Series 3: Ephemera, 1888-2009

The John H. Percival Magic Collection contains books, periodicals, ephemera, manuscript materials, newspaper clippings, autographs, magicians’ promotional materials, typescripts, and photographs spanning the years 1888-2009, with the bulk of materials from 1940-1970.

The largest portion of the collection consists of Percival’s book collection, which features over 1,200 volumes on magic tricks, ventriloquism, spiritualism, stage entertainment, and gambling, among other topics. Items of particular interest include Will Goldston’s Exclusive Magical Secrets, which took Percival two years to find and is secured with a lock and key, Harry Houdini’s exposé of fraudulent spirit-mediums called A Magician Among the Spirits, a mystery novel by Clayton Rawson titled Death from a Top Hat, and a practical guide to fortune-telling, Zancig’s New Complete Palmistry.

The sizeable periodicals collection includes both extensive runs of well-known titles, such as M-U-M, The Linking Ring, and Tops, and single issues or small runs of obscure titles. Within the periodicals one can find instructions for magic tricks and effects, news about magicians and magic shows, and announcements for upcoming conferences.

A significant portion of the ephemera consists of conference programs, mailings, and meeting notes describing the activities of national and international magicians’ organizations, including the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Other ephemera include magic dealers’ catalogs, advertising both supplies and books, a number of printed magicians’ secrets, information about individual magicians including Tex McGuire, Dell O’Dell, and many others, scrapbooks and clippings about magicians and magic shows, and keepsakes from magic conventions and other trips. Also included among Percival’s ephemera is an autograph book of magician’s signatures which he collected between 1916 and 1931.

A small series of Percival’s personal papers include his correspondence with fellow magicians, including his close friend H. Adrian Smith, whose own collection of magic books can be found at Brown University’s John Hay Library. Personal papers also include notebooks, early drafts of articles, newspaper clippings about Percival’s performances, and Percival’s own promotional materials.

The bulk of these materials were collected by John H. Percival; a small number were added by friends or librarians after his death (see Accruals for more details).