The Alternative and Underground Press collection consists of radical, anti-establishment, and counterculture serials and ephemera. The material provides an overview of contemporary American social and political controversies, extremism, and youth counter-culture. It includes publications from groups ranging from the John Birch Society to the Fund for the Republic to the Students for a Democratic Society. Subjects of the materials include education, liberalism, conservatism, white supremacy, anti-communist, consumer protections, pro-communist, civil rights, anarchism, fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, labor, Vietnamese conflict, conservation, anti-fascism, housing rights, LGBTQIA rights, libertarianism, Zionism, Equal Rights Amendment, and emigration and immigration.
Researchers are advised to contact Rhode Island College Special Collections for questions regarding permissions to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise publish material from this collection. Although Rhode Island College has physical ownership of the collection, it does not necessarily hold literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection is open for research.
Alternative and Underground Press collection, MSS-0037, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
The collection has been divided into two series, with each series arranged in rough alphabetical order. Series one mostly contains serial publications, while series two mostly contains single items, fliers, and mailers relating to a specific organization, political group, or individual.
The collection has been accumulated through various sources. Its original base was acquired from Gordon Hall. The bulk of the collection, however, consists of materials gained through exchanges with other libraries, direct contacts with the producers of this literature, and from donations by individuals. Some printed materials from the Irving Jay Fain papers and the Maurice and Vera Vendettuoli papers are also included in this collection. Those who had generously contributed money to start this collection include Mr. Benjamin C. Bradley, Colfax, Inc., the Eastern Charitable Foundation, Mr. John S. Griffin, Ms. Betty B. McClure, Senator Claiborne de Borda Pell, the Polaroid Corporation, the Stop and Shop Foundation, and Rev. Kenneth Warren.
Dr. J. Stanley Lemons, with the support of the Rhode Island College History Department, provided much of the impetus to start this collection and began to arrange it. Michael Kohl, Assistant Librarian in Special Collections, began a guide to the collection circa 1980. In 2023, Lilliana Martinez, Special Collections student worker, and Alan Martinez, Special Collections intern, created an inventory to the collection and Veronica L. Denison, Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, wrote the guide to the collection. Subject headings in Series 1 were provided by Special Collections students Jean Montas, Abigail Standeven, and Brandon Bun.
Materials in the collection have not been digitized.
This series contains serials, mostly by radical, anti-establishment, and counterculture organizations. Included with some of the serials are fliers, mailers, bumper stickers, and programs.
This series contains newspaper clippings, fliers, mailers, programs, publications, and ephemera from a variety of organizations, including radical, anti-establishment, and counterculture organizations.