The papers of Thomas O. Mabbott reflect his scholarship and hobbies. The collection, measuring 27 linear feet, dates from 1918 to 1979, and is arranged in eight series.

The first series consists of nine boxes of personal papers. It includes certificates, diplomas, photographs, and correspondence. Correspondents include Walter R. Benjamin, Clarence S. Brigham, S. Foster Damon, August Derleth, J. Milton French, Clarence Gohdes, Charles F. Heartman, Philip D. Jordan, John W. Ostrom, Mary E. Phillips, Frank L. Pleadwell, Arthur H. Quinn, G.E.B. Saintsbury, Vincent Starrett, William P. Trent, Robert W.G. Vail, and J.H. Whitty.

The second and third series represent Mabbbott's life's work as a scholar. The section titled "Literary Interests" reflects his reading and research subjects. Included here are research notes on authors from William Blake and John Milton to Washington Irving and Mark Twain. There are also copies of articles by TOM and others on a variety of literary topics. The Edgar Allan Poe series is the largest in the collection and documents the main thrust of Mabbott's research career. Nearly 35 boxes of Poe material is gathered here. There are research files relating to specific Poe works, published and unpublished articles about Poe by TOM and others, copies of Poe's writing, and copies of the journals in which Poe's works originally appeared. The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe edited by TOM is present in manuscript form, complete with discarded plans, illustrations that were and were not used, page proofs, contracts, and reviews. Some later additions by Burton Pollin round out this series, including a series of scrapbooks apparently compiled by Mabbott and loaned to Pollin. Notes by both men may appear in the scrapbooks.

The next four sections represent TOM's other interests and hobbies. There are three boxes of broadsides and materials relating to 15th century prints. Another three boxes contain certificates, auction catalogs, and articles about his special hobby, numismatics. One more box contains correspondence and published materials relating to his interest in collecting newspapers. The final series is made up of the writings of Maureen Cobb Mabbott and her correspondence.

TOM also bequeathed his collection of books by and about Edgar Allan Poe to the University of Iowa Libraries, and they continue to be a seperately shelved sequence in Special Collections. The collection is particularly rich in appearances of Poe's works in magazines. An endowment accompanied the gift, and the income from this fund has allowed the Libraries to add fine press and other editions of Poe's work as well as books about Poe. In 2003 the collection was greatly enriched with the gift by Burton Pollin of his collection of illustrated Poe -- several hundred books in diverse languages containing illustrated versions of Poe's works. The Mabbott Poe collection can be searched in the Libraries' bibliographic database, InfoHawk. Go to the "expert search" screen and enter "wcl=mpoe and wcl=spec". This will bring up the collection in order by date of publication; that list can be reordered by title, call number, etc.

In 2005 Pollin further enriched the collection with more ephemeral publications containing illustrated Poe; like the earlier gift, much of this was collected in the course of his Images of Poe's works: a comprehensive descriptive catalogue of illustrations (Greenwood Press, 1989). The serial appearances, comic books, posters, etc. that were not appropriately cataloged have been listed.

September 2003 Addendum: This addednum was sent to us by Jeffrey A. Savoye, the Secretary/Treasurer of the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. It is comprised of photocopies of materials held by that society, mostly notes created by Thomas Mabbott for his work on the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe. Quoting from Savoye's letter accompanying the donation, this is a "collection of transcripts, photocopies and notes of letters to Edgar Allan Poe begun by Thoma Ollive Mabbott about 1921. (There are also some letters related to Poe, although not directly addressed to him.) Much of the material was added by Joseph V. Ridgely, who made some effort to complete and publish the edition after Mabbott's death. . . . I have been careful in organizing the pages to retain the sequence in which they came to me. First, there are two black notebooks marked 'Letters to Poe.' The rest of the pages are arranged chronologically in folders, sometimes individually and sometimes along with other items in the same numerical range. Many of the pages are little more than blank place holders, often for letters which are known to have existed but for which no text has yet been located."