Miller Collection of Wit and Humor

The Miller Collection, consisting of approximately 40,000 volumes, is the personal library of Bernard, Saul, and George Miller, amassed over a period of fifty years and donated to Brown University in the early 1990s. The Collection consists primarily of 20th-century American imprints, but also includes significant sections of 19th-century joke books, British imprints, and works in Russian, Hebrew, French, German, and Italian. The Collection includes early humor material, such as Joe Miller's Jests, or The Wit's Vade-Mecum (London, 1739), and Yankee Notions, or, The American Joe Miller, by Sam Slick (London, 1839). There are also sections of comic novels, familiar essays by humorists, political satire, light verse, theatrical memoirs of comedy performers, vaudeville routines, collections of political cartoons, paperback joke and cartoon books, and playscripts; and a notable section of "Army joke books", pulp periodicals from the World War II era.

Materials in this collection, which comprise a part of the cultural and historical record, depict offensive and objectionable perspectives, imagery, and norms.

Format(s): Books, Serials, Graphics
Library: John Hay

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Access to the collection:

Online Catalog (BruKnow):
General description of the collection available on BruKnow