The collections are being housed at an atmospherically controlled secure storage facility located in Stamford, Connecticut. Our collections offer the opportunity to preserve, exhibit and interpret materials that are familiar to each of us as part of our daily lives. Through our collections we have attempted to represent the main creative periods of all major cartoon artists and to include representation of major media, subject areas, time periods and nationalities. Cartoon art has a special quality of immediacy that is apparent in both medium and message. As an expression of popular culture, its value may stem from age and rarity, or from being "hot off the drawing board", or from its ability to transcend different stages of peoples lives with familiar, comforting, and consistent characters. Cartoon Art Genres One may classify a work of cartoon art according to the general mode of publication, or genre, to which it belongs. Genres represented in our collections include: Advertising Cartoons Editorial Cartoons Animation Graphic Novels Book Illustration Greeting Cards Caricature Magazine Cartoons Comic Books Newspaper Comic Strips Digital Cartoon Art Sculpture International Cartoon Art Genres Cartoon Art is worldwide phenomenon, bridging cultural boundaries through their universal appeal. The National Cartoon Museum has collected internationally and has developed a representative dollection of the best of such art throughout the world. Themes relevant to the rapidly changing world scene and differing cultural perspectives are of particular interest. Collection Statistics The Museum possesses the largest collection of publicly accessible cartoon art in the world. The collection consist of over 200,000 original drawings from all genres of cartoon art - comic strips, comic books, animation, editorial, advertising, sport, caricature, greeting cards, graphic novels, illustration, sculpture and other related disciplines. We have the largest collection of comic books in the world, 15,000 books, 1,000 hours of film and tape, CD's, DVD's and many unique display figures, toys and collectibles. The William Randolph Hearst Hall of Fame is unique in the world. Our traveling exhibitions have been on display as far away as Hong Kong. The highlights of the collection are the very first drawings of Mickey Mouse made by Walt Disney and his associate Ub Iworks that they created for Walt's planned film "Plane Crazy". They were appraised, after their provenance was established, at $3.7 million. The Museum's management conservatively estimates the current value of the collections to be worth at least $20 million. The Exhibition Collection The National Cartoon Museum regularly displays hundreds of representative pieces of cartoon art in the Museum's collection in permanent and special exhibitions. Exhibition design will embody the Mission Statement of the Museum to preserve and display cartoon art, to entertain our guests, and to enlighten the public about this distinctive art form. Each item in the Exhibition Collection has its own special quality, but some pieces are easier to exhibit than others. Some cartoons of great historic and artistic value are very fragile, worn or faded, and preservation concerns demand that these should not be displayed or exposed to undo light. We will exhibit reproductions of these pieces or offer computerized and video image presentations of them. Indeed, the majority of the Museum's collection is made of fragile, ephemeral media that are vulnerable to heat, light and stress and can only be shown to the public for limited periods and in controlled circumstances. By designing exhibits to rotate the Exhibition Collection regularly and to display art from other traveling collections, we can avoid exposing items longer than is desirable for proper conservation. The Study Collection The Study Collection consists of those items which are accepted into the collection because of their exceptional artistic or historical significance or rarity but which are not in good enough physical condition to exhibit. These materials remain in storage, and the original is accessible only to accredited researchers under staff supervision. We display photographic and or other reproductions of Study Collection materials to the public. The Reserve Collection The Reserve Collection is the repository for items that have not been accepted into the Exhibition Collection for some reason. Their ownership may not be clearly documented, or they may be on a long-term loan from another institution or individual. They may be under consideration for acquisition or disposal or may have been acquired as potential exchange items. In some cases, they may require extensive restoration work. The Living and Archive Collections Many works in The National Cartoon Museum collections are by living artists. A great deal of information is available on the lives and ideas of these artists and the cultural and/or political contexts in which they worked. In order to provide fuller background information about the art in our collections, we actively collects archival and library material about represented artists in the form of tapes, manuscripts, film, published books, articles, trade journals and biographies. Archival and library materials are stored and managed separately from the cartoon art collections. Acquisitions, cataloguing, and storage of such material follow an archival model. The Library Archives offer facilities for the public to research cartoon art and artists using all types of communications media. Sale Items The National Cartoon Museum regularly receives donations of original cartoon art specifically for sale as a revenue-generating initiative. The Museum also purchases items for resale