"My Answer to the Question: How Did You Put It Over?" <span>American Magazine, </span>Mar. 1922

"My New Passion for Modernist Art" <span>Vanity Fair, </span>July 1924

"Left-handed Golf Courses: Our Greatest Need" <span>The American Golfer, </span>July 1924

"It's the Little Things that Matter" <span>Collier's, </span>Nov. 3, 1928

"Comics, New Style and Old" <span>The Saturday Evening Post, </span>Dec. 15, 1928

"I, Rube Goldberg, Hereby Plead for Ether for Husbands, Too" <span>Cosmopolitan, </span>Dec. 1928

"Rube Goldberg's Lessons in Golf" <span>The American Golfer, </span>Sept. 1929

"Is College Spirit the Bunk?" <span>College Humor, </span>Dec. 1929

"Rube Goldberg's First Picture" <span>Photoplay, </span>Dec. 1930

"Some Call It Golf but I Call It Midget Insanity" <span>Cosmopolitan,</span>Jan. 1931

"What Do You Do with Your Spare Time?" <span>Cosmopolitan, </span>Aug. 1931

"The Gentle Week-end Guest" <span>College Humor, </span>Aug. 1931

"The Greatest Show on Earth ... every 4 Years" <span>Cosmopolitan,</span>July 1932

"Vacation Is a Necessary Evil" <span>Cosmopolitan, </span>Aug. 1932

"What Do I Know After Forty" <span>The Saturday Evening Post, </span>Dec. 3, 1932

"I Am Always on Time" <span>Liberty, </span>Mar. 23, 1935

"One O'Clock Sunday Dinner" <span>Esquire, </span>Sept. 1935

"Speed the Parting Guest" <span>Esquire, </span>Jan. 1936

"We Need More Left-handed Courses" <span>Golf, </span>May 1939

"Do We Play Golf for Pleasure" <span>Golf, </span>Winter Issue, 1939-40

"Pretty Soft" <span>Redbook, </span>Oct. 1941

"Inventions We Need in 1949" <span>Cosmopolitan, </span>Jan. 1949

"On the Privilege of Being Over Sixty" <span>The Rotarian, </span>Oct. 1950

"What Is Slang" <span>Service, </span>Oct. 1952

"The Key to Home" <span>Perfect Home Magazine, </span>May 1955

"Bums" <span>McNaught's Monthly, </span>Feb. 1926"Freaks" <span>Vanity Fair, </span>Mar. 1926"The Outcast" <span>Cosmopolitan, </span>Apr. 1928"How's the Market" <span>Cosmopolitan, </span>Sept. 1929"The Old Man Takes His Boy Home" <span>Cosmopolitan, </span>Jan. 1932"You Gotta Be Phony" <span>Redbook, </span>Mar. 1934"Read 'Em and Weep" <span>American Magazine, </span>Aug. 1935"Horning In" <span>Redbook, </span>Sept. 1935"Buffet Supper: Try and Get It" <span>Good Housekeeping, </span>Sept. 1935

Related resources

Separated material:

• Photographs have been transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 1964.046-.048)
• Volumes 1-2, 4, 5, 13, portfolios 1-55, a box of slides and drawings for How to Remove the Cotton from a Bottle of Aspirin have also been transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.

Other descriptive data:

Rube Goldberg, dean of American cartoonists, was born Reuben Lucius Goldberg on July 4, 1883, in San Francisco. He began drawing at an early age, and wanted to become a cartoonist, but at his father's insistence, he studied engineering at the University of California. After graduation in 1904, he worked as an assistant in the city engineer's office, San Francisco. He quit the job in six months, however, and worked first on the San Francisco Chronicleand then the Bulletin as a sports cartoonist. In 1907 he went to New York and became sports illustrator for the Evening Mail,gradually working into wholly humorous cartoons. During the fourteen years he was with the Mail he created the comic features which brought him national fame -Boob McNutt, Foolish Questions, Mike and Ike, Life's Little Jokes, and the zany inventions which made him the wizard of gadgetry. He left the paper in 1921 and syndicated his cartoons. At the same time he tried his hand at composing songs, writing stories and articles, which appeared in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Redbook,Good Housekeeping, Vanity Fair and Collier's. In 1938 he became editorial cartoonist for the New York Sun and in 1948 was awarded the Pulitzer prize for his cartoon, "Peace Today," which showed a blissful American family seated on top of an atomic bomb, which teetered between world control and world destruction.

