The family of the late Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould has donated a collection of his original comics strips and other materials to Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

The collection includes more than 850 original Dick Tracy daily strips, 64 Sunday strips and the drawing board on which Gould wrote and drew the comic for 46 years.“As I got older, the time had come for me to make a decision about where to place my father’s work,” Gould's daughter Jean Gould O’Connell said in a statement. “After traveling to Ohio State, my family and I were extremely impressed with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. I know my father would have been very proud to have his work in such a prestigious place.”Gould introduced Dick Tracy in 1931 in The Detroit Mirror, and continued to write and draw the strip until his retirement in 1977. He twice won the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award and was honored in 1980 by the Mystery Writers of America with a special Edgar Award. He passed away in 1985 at age 84.The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum recently moved into its new 30,000-square-foot home, which houses its extensive collection of more than 300,000 original comic strips, 29,000 comic books, 45,000 books and 2,400 boxes of manuscripts, personal papers and the like.(via The Daily Cartoonist)