Journalist, author and advertising executive, co-founder of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BBDO) agency in New York. Includes 1912 letter to author Margaret Pollock Sherwood in which Bruce Barton, then Managing Editor of The Housekeeper magazine, praises Sherwood's work and asks if she would consider submitting stories to the magazine. Circa 1915 reprint of tract "The Creator of a Correspondence Church" written by Barton and published in Associated Sunday Magazines; Letter, 1949 to journalist Julien Elfenbein in which Barton mentions the potential power of the Sears catalog as a pro-American propaganda tool in Russia. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Includes 1912 letter to Margaret Pollock Sherwood in which Bruce Barton, then Managing Editor of The Housekeeper magazine, praises Sherwood's work and asks if she would consider submitting stories to the magazine. Circa 1915 reprint of tract "The Creator of a Correspondence Church" written by Barton and published in Associated Sunday Magazines; Letter, 1949 to Julien Elfenbein in which Barton mentions the potential power of the Sears catalog as a pro-American propaganda tool in Russia. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Walter Blair (1900-1992) was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1968 and a specialist in American folklore and humor. Collection contains early drafts, edited manuscripts, and proofs of Blair's publications, as well as bibliographic information and correspondence regarding publication of materials and other professional services. The bulk of the material is comprised of draft manuscripts of his work which he wrote with Hamlin Hill (Texas A&M), America's Humor from Poor Richard to Doonesbury (Oxford, 1978). There is also a smaller amount of other materials such as correspondence and reviews related to other publications, including Native American Humor: 1800-1900 (1937), Horse Sense in American Humor (1942), Tall Tale America: A Legendary History of Our Humorous Heroes (1944), Half-Horse Half-Alligator: The Growth of the Mike Fink Legend (1956), and Mark Twain and Huck Finn (1960). Forms part of the Jay B. Hubbell Center for Literary Historiography.

This collection contains early drafts, edited manuscripts, and master proofs of Blair's publications, including American Humor from Poor Richard to Doonesbury (co-authored with Hamlin Hill of Texas A&M, Oxford, 1978), which makes up the bulk of the Writings Series, as well as manuscripts of, reviews of, and correspondence regarding his earlier publications, including Half Horse Half Alligator, Horse Sense in American Humor, Mark Twain and Huck Finn, and Mike Fink: King of the Mississippi Keelboatmen. The collection also contains several reviews of Blair's publications. Biographical information and related materials, including newspaper clippings, magazine articles and newsletters regarding Walter Blair, and various professional correspondence comprises the remainder of the collection. Among the biographical information is a series of humorous Christmas cards that Blair circulated among his acquaintances, as well as a special issue of Studies in American Humor in honor of Blair. The bulk of the correspondence is comprised of letters to and from various university presses regarding publication of Blair's manuscripts, and letters to colleagues at various universities also regarding his manuscripts and other professional services.

Forms part of the Jay B. Hubbell Center for Literary Historiography.