SpColl 38: Hoosier Archives

Introduction

The Hoosier Archives Collection was donated to the Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL) in 1999 by Jamie McQuinn, who received the materials from Walter Buchanan of New Lebanon, Indiana.  Buchanan was the editor of the “Hoosier Archives” and had amassed a collection of Diplomacy zines (dipzines), war gaming periodicals, correspondence, player census, maps, game rules, and other materials relating to the dipzine postal Diplomacy genre. 

Dipzines are fanzines based on the original board game Diplomacy.  Diplomacy (the board game) was created in 1954 by Allan B. Calhamer and was released commercially in 1959.  The game is a war game involving the seven major European powers prior to WWI with players creating alliances, making negotiations, making moves, and attempting to take over supply centers and major cities to control the map.  Diplomacy was the first commercially released board game to be played by mail.  It is believed to have been started by Dr. John Boardman in 1963 under the title Graustark.  The majority of diplomacy games continued to be played until the 1980s, with a few titles still being played even today.  Variant games were also created and online games have become the latest version of Diplomacy.

The collection is ca. 17 cubic feet and has no restrictions placed upon its use for scholarly research.  The finding aid was completed by Patricia Falk in October 2010.

Biographical Sketch

Walter W. Buchanan was born October 6, 1941 in Lebanon, IN.  He became an aerospace engineer and was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1965-1969, including serving in Vietnam.  He married Carol in 1968 and had two boys.  Walter also studied law and became a lawyer for the veteran’s administration in Indianapolis.  Walt discovered diplomacy in 1970 and began collecting dipzines in an attempt to collect as many games as possible.  His collection included almost every issue of every dipzine published between 1963 and 1978.  He began his own dipzine entitled “Hoosier Archives” (HA) in 1971 with the help of his wife Carol, and “Diplomacy World”-the first professional style zine in the hobby. Walt was an active dipzine player, publisher, gamemaster and archivist.  His contributions to the genre led him to be selected to the International Diplomacy Hall of Fame.  Walt is currently employed at Texas A & M University as a Chair Professor in Engineering Technology & Industrial Distribution.  He holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education, a M.S.E. and B.S.E. in Interdisciplinary Engineering, in addition to his J.D. in Law and his B.A. in Mathematics and Languages.

Scope and Contents

The Hoosier Archives Collection includes a vast array of organizational files such as handbooks, tactical strategies, subscriptions, lists of players and game masters; game files and correspondence between Walt and numerous game masters and players; card files and plaques.  The 14,000+ dipzines are cataloged in the University Libraries online catalog and are searchable primarily by title or subjects. 

Series Description

Series I: Correspondence
Series II: Organization files
Series III: Game files
Series IV: Card files
Series V: Awards/Plaques

Inventory