Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact Comic Book Collection

An inventory of Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact Comic Book Collection at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives

Mailing Address: The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064

Telephone: 202-319-5065

Email: archives@mail.lib.cua.edu

URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html

Historical Note

The Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact was a Catholic comic book that began publication by George Pflaum of Dayton, Ohio, with a cover date of March 12, 1946. It was a response to the undesirable comic books of that time with the intent to use the comics format to teach tenets of both Catholic faith and American patriotism. It was generally not available for sale at newsstands but rather via distribution through the Catholic parochial school system.

Publisher George Pflaum was a well known Catholic publisher. As head of the company founded by his father in 1885, he was in charge of such titles as The Young Catholic Messenger, The Junior Catholic Messenger, and Our Little Messenger, each addressed to different age groups in the Catholic school system. Pflaum, who died in 1963, was active in the Catholic Press Association and was a founder of the Catholic Civics Clubs of America, a joint project with the Commission on American Citizenship of The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC.

The Treasure Chest had a run of 508 issues between 1946 and 1972, and made great use of non-fiction subjects. Most of the stories promoted themes of faith, family, and patriotism and related to sports, school, and Saints. Contributors included Frank Borth, Bob Powell, and Reed Crandall. In the 1960s the comic began to fade and by the time it ceased publication with Volume 27, No. 8, July (Fall) 1972, it was being published by T.S. Denison and Company in Minnesota. Later Pflaum changed its name to Pflaum Standard and T.S. Denison became part of Instructional Fair to form Instructional Fair/T.S. Denison.

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Scope and Content Note

Series one, the printed collection, has the majority of the 508 issues of volumes 1 to 27 published from 1946 until publication ceased in 1972. The first volume in 1946 had only six issues with 32 pages each and unnumbered until pagination began with issue number 5. The second and third volumes, 1946-1947 and 1947-1948, are full years of twenty issues with 32 pages per issue. From volume 4, 1948-1949, to volume 23, 1967-1968, there are also twenty issues per year but 36 pages per issue. Volume 24, 1968-1969, cut back to 18 issues of 34 pages each, volume 25, 1969-1970, had 16 issues with 34 pages, volume 26, 1970-1971, had 8 issues with 66 pages each, and the final volume, number 27 for 1971-1972, also had 66 pages each with only 8 issues. There is also a special 20 page Teacher's Edition for 1959 as well as a 4 page Teacher's Edition with the first two issues for each year of volumes 15-20, 1959-1965. Finally, there were 6 summer issues in both 1966 and 1967. The digital version of the printed collection comes to 360 plus issues of volumes 1-18, 1946 to 1963. Series two consists of a May 10, 2006 interview with Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact illustrator and writer Frank Borth.

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Arrangement

The Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact Comic Book Collection consists of two series:

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

There are no access restrictions.

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Administrative Information

Custodial History

Eight bound volumes (5-12) of the comic book, Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact, 1949-1957, were deposited in the Archives by W. Wingate Snell upon his retirement in November of 1970 after sixteen years working for Catholic University's Commission on American Citizenship. Seventeen bound volumes (1-3, 5-12, 15-20), some of them duplicates, were transferred to the Archives by Chiyono Sata of the Cataloging Department, CUA's Mullen Library, in June of 2003. Scores of additional loose copies for the years 1950 to 1972 received in May 2006 from contributor Frank Borth. The Commission was a contributor to the Treasure Chest which was published by George Pflaum of Ohio from inception in 1946 until T.S. Dennison took over and published the last year, 1971-1972. Plaum did not renew copyright for the years 1946-1943 and Denison did not copyright 1971-1972. In 2009, Mary Noshang, Editor in Chief of the current Pflaum Publishing Group stated in an email that her company merely bought the right to the Pflaum name when Pflaum went out of business, not the copyright. Therefore, there is no known copyright for the 1964-1971. Since Treasure Chest was never published by nor part of CUA's Commission on American Citizenship, the decision was taken to separate it as a manuscript collection and to make it available as a digital collection.

Acquisition Information

Acquisition dates: 1970, 2003, 2006-2009, 2012.

Accession dates: 2003, 2006-2009, 2012.

Processing Information

Processing completed in September 2004 by William John Shepherd, Sr. Addtional processing completed by Helen Ciernick, Pamela Chambliss, Patrick Cullom, and William J. Shepherd, Jr. EAD markup and digitization completed by Washington Research Library Consortium in June 2004. Additional EAD markup completed by Jordan Patty, Cathey Dugan, and William John Shepherd, Sr. in 2006. Further revisons in 2008-2012 by William John Shepherd, Sr.

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Related Material

Commission on American Citizenship records.

NCWC/USCC Executive Department/Office of the General Secretary (OGS) records

Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact Digital Collection

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Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Persons:

Subjects:

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Selected Bibliography

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Detailed Description of the Collection