Collections & Exhibits - The University of Chicago Library

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Exhibit Thumbnail	Title	Locations	Subjects
Exhibits
	The Adaptations of Augie March: A Novel By Saul Bellow, A Play By David Auburn, A Production Directed By Charles Newell, An Exhibition by Special Collections & Court Theatre Saul Bellow’s 1953 masterpiece, The Adventures of Augie March, launched his reputation as a novelist and established the future Nobel Laureate's literary renown. Court Theatre commissioned the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning playwright David Auburn, AB ‘91, to adapt Augie March for its stage. This exhibit follows the successive transformations of Bellow's text as Auburn and Director Charles Newell work with their creative team to bring the play to life.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center April 29 — Aug. 30, 2019	Subjects Literature
	African-American Studies: Resources in the University of Chicago Library This exhibition explores the University of Chicago Library's broad array of research materials documenting African-American history and culture.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Feb. 1 — June 1, 1999	Subjects African-American Studies
	Arcangela Tarabotti: A Literary Nun in Baroque Venice The exhibition focuses on the writing and cultural context of Arcangela Tarabotti, a Benedictine nun who published defenses of women that protested against social injustice, especially that of forced religious vocations.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center April 1 — Aug. 31, 1997	Subjects Women's Studies Italian Literature
	The B. Heller & Co. Collection Founded by Benjamin Heller, whose family practiced sausage-making for generations, Chicago-based B. Heller & Co. began in 1893. Eager to take advantage of new developments in food science and chemistry as well as his skills as a salesman, Benjamin Heller was the quintessential American entrepreneur.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center March 1 — June 30, 2009 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Advertising Chicago and Illinois
	Bernard Weinberg, 1909-1973: A Tribute and a Bibliography An exhibition of Italian and French Books of the Renaissance from the Bequest of Bernard Weinberg, University of Chicago scholar and teacher.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — Dec. 31, 1974	Subjects Italian Literature French Literature
	The Black Metropolis Research Consortium: Fifteen Years of Preserving and Documenting Black History and Culture in Chicago The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is a Chicago-based membership association that aids in expanding broad access to its members’ holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic history, politics and culture, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago. Our members include universities, libraries, museums, community, arts-based and government archives. It is the mission of the BMRC to connect all who seek to document, share, understand and preserve Black experiences. In 2021, the BMRC celebrates its 15th anniversary. This exhibit documents the origins of the BMRC, its efforts to aid discoverability and access to Black historical collections, and the consortium’s flagship Summer Short-term Fellowship and Archie Motley Archival Internship programs.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center View web exhibit >>	Subjects American History History African-American Studies
	Blair Through the Ages: An Exhibition in Memory of Walter Blair This exhibition surveys the work of Walter Blair (A.M. '26, Ph.D. '31), Professor Emeritus in English Language & Literature, who died on June 29, 1992. Blair was one of the first scholars to focus on American humor, and he was also an editor of Mark Twain.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Dec. 1 — Feb. 1, 1993	Subjects Literature
	Carl Van Vechten Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964, University of Chicago Ph.B. '03), arts critic, novelist and photographer, played an important role in the American literary and arts scene of the 1920s through the 1940s. In addition to the acclaim he received for his own work, Van Vechten was instrumental in promoting the careers of other writers and artists, among them Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein and Wallace Stevens.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center July 1 — Oct. 1, 1994	Subjects American Literature Photography
	A Central European Life in an Age of Crisis: Camill Hoffmann, 1878-1944 This exhibition traces the life of Camill Hoffmann (1878-1944), a poet, editor, translator and Czech diplomat, from avant-garde Austria to the fate of a Jewish intellectual under the Nazis.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Nov. 1 — Dec. 1, 2001	Subjects Literature
	City Lights Pocket Poets Series 1955-2005: From the Collection of Donald A. Henneghan This exhibition, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Pocket Poets Series.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Oct. 1 — Jan. 1, 2006	Subjects Literature
	Closeted/OUT in the Quadrangles: A History of LGBTQ Life at the University of Chicago Historical view of LGBT faculty, student, and staff life at the University of Chicago.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center March 30 — June 12, 2015 View web exhibit >>	Subjects LGBTQIA Studies University of Chicago
