Tip Top Weekly

Planning your Turkey Bowl or your fantasy team for this Thanksgiving? Even a century ago, football was still a main feature of the holiday weekend, as demonstrated by this 1905 issue of the long-running serial Tip Top Weekly. Branded “An Ideal Publication for the American Youth,” Tip Top Weekly churned out wildly popular adventure and sports stories which featured the exploits of all-around hero Frank Merriwell and his younger brother Dick. Frank eventually made his way into comic books and the radio: NBC radio broadcast “The Adventures of Frank Merriwell” throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Special Collections owns a near-complete run of the series as well as other popular dime novel titles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You can find the adventures of the Merriwells by searching the library catalog for the series title Tip Top Weekly or Tip Top Quarterly.