Humorist and author, as well as cartoonist, he has written a number of books, including Is There a Doctor in the House (1929), Rube Goldberg's Guide to Europe (1954), How to Remove the Cotton from a Bottle of Aspirin (1959), and I Made My Bed, by Kathy O'Farrell, as told to Rube Goldberg (1960), a spoof on the personal confession type of autobiography.

Mr. Goldberg gave his papers to the Bancroft Library in 1964. They include some correspondence (mainly letters from famous people, fan mail and crank letters); over 5000 original drawings for comic strips and editorial cartoons, covering the period 1907-1960; clippings; scrapbooks; manuscripts of articles, stories and songs; books written by him; photographs, records and film. The collection is described in greater detail in the Key to Arrangement which follows. Mr. Goldberg did not systematically save letters, and so the correspondence represents only what escaped destruction and loss. The drawings, also, constitute only a part of his great output over the years, since Mr. Goldberg generously gave away so many of his sketches. The original of the Pulitzer prize cartoon is at the School of Journalism at Columbia University.

Most of the photographs have been removed from the collection and catalogued seperately.

Indexed terms

Indexes:

List of cartoonists contributing congratulatory cartoons (in Vols. 1, 2, 4, 5)

Alan, Jay	Vol. 2
Alexander F. O.	Vol. 2
Allen, Clarence	Vol. 2 Vol. 5
Andriola, Alfred	Vol. 2 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Archibald, Joe	Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Arnold, Henri	Vol. 4
Barnes, Bob	Vol. 4
Barsotw, Jim	Vol. 4
Batchelor, Clarence D.	Vol. 1
Berndt, Walt	Vol. 2 Vol. 4
Berryman, Clifford K.	Vol. 1
Biro, Charles	Vol. 1
Bishop, Daniel	Vol. 1
Bishop, Wally	Vol. 1
Blanchard, Martha	Vol. 5
Brandel, Max	Vol. 4
Branner, Martin	Vol. 2 Vol. 4
Breger, Dave	Vol. 1 Vol. 5
Brown, Bo	Vol. 1 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Bushmiller, Ernie	Vol. 1
Caniff, Milton	Vol. 5
Casson, Mel	Vol. 2 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Cavalli, Dick	Vol. 4
Clark, George	Vol. 1
Cooper, Fred	Vol. 1
Cosser, Merrill	Vol. 4
Crandell, Bradshaw	Vol. 4
Crane, Roy	Vol. 1
d'Alessio, Gregory	Vol. 2
Davis, Phil	Vol. 2
Day, Chon	Vol. 4
Dean, Abner	Vol. 2
Di Preta, Tony	Vol. 2 Vol. 4
Disney, Walt	Vol. 2 Vol. 5
Ditzen, Walt	Vol. 2
Dodd, Ed	Vol. 1
Doerer, Tom	Vol. 4
Dorne, Al	Vol. 1
Douglas, Steve	Vol. 5
Drake, Stan	Vol. 4
Duncan, John	Vol. 5
Dunkel, Courtney	Vol. 1
Dunn, Bob	Vol. 1 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Dyer, Bill,	Vol. 2
Ed, Carl	Vol. 1
Edson, Gus	Vol. 2
Eisner, Will	Vol. 2
Engli, Frank	Vol. 1 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Ericson, Eric	Vol. 1
Evans, Ray	Vol. 1
Fisher, Bud	Vol. 1
Fisher, Dudley	Vol. 2
Flowers, Don	Vol. 2 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Fogarty, Frank	Vol. 2 Vol. 5
Foster, Hal	Vol. 2 Vol. 5
Fredericks, Fred	Vol. 4
Frehm, Paul	Vol. 4
Freyse, Bill	Vol. 4