in the Museum shop. Care is taken with both these initiatives not to violate museum codes of ethics or conflict of interest guidelines for not-for-profit organizations. Items donated to The National Cartoon Museum specifically for sale by the Museum are not part of the Museum's collections. They are identified as resale merchandise and stored in the Retail Stockroom. Special Exhibitions During its thirty plus years of operation, we have mounted special exhibitions every three months in addition to our permanent displays. Whenever possible, the artist showcased has attended the opening. We regularly publish catalogues, conduct lecture series and developed programs related to the exhibitions. Permanent Exhibitions The William Randolph Hearst Cartoon Hall of Fame - A jury-selected exhibit of the all time best cartoonists. Begun in 1974 it now has a total of thirty-one artists representing many genres of cartoon art. On a periodic basis, The National Cartoon Museum organizes an impartial jury of non-cartoonists scholars and authorities to make one or more selections based on submissions made by panels of peer cartoonists. The Hall of Fame was named in memory of William Randolph Hearst who is credited with creating the American Newspaper Comic Strip. Hot Topics - Our exhibit entitled "Hot Topics" is a frequently updated display of editorial cartoons dealing with current events in the news media. Editorial Cartoonists from around the world offer their unique commentary on the serious and mundane. Often hilarious and at times deeply profound this exhibition provides the viewer a quick take on current issues affecting our lives. The Lexicon of Comicana - Universal symbols and "language" of cartoons Childhood Drawings of Now Famous Cartoonists The History of America As Told By It's Cartoonists Archival and Educational Programs A broad based program is planned which will utilize a new 5,000 square foot, Stamford, Conecticut Archive, Research and Education Center, in conjunction with the National Cartoon Museum's New York City Virtual Archive and Museum based programs, to provide research and education opportunities to professional student and lay audiences. As we establish The National Cartoon Museum as a major new part of the cultural life in the New York City Metro area, we will begin to expand our cultural outreach through lectues series, special exhibits and meet-the-cartoonist events, among opthers. We will work closely with students from the Tri-state area to bring in children's groups for special programming. We will plan outreach programs for inner city children during the summer months. Our Education Director will make available to teachers a wide variety of cartoon materials for use in the curricula. Special Events Our new facility in The Empire State Building will be an ideal place to hold small events for The National Cartoon Museum as well as corporate receptions. The unique mix of entertainment and display of art should make it a popular destination on the calendar of the city of New York social destinations. Previous Exhibits A Retrospective of Walt Kelly and Pogo Reuben Award Winners Jack Kirby - Comic Book Pioneer The Story of America in Cartoons Thomas Nast - The Father of Political Cartooning A Cartoon Christmas TAD - A Collection of Cartoons by Thomas Aloysius Dorgan The Sunday Funnies Dick Tracy - The Art of Chester Gould The Jeff MacNelly Exhibit Cartoons in Advertising The Best Editorial Cartoons of 1978 Popeye's 50th Birthday Exhibit of English Cartoons That's Not All Folks - The History of Warner Brothers Studio Limited Edition Comic Art Dogpatch U.S.A. - The Art of Al Capp The New Yorker Age of Peter Arno Little Orphan Annie The Artists of MAD Magazine Willard Mullin - The Dean of Sports Cartoonists The Art of the Muppets Winsor McCay Retrospective Great Comic Cats The Superman Exhibit The Yellow Kid - America's First Comic Star The Art of Tron - Computer Graphics The Doonesbury Retrospective Comics Next Generation - European Graphic Novels The Cartoons of Playboy The Cartoon Game Exhibit Krazy Kat Retrospective Women and the Comics The Cartoon History of Presidential Elections Milton Caniff - Rembrandt of the Comic Strips Masters of Pen and Ink The Art of Marvel Comics The Peanuts Retrospective Comic Relief Exhibit The History of Uncle Sam Defenders of the Earth The Art of Walt Disney Studio Cartoons - State of the Art The Fleischer Studio Retrospective The Art of Will Eisner Archie - America's Favorite Teenager Childhood Enchantments - Illustration for Children's Literature The New Breed - An Exhibit of Contemporary Cartoonists Batman - Fifty Years of the Dark Knight The Art of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy Bugs Bunny - A Fifty Year Retrospective The Dick Tracy Exhibit The Art of Fantasia Cartoons in Advertising The Story of America in Cartoons Ecotoon: Our Endangered Planet Black Ink Glasnost - Russian Cartoonists Comment on their Changing Political Situation The Road to Maus - Art Spiegelman's Graphic Novels The Artist and the Baseball Card Garfield: 20 Years and Still Kicking Holiday Cartoon Celebration - Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa In Line With Al Hirschfeld Tarzan: From Burroughs to Disney Cartoons Go To War Fifty Years of Peanuts - The Art of Charles Schulz Off the Wall Street Journal - 50 Years of Funny Business 100 Years of the American Newspaper Comic Strip The Sunday Funnies: 100 Years of Comics in American Life Oscars and Animation The Legacy of Mort Walker - 50 Years of Beetle Bailey National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award Winners - 1946 through 1999 National Cartoonists Society Florida Artists Dennis The Menace - The Boy Next Door (50 year Retrospective)