	Expanding Sources: Recent Additions to Special Collections As academic fields expand and diversify, Special Collections is building collections to support these new directions. Researchers are drawing on original materials in many areas including race and gender, cinema and media, graphic design, arts practice, and cross-cultural global studies. This exhibition displays recent acquisitions with research potential for a range of disciplines. The materials represent many formats, including children’s books, family letters, journals, fine book design, posters, research notes, clothing, board games, and printed ephemera.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 6 — April 24, 2020 View web exhibit >>	Subjects University of Chicago Library Chicago and Illinois University of Chicago
	French and Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts from Chicago Collections: An Exhibition in Honor of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Mediaeval Academy of America Manuscripts from the Newberry Library, the University of Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and private collections were displayed at the Newberry Library in conjunction with the Medieval Society of America.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center April 1 — May 31, 1969	Subjects French Literature Special Collections
	From Poetry to Verse: The Making of Modern Poetry This exhibition documents the process of bringing new poetry to the public in all its various formats. Drawing upon the archives of Poetry, Chicago Review, Big Table, Verse, LVNG, and the papers of The Poetry Center of Chicago, the exhibit tracks the evolution and changing character of poetry from 1912 to the present.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Sept. 1 — Feb. 28, 2006	Subjects Literature
	The Good Natur'd Man: Oliver Goldsmith; A Bicentennial Celebration This exhibition honors the scholarship and teaching of Arthur Friedman, distinguished University of Chicago English Department faculty member and editor of The Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Nov. 1 — Feb. 28, 1975	Subjects English Literature
	The Helen and Ruth Regenstein Collection of Rare Books This exhibition marks a decade of building the Helen and Ruth Regenstein Collection of Rare Books, which was established to enhance the Library's strong collection of English and American literature.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Nov. 1 — Jan. 31, 1976	Subjects English Literature
	The Helen and Ruth Regenstein Collection of Rare Books: Recent Additions To mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Mrs. Helen Regenstein and to chart the growth of the collection of rare books that her generosity and vision made possible, the department of Special Collections presents this exhibit representing acquisitions to the collection since her death.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Nov. 1 — Jan. 1, 1988	Subjects Literature Special Collections
	Huidobro Vicente in Avant-Garde This major exhibition of photographs, manuscripts and books traces the life and work of the avant-garde poet Vicente Huidobo (1893-1948).	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — March 1, 1988	Subjects Art Spanish Literature
	Integrating the Life of the Mind: African Americans at the University of Chicago, 1870-1940 This exhibit presents original manuscripts, rarely seen portraits and photographs, African American publications, books by African American graduates of the University of Chicago, and other documents that trace the interlocking strands of academic and gradual social integration through the mid-twentieth century.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Sept. 1 — Feb. 28, 2009 View web exhibit >>	Subjects African-American Studies University of Chicago
	Integrity of the Page: The Creative Process of Daniel Clowes The Clowes archive contains notes, outlines, narrative drafts, character sketches, draft layouts, and more for three of Clowes' books: Ice Haven, Mister Wonderful, and The Death-Ray. The exhibition pieces this material together, tracing the evolution of Clowes' art from conception to production to publication.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center March 28 — June 17, 2016 View web exhibit >>	Subjects History of Print American Literature
	Italian Drama of the Renaissance: An Exhibition of Books from the Collection of the University of Chicago Library This exhibition highlights the University's strong collection of Renaissance drama, which "includes some of the rarest editions of Italian plays ... and examples of every known dramatic genre from the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century" and recognizes the gifts of Louis H. Silver, Ira J. Hechler, and Howard Weingrow.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Nov. 1 — Dec. 31, 1961	Subjects Italian Literature Theater
	Julius Rosenwald 1862-1932: An exhibition honoring the One Hundredth Anniversary of his birth This exhibition commemorates the centennial of the birth of Julius Rosenwald, president and chairman of the board of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and a major philanthropist in support of progressive and social welfare reforms.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — Jan. 31, 1962	Subjects Chicago and Illinois Jewish Studies Social Services
	Mapping the Young Metropolis Between 1915 and 1940, a small faculty in the University of Chicago Department of Sociology, working with dozens of talented graduate students, intensively studied the city of Chicago . They aspired to use the approaches of social science in developing a new field of research, and they took the city as their laboratory.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center June 22 — Sept. 11, 2015 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Sociology Chicago and Illinois
	Marianne Moore and Harriet Monroe: The Poet, The Critic, and Poetry A revealing glimpse at the artistic and critical tensions between Marianne Moore, the poet, and Harriet Monroe, critic and founding editor of the Chicago-based Poetry magazine, this exhibition also celebrates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center May 1 — June 30, 1987	Subjects Literature
