Among the items that will now be part of the center’s permanent archives are rare artifacts, wardrobe and awards from White’s estate. Much of the collection, which includes pieces from White’s award-winning work in acclaimed TV comedies The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls and Hot in Cleveland, is now on display at the National Comedy Center’s state-of-the-art museum in Jamestown.

The collection donated to the National Comedy Center features scripts hand-annotated by White, plus several articles of White’s screen-used wardrobe now on display, including a Rose Nylund sweater, an Elka Ostrovsky tracksuit from Hot in Cleveland and a gown worn by White at the 1986 Emmy Awards ceremony, plus five Emmy statuettes for wins spanning nearly 60 years, including Life with Elizabeth in 1952, The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1975 and 1976, The Golden Girls in 1986 and as guest host of Saturday Night Live in 2010. The collection also features career memorabilia, including the sweater White wore in her Superbowl XLV commercial and a Guinness World Record certificate for “Longest TV Career by a Female Entertainer.”

“Betty White has had a remarkable impact on the world of comedy. She brought laughter to millions and made it look effortless, when in fact, she was a true master of the art form,” said Journey Gunderson, National Comedy Center executive director. “Betty’s story and her body of work have united, entertained, and inspired generations of fans, and her performances are infused with a genuine love for the comedic craft. Her story is a remarkable one, not least because of the unerring grace and resilience she modeled as an artist navigating an evolving entertainment industry across seven decades – never losing relevancy and never failing to reinvent herself and her work to meet the moment. We are truly honored to celebrate Betty White in our galleries and to preserve her materials for generations to come.”

White died on December 31, 2021, just 17 days before her 100th birthday.

A Betty White display at the National Comedy Center is pictured. It includes an “Elka Ostrovsky” tracksuit from Hot in Cleveland, a gown worn by White at the 1986 Emmy Awards ceremony, a “Rose Nylund” sweater from The Golden Palace, plus five Emmy statuettes for wins spanning nearly 60 years, including Life with Elizabeth in 1952, The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1975 and 1976, The Golden Girls in 1986 and as guest host of Saturday Night Live in 2010.

According to the Associated Press, White launched her TV career in daytime talk shows when the medium was still in its infancy and endured well into the age of cable and streaming. Her combination of sweetness and edginess gave life to a roster of quirky characters in shows from the sitcom “Life With Elizabeth” in the early 1950s to oddball Rose Nylund in “The Golden Girls” in the ’80s to “Boston Legal,” which ran from 2004 to 2008. The 2010 Snickers commercial that aired during the Super Bowl — the sweater from which has been donated to the National Comedy Center — relaunched White’s career. She impersonated an energy-sapped dude getting tackled during a backlot football game.

“Mike, you’re playing like Betty White out there,” jeered one of his chums. White, flat on the ground and covered in mud, fired back, “That’s not what your girlfriend said!”

The AP recounted in its obituary for White that the instantly-viral commercial helped spark a Facebook campaign called “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!,” with a half-million fans that eventually led to White’s appearance co-hosting “Saturday Night Live” in a much-watched, much-hailed edition that Mother’s Day weekend. The appearance won her a seventh Emmy award.

White’s Super Bowl commerical and SNL hosting stint preceded White’s work on TV Land’s “Hot In Cleveland.” The AP reported White’s character — Elka Ostrovsky — was supposed to appear on only one episode, but White ended up a key part of the series during its run and landed White the AP’s Entertainer of the Year award winner.

White is, of course, best known for “The Golden Girls.” Launching in 1985, White starred on NBC with Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty in a show featuring a cast of mature actors playing single women in Miami retirement. The show lasted until 1992 and is still shown in syndication in 2022. As the AP noted in its obituary, White played Rose, a gentle, dim widow who managed to misinterpret most situations. She drove her roommates crazy with off-the-wall tales of childhood in fictional St. Olaf, Minnesota, an off-kilter version of Lake Wobegon.

The sweater betty White wore during her iconic 2010 Snickers commercial which aired during Super Bowl XLV is pictured along with screen shots from the commercial.

White’s other TV series included “Mama’s Family,” as Vicki Lawrence’s daughter; “Just Men,” a game show in which women tried to predict answers to questions directed to male celebrities; and “Ladies Man,” as the catty mother of Alfred Molina. “Just Men” brought her a daytime Emmy, while she won a fourth prime time Emmy in 1996 for a guest shot on “The John Larroquette Show.” She also appeared in numerous miniseries and TV movies and made her film debut as a female U.S. senator in Otto Preminger’s 1962 Capitol Hill drama “Advise and Consent.”

“We are delighted to donate these important pieces from Betty White’s career to the National Comedy Center, the nation’s official home for the celebration and preservation of comedy,” said Glenn Kaplan, who represents the Betty White Estate. “Betty was so wonderfully gifted as an actress and comedienne. She loved to make us all laugh for nearly one hundred years, and she believed wholeheartedly in the power of comedy to entertain, to open our minds, and to change the world. Now her work is on exhibit side-by-side with her dear friends and fellow artists, including Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore and so many others. We know that she would have been thrilled to be included in the National Comedy Center, and we hope her fans will visit to remember our beloved Betty and pay tribute her extraordinary legacy.”