Announcing the Barbara Slate Archive
The Dowd Illustration Research Archive has acquired the archive of Barbara Slate, a renowned comic artist, teacher, and writer. On August 7, the collection arrived via box truck and was accompanied by Barbara herself. It was Slate’s first trip to St. Louis since she moved away as a child, and she declared it a sort of homecoming.
She was eager to begin the new partnership with WashU Libraries and the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections because the custodianship will allow for long‐term preservation and access to her materials. The Dowd Illustration Research Archive will rehouse and describe Slate’s archive in order to make the collection available for both research and teaching.
The Barbara Slate Archive contains original works of art, books, process materials, scripts, objects, scrapbooks, photographs, clippings, and professional papers documenting Slate’s career. The archive provides research opportunities for multiple areas of study, most notably the history of comics.
Slate is nothing short of a trailblazer and is arguably one of the most influential women in comics. In the ‘70s her first cartoon, Ms. Liz, was featured in a line of feminist greeting cards, published as a strip in Cosmopolitan, and became an animated segment on The Today Show.
Slate’s archive contains sketches, storyboards, and published materials for not only Ms. Liz but her numerous other projects. Access to such a lineage of working materials will allow patrons to gain valuable insight into Slate’s creative ability.
The archive is full of examples of Slate’s working process. The collection contains scripts and layouts for the comic book titles, Barbie and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Marvel), in addition to Betty and Veronica, published by Archie Comics. Slate was also the creator of Angel Love, Sweet XVI, and Yuppies from Hell.
This impressive lineup gives Slate an incredible pedigree. Her work is published in Archie Comics, as well as both DC and Marvel. Slate’s archive is unique because it contains almost equal parts of writing and visual work which are, in most cases, synonymously entwined. The archive provides the opportunity to study the relationship between text and image, and it is evident that Slate could easily move between both mediums with equal success.
To have a piece of Slate return to St. Louis only feels like the natural trajectory for her legacy. The acquisition is significant for the Dowd Illustration Research Archive. The collection broadens the holdings of works created by female artists while also expanding the narrative of comic history. Fortunately, the archive will continue to expand as Slate herself is still actively teaching and working.
A Word from Barbara Slate
Of course, I was going to arrive with my archive! It was exciting to revisit my birthplace to watch fifty boxes, seven bins, and three flats of my life’s work delivered into the capable hands of Andrea Degener and her assistants.
They rolled out the red carpet, starting with a tour of DIRA with Professor Dowd himself! Then the unboxing, where I interacted with knowledgeable faculty and students. It’s rewarding to know that a half-century of my work will be used to educate new generations.
My archive and I had indeed arrived home.
