Avid Fan Bequeaths Beatles Collection To WSU Hundreds Of Artifacts Will Be Housed At Holland Library
Future scholars of the Beatles will find a Fab Four archive at Washington State University, and you know that can’t be bad.
Hundreds of artifacts gathered over years of Beatlemania have been donated to the university.
They include a copy of the 45-rpm version of “She Loves You,” videotapes of the group’s appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” more than 100 albums, plus bootleg versions of concerts.
The donor was Lynn R. Hansen, a diabetic from Roswell, N.M., who died of natural causes at age 37 last April.
“He collected everything he could lay his hands on: books, records, memorabilia and tapes of their performances,” said Laila Vejzovic, a special collections worker at WSU’s Holland Library.
The library hopes to put some items on public display in the fall, Vejzovic said.
A few months after his death, Hansen’s parents notified Vejzovic of their son’s desire to have his extensive Beatles collection donated to WSU, along with more than 4,000 comic books.
In addition, Hansen’s parents gave WSU $1,000 to help process the comics and Beatles items.
Hansen never attended the Pullman campus. His affinity for WSU stemmed from a chance meeting with one of the school’s librarians at a comics convention several years ago.
He began sending boxes of comics to the Holland Library each year to help build a collection there. After his librarian friend left WSU, Vejzovic kept in touch with Hansen, sending him thank you notes when the library received a box of comics.
Hansen spent much of his life researching and collecting underground comics and anything to do with the Beatles.The papers, which are included in the donated collection, concerned rumors of Paul McCartney’s death that circulated following the release of the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” album.
After receiving the Beatles memorabilia, Vejzovic conducted a search of library databases to find out if similar collections existed.
“My first instinct was, ‘I want it,”’ she said. “But, being a librarian, I thought I should check to see if there was a large collection elsewhere that this could supplement. I was very happy I didn’t find it.”
The items will be stored in acid-free folders and boxes in the humidity-controlled archives of Holland Library.
The collection includes rarities such as Beatles Christmas messages recorded for friends of the band as well as bootleg recordings and video footage Hansen acquired while working at television stations.
There are more than 50 videotapes of performances, interviews and television programs, from “The Complete Ed Sullivan Shows” to “Paul McCartney Introducing Linda’s Vegetarian Meals.”