	Marianne Moore: Vision into Verse The thirty-three poems by Marianne Moore in the exhibition were chosen to illustrate the poet's transformation of visual images into poetic form.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center May 1 — July 1, 1987	Subjects Literature
	Mark Twain Mark Twain	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — Dec. 31, 1978	Subjects American Literature
	The Meaning of Dictionaries The exhibit features historical dictionaries from the Special Collections Research Center's holdings, as well as archival materials such as correspondence, page proofs, word citation cards, photographs and other items from the University of Chicago Press Records covering the making of The Dictionary of American English and Dictionary of Americanisms.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center March 1 — July 31, 2007	Subjects English Literature History
	A Medium for Modernism: British Poetry and American Audiences This exhibition examines the concept of literary modernism as it developed through exchanges between British poets and American audiences. Included are manuscripts and letters by Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and W. B. Yeats; printed books; recordings and other materials drawn from the Harriet Monroe Modern Poetry Collection and other Library collections.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center April 1 — Aug. 31, 1997	Subjects English Literature
	Montaigne in Print: The Presentation of a Renaissance Text Featuring editions of the Essais by French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, this exhibition explores the relationship between author, editor, printer, and the book as a physical object.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Oct. 1 — March 1, 1996	Subjects French Literature History of Print
	My Life is an Open Book A selections of zines that are draw from the creators' personal experiences.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 14 — April 13, 2013 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Humanities Literature
	On Equal Terms: Educating Women at the University of Chicago Since the University welcomed its first students in the fall of 1892, women have had very different stories to tell about the experiments in co-education and faculty diversification; the experience of the classroom, the laboratory, the dorm, and the streets of Hyde Park; the issues of mentorship, intellectual community, and career advancement; and the opportunities for political action and community involvement, for friendship, romance, and sexual experimentation.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center March 1 — July 31, 2009 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Women's Studies University of Chicago Library
	On Reading Spring "On Reading Spring" is divided into six thematic sections, each offering a discreet meditation on the unfolding of the season through experiences commonly ascribed to spring: Refreshment, Vulnerability, Epiphany, Restoration, Tenderness, and Joy. By pairing a selection of the Special Collections Research Center’s rare and unusual published works with archival letters, diaries, photographs, musical manuscripts and early drafts of poems composed between March and June, "On Reading Spring" considers the ways in which diverse works reveal a sympathetic vernal experience across disciplines, cultures, and time periods.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center April 6 — June 30, 2020 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Music Art Literature Photography
	One Hundred Very American Books: Selected from the Epstein Collection The selections in this exhibition from the private collection of Raymond Epstein were intended to present a range of our country's books and literature that have been read and loved by its people, but also to surprise and provoke readers.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — Dec. 31, 1979	Subjects American Literature American Literature
	Our Lincoln: Bicentennial Icons from the Barton Collection of Lincolniana Marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, this exhibition presents a selection of documents and artifacts from the University of Chicago Library's William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — Feb. 28, 2009 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Chicago and Illinois American History
	Paul B. Moses: Trailblazing Art Historian The extraordinary life of the art historian Paul B. Moses (1929–1966) was one defined by barriers overcome. Through his writings, photographs, video clips, personal correspondence, ephemera, and original art, the exhibition tells the story of his journey from Ardmore, Pennsylvania and Haverford College, where he was the first African-American student ever admitted, to the University of Chicago, where he distinguished himself through innovative teaching and scholarship until his untimely death.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Sept. 12 — Dec. 16, 2022 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Chicago and Illinois University of Chicago History Art
	Planes, Trains and Automobile: The Transportation Revolution in Children's Picture Books This exhibition reflects growing interest in the artistic and historical significance of children's literature. "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" examines how illustrators in several countries exploited the great changes in travel and transportation that succeeded the coming of the railroad.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center March 1 — Aug. 30, 1995	Subjects Art Literature
