Curated by Elizabeth Frengel, Patti Gibbons, Eileen Ielmini, Daniel Meyer, and Catherine Uecker.
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.
The newly acquired materials on display will support a wide array of studies: A medieval breviary prayer book bound in a flapped parchment case. The Library’s earliest Russian translation of Homer, published in 1776-1778. An engaging board game from the 1960s promoting careers for young girls. A selection of colorful Chicago jazz posters from concerts, festivals, and performances by individual artists. Two books from the turn of the 20th century promoting the sport of golf for women. A group of imaginatively designed books about dinosaurs for children. The wedding dress worn by Eva Overton, wife of Dr. Julian H. Lewis and daughter of Anthony Overton, founder of the leading African American newspaper, the Chicago Bee. Booklets on Chicago housing and neighborhood integration. Publications documenting experiences of the LGBTQ community. A leather-bound copy of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene with an Arts and Crafts-style design by Ethel Taunton. An early 20th–century album with photographs of immigrant residents of Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. A collection of pamphlets, buttons, and posters from socialist and progressive causes and local political campaigns. Research papers on sickle cell anemia and malaria by Dr. James Bowman, the first tenured African American professor in the University of Chicago's Biological Sciences Division.
