Circus, Sideshow & Oddities

Archive of Original Ripley’s “Believe it or Not” Tearsheets. 1930s/70s. Collected in 53 scrapbooks by Robert McFadden of Lansing, Michigan, this archive is an overwhelmingly large chronicle of the famous awe-inducing cartoons that made Robert L. Ripley a household name, and profiled the bizarre, amazing, and unusual accomplishments of mankind and the natural wonders of the world. Sequentially ordered by date and neatly organized in books ranging in size from folio to 4to and smaller, all neatly kept, with expected wear and browning from age and adhesives. A seemingly endless cavalcade of odd, unusual, and bizarre subject matter and immortalized by Robert Ripley. Unique. So substantial was McFadden’s archive of Ripley cartoons that he finally became the subject of a Ripley cartoon himself. Pasted inside the front cover of one of the books is McFadden’s address label, and below it, a copy of the cartoon, which states, “Richard L. McFadden of Lansing, Mich., has collected tearsheets of Believe it or Not cartoons since 1938, filling 42 scrapbooks.” Offered here is an even more substantial grouping of 53 of McFadden’s prized possessions.