	Poetic Associations: The Nineteenth-Century English Poetry Collection of Dr. Gerald N. Wachs In the period between the French Revolution and the start of World War I, often called “the long nineteenth century,” English poetry enjoyed enormous popularity and respect. The Romantics and the Victorians, as we know them today, were celebrities and, often, close friends, part of a literary community that influenced their professional and personal lives. Dr. Gerald N. Wachs (1937-2013), working closely with his friend, bookseller Stephen Weissman of Ximenes Rare Books, collected their works, using as their guidebook the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (CBEL), the standard primary bibliography of English literature. They sought the finest copies, whenever possible ones that were presented by the author to other writers, friends, or family members. The resulting collection of nearly 900 titles, on deposit from the Estate of Gerald Wachs at the University of Chicago Library, illuminates the life and works of these enduring poets.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Sept. 21 — Dec. 31, 2015 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Literature
	Poetry Magazine: A Gallery of Voices This exhibition draws mainly on the unique historical portion of the Harriet Monroe Modern Poetry Collection, an archive of the tens of thousands of letters and manuscripts Monroe collected exchanged with poets and collected during her tenure as editor of Poetry Magazine.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center May 1 — Oct. 1, 1980	Subjects Literature
	Printing for the Modern Age: Commerce, Craft, and Culture in the RR Donnelley Archive The R. R. Donnelley Archive preserves a fascinating array of historical materials dating from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, offering research potential in modern social and cultural history, the history of printing and the graphic arts, the history of advertising and mass consumption, economic and labor history, Chicago urban and community history, and modern cultural studies, among many other fields.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Sept. 1 — Feb. 28, 2007 View web exhibit >>	Subjects History of Print Chicago and Illinois American History
	Race and the Design of American Life: African Americans in Twentieth-Century Commercial Art Drawing from collections of food packaging, advertisements, children's books, album covers, and other household goods, this exhibit traces the vexed history of African Americans in commercial art—as images and as makers of their own image—and their vital role in shaping the rise and establishment of our modern consumer society.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Oct. 14 — Jan. 4, 2014 View web exhibit >>	Subjects African-American Studies Art
	Samuel Johnson's Rasselas: From the Library of Gwin Kolb Focused on nearly forty copies of variant editions of this work, the exhibit was scheduled to both mark the bicentenary of Samuel Johnson's death and the on-campus meeting of the Johnsonian Society.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — Dec. 1, 1975	Subjects English Literature
	Souvenirs! Get Your Souvenirs! Souvenirs can come in all shapes and sizes; they can be simple or complex, tasteful or tacky. This exhibition presents various souvenirs created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the 1933 Century of Progress International Exposition, and the City of Chicago. It draws on collections throughout the Special Collections Research Center, catalyzed by the Ian Mueller Collection of Chicago Memorabilia.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center July 22 — Oct. 4, 2013 View web exhibit >>	Subjects Special Collections American History Chicago and Illinois
	Texts and their Transformations: Continuity and Change in the Classical Tradition Via manuscripts, printed editions, commentaries, works of criticism, translations and illustrations, Greek and Roman texts have inspired and provoked readers for thousands of years. The exhibition Texts and their Transformations: Continuity and Change in the Classical Tradition, embraces all these media and reactions from antiquity to the present day.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Nov. 1 — Feb. 1, 1995	Subjects Special Collections Classics Comparative Literature
	Vachel Lindsay Vachel Lindsay	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Jan. 1 — Dec. 31, 1979	Subjects American Literature
	A Voice for Justice: The Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells This web exhibit showcases the achievements of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) and documents her lifelong campaign for the rights and lives of African Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth-century United States of America.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center View web exhibit >>	Subjects Chicago and Illinois American History African-American Studies
	William Butler Yeats and Chicago Offering a glimpse into the public life of Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), this exhibition focuses on Yeat's three visits to Chicago.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Nov. 1 — Jan. 1, 1994	Subjects Literature
	A World at Hand: German Almanache & TaschenbŸcher in the University of Chicago Library An exhibition to mark the completion of volunteer and donor Bertold Regensteiner's inventory of the approximately 1500 volumes which make up the Library's collection of German Almanache & TaschenbŸcher.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Oct. 1 — Jan. 1, 1987	Subjects German Literature
	Writing for the Eyes from Antiquity to the Renaissance Interactions between the visual and verbal arts are explored in this exhibition of illustrated texts that contain descriptions of actual or imagined works of art.	Locations The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center April 1 — Oct. 31, 2003	Subjects Literature Art