Scope and Content Note

The Mick Moloney Irish-American Music and Popular Culture Irish Americana Collection is a subcollection of the larger Mick Moloney Irish-American Music and Popular Culture Collection consisting of printed ephemera and published music documenting the Irish and Irish-American image in American popular culture during the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular emphasis on perceptions, representations, and stereotypes of Irish people. The subcollection includes both positive and negative stereotypes of the Irish, as depicted on sheet music, postcards, and other commercial printed materials such as songsters, joke books, advertisements, and cartoons. The joke books also contain content about harmful stereotypes of other immigrant groups, Jews, Asians, and Black Americans. Materials in this collection were published between 1817 and 1995, with the majority dating from between 1860 and 1930. The market for such commercial paper products was tied to the simultaneous emergence and symbiotic relationship of the American middle class and the culture of consumption during this period. In addition, the seepage of entertainment from public venues such as vaudeville into the domestic sphere created demand for such materials.