Fan darksnowfalling recently took a day-long field trip to visit some of the archived Kirk/Spock zines included in the Fan Culture Preservation Project (FCPP), and generously shared the experience here, on their LiveJournal.
The FCPP is a joint venture between the OTW’s Open Doors project and the Special Collections department at the University of Iowa that archives and preserves fanzines and other non-digital forms of fan culture. It includes a growing number of individual collections, as well as a general OTW Collection made up of single items donated by individual fans. You can take a look at a list of holdings here, on the University of Iowa’s website.
darksnowfalling’s whole post is great reading, but we particularly loved the way they described the sheaf of different forms required to access the collection. One form asked for a statement of purpose:
(…) a “description of research and reason for wishing to examine the manuscripts in this department”.
Here’s a direct transcription of what I wrote: “I am a huge Star Trek fan; specifically, I am a fan of the idea of a romantic relationship between Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock. I’m here to read old fanzines in order to gain a better understanding of my fandom’s history in the days before the Internet.”
My fandom’s history. That’s what Open Doors and the Fan Culture Preservation Project are all about: our history, lovingly celebrated, preserved, and made available to fans near and far, now and into the future.
Photo of an archival storage box filled with fanzines.
For information about donating zines or other artifacts of fan culture to the FCPP, please contact the Open Doors committee.
Interested in more fandom history? Transformative Works and Cultures will release their special History issue in a few short days, on 15 March.