Gill, Tom	Vol. 2 Vol. 4
Gould, Chester	Vol. 2
Graff, Mel	Vol. 1
Graham, Bill	Vol. 1 Vol. 4
Gray, Harold	Vol. 1 Vol. 4
Greene, Vern	Vol. 5
Haenigsen, Harry	Vol. 1
Hanlon, Lou	Vol. 2
Harman, Fred	Vol. 1 Vol. 4
Hasen, Irwin	Vol. 2 Vol. 5
Hatlo, Jimmy	Vol. 1 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Hayle, Samuel Lucius	Vol. 1
Helfant, Art	Vol. 1
Helle, Ray	Vol. 4
Hodgins, Dick	Vol. 5
Hoffman, Pete	Vol. 5
Hogarth, Burne	Vol. 2
Holley, Lee	Vol. 5
Holman, Bill	Vol. 1 Vol. 5
Hurd, Jud	Vol. 5
Irving, Jay	Vol. 2
Ivey, Jim	Vol. 5
Johnson, Ferd	Vol. 2 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Kaeknecht, Karl	Vol. 2
Kaye, Stan	Vol. 2
Keate, Jeff	Vol. 1 Vol. 5
Kelly, Walt	Vol. 4
Keys, Harry	Vol. 2
Klein, I.	Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Kling, Ken	Vol. 2
Knight, Clayton	Vol. 1
Knight, Jack	Vol. 2 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Kuhn, Charles	Vol. 5
Lasswell, Fred	Vol. 1 Vol. 5
Lehti, John	Vol. 2
Leonard, Lank	Vol. 1 Vol. 5
Liederman, Al	Vol. 5
Link, Stanley	Vol. 2
Lukens, Bob	Vol. 4
McArdle, Jay	Vol. 1
McClure, Darrell	Vol. 1 Vol. 5
MacGovern, Stan	Vol. 2
MacLean, Bill	Vol. 2
McManus, George	Vol. 2
Manning, Reg	Vol. 1 Vol. 5
Mauldin, Bill	Vol. 2 Vol. 5
Maxon, P.	Vol. 2
Messner, Elmer R.	Vol. 2
Montana, Bob	Vol. 5
Mosley, Zack	Vol. 2
Moyer, Sy	Vol. 2
Mullin, Willard	Vol. 1
Munson, Walt	Vol. 2
Musial, Joe	Vol. 1 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Naylor, Bob	Vol. 2
Neher, Fred	Vol. 2 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Page, Grover	Vol. 1
Pascal, Dave	Vol. 5
Patterson, Russell	Vol. 2 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Payne, Charlie	Vol. 4
Posen, Al	Vol. 2
Robbins, Frank	Vol. 1
Robinson, Jerry	Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Rogers, Boody	Vol. 2
Rose, Carl	Vol. 2
Rosen, Hy	Vol. 4
Rosen, Jack	Vol. 6
Russell, C. D.	Vol. 1 Vol. 4
Scadutto, Al	Vol. 4
Schwartz, Lew Sayre	Vol. 1 Vol. 4
Seibel, Fred O.	Vol. 2
Smith, Al	Vol. 4
Soglow, Otto	Vol. 2
Starr, Leonard	Vol. 4
Sterrett, Cliff	Vol. 2
Striebel, John	Vol. 4
Terry, Paul	Vol. 2
Valtmann, Ed	Vol. 5
Van Buren, R.	Vol. 1
Walker, Mort	Vol. 1 Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Walter, Jerry	Vol. 2
Waugh, Coulton	Vol. 2
Weller E. C.	Vol. 1
Wells, Peter	Vol. 4 Vol. 5
Whitman, Bert	Vol. 1
Willare, Frank	Vol. 2
Wingert, Dick	Vol. 1
Woggon, Bill	Vol. 4
Wood, Art	Vol. 4
Yardley, Richard O.	Vol. 2
Young, Chic	Vol. 2 Vol. 4
Young, Lyman	Vol. 2
Zaboly, Bill	Vol. 2

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:

Processed by The Bancroft Library staff

Date Prepared:

© 1997

Date Encoded:

Machine-readable finding aid derived from paper by means of scanning and OCR; OCR file edited for typographical errors before encoding; finding aid encoded by Brooke Dykman Dockter. Date of source: Unknown.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Rube Goldberg papers, BANC MSS C-H 163, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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