Tracts, Jokes, and Songs

Since printing presses were established in Britain’s North American colonies, print has been a ubiquitous feature of American religion. One popular form of religious communication is the tract – a short, mass produced treatise on a single subject. Tracts are a very effective means of contributing to religious controversies: because they are able to be produced cheaply, anybody with an opinion on a religious issue can have their contribution printed and circulated. On display is one of the most widely distributed and influential American tracts, “This Was Your Life.” The first of many tracts written by Jack Chick, this pamphlet follows the pattern of vivid cartoon images and extremist viewpoints that would drive the culture of modern and contemporary religious tracts.

• Christ in Every Purse
• Look not thou upon the wine
• God Wants YOU to Make the Grade
• When you swear!
• Satan's Invisible World Discovered
• A Voice From Eternity
• Beware of the Coiled Serpent
• This Was Your Life
• Why Must God Damn It?

Star Series Joke Books, published in the early 1900s, are part of a larger genre of texts that catered to a growing demand for accessible, light entertainment. These selections from the Kenneth S. Goldstein Collection, in particular, focus on prohibition, the World War, and other darker subjects and seek to reflect the social atmosphere of their time – resilience, adaptation, and humor in the face of hardship.

• Epitaphs Comic Poetry, No. 17 I & M. Ottenheimer Publishers.
• Comic Epitaphs, McGlenno's Fun Series No. 5
• Wet and Dry Jokes, The Star Series
• Funny Things the Doughboys Tell -- Wit and Humor, The Star Series

The pocket songbook tradition continued to influence music culture well into the 20th century, especially with the advent of mass-produced sheet music and later recorded music. These types of 19th-century songbooks, also from the Kenneth Goldstein Collection, were integral to the development of American musical culture, helping to preserve and spread songs that might otherwise have been forgotten.

• New and Favorite Songs
• The Railway Songster
• The Melodist, or National Warbler
• The Bouquet, a Collection of New Songs