By Bean Calvert

Room LL02A in the basement of Ekstrom Library seems to be an ordinary utility closet; however, there aren’t any brooms or mops to be found, only the largest collection of Tarzan literature and memorabilia in the world.

Curator of the Burroughs Memorial Collection George T. McWhorter began reading Tarzan and other stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs at the age of five with some help from his mother, to whom the collection is dedicated. He bought his first Tarzan book in 1936 after saving one dollar to purchase the book at a department store at the rate of ten cents a week. As a child he was captivated by the ar?te which Tarzan embodies. In McWhorter’s own words, “Tarzan represents the highest standard of courage, intelligence, morality and physical perfection that a human being can aspire to. He doesn’t fly through the air like Superman, but is entirely human and therefore a much saner role model.”

The writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs paralleled, and in some cases predicted, historical events of the day. McWhorter elaborated, “He (Burroughs) foresaw many historical events, such as the Bolshevik Revolution and the fight of many African States for independence. Burroughs was one of the first writers to promote global ecology and preservation of endangered species.” In 1948, McWhorter went off to college and left his collection of Burroughs literature at home, where it was destroyed by his nieces and nephews. The destruction did not discourage him from regenerating his collection.

The destroyed collection was replaced after McWhorter combed antique book shops and sought items from film enthusiasts and poster collectors. His collection of memorabilia replaced his old one and then some. In 1973, McWhorter donated his collection of books, posters, figurines and other Edgar Rice Burroughs memorabilia to Ekstrom Library, where he is a curator of rare books and special collections.

The current home of the Burroughs Memorial Collection is room LL02A, formerly a cloak closet lined with lockers and coat hooks. McWhorter had the lockers removed and drilled a hole in the wall to connect the small room to the environmentally controlled stack in which a majority of the collection is contained. When the work was completed, he bought glass cases, rolled out the (green) carpet and set up shop.

The Burroughs Memorial Collection has been gaining momentum since 1973 and in its current state consists of more than a hundred thousand items, including Tarzan paperbacks and comic books in thirty-five different languages, every Tarzan film ever made since 1918, all of the radio shows from 1930-1950, toys, games, figurines, hundreds of movie posters, fanzines, reference books, correspondence files and movie stills which are constantly being used in research by book editors researching the life of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The Burroughs Memorial Collection has had several visitors over the years, including foreign diplomats, former Tarzan actors and such important visitors as Phillip Jose Farmer and Kurt Vonnegut. “But mostly, I’d say our visitors are ordinary folk taking the nostalgia trip back to childhood… when they read the Burroughs books and saw the Tarzan movies as part of growing up,” said McWhorter regarding visitors of the Burroughs Memorial Collection.

The Burroughs Memorial Collection has generated attention from several national media moguls. The Arts and Entertainment channel aired a documentary for three years featuring the collection, as well as French and Canadian documentary companies. The collection has also been subject to entertainment shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Louisville Tonight Live.

To date, McWhorter has written the introduction to three books about Burroughs and is currently the editor of The Burroughs Fanzine, which has been published quarterly since 1947. The Burroughs Fanzine and its monthly component newsletter are edited by McWhorter and published on the Belknap Campus. A yearly convention, held every year in August at the Galt House, is attended by over a hundred Burroughs enthusiasts.

McWhorter’s predictions for the future are as follows: “Next year people will be coming in from all over the world to attend the convention, and we will be scurrying around like ants getting ready for it.” McWhorter encourages visitors to explore out of curiosity and possibly learn a thing or two from the wisdom of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is quoted as writing in his 1912 science fiction/fantasy novel Princess of Mars: “Cowardice is of a surety its own punishment.”