Curated by Anthea Wilson.
This exhibition celebrates the merger of the John Crerar Library and science collections of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1894, the Crerar is one of the nation's great research libraries, renowned for its holdings in science, technology, and medicine. This occasion affords an opportunity both to envision ways in which new generations may make use of the collections and to reintroduce the Library to scholars from every discipline. From its earliest days the Crerar has furnished Chicagoans with an exhaustive collection of modern scientific literature. Due to the percipience of its founders, it also contains a remarkable number of historical works of science. These books and manuscripts, numbering more than 25,000 volumes, are now housed with the University's already significant holdings in the Department of Special Collections at the Joseph Regenstein Library. The joint collection thus represents a formidable resource for the study of the history of science. The exhibit is drawn from this rich and varied collection of rare books. Works by astronomers and mathematicians who shaped the modern science are juxtaposed with practical manuals for navigation and surveying. Hand colored botanical woodcuts and exact anatomical engravings stand alongside the roughly printed textbooks of barber surgeons. These rare books, accumulated over nearly a century by a library devoted to the study of science and technology, invite your attention both as historical documents and as objects of unfamiliar beauty.
Exhibit Publications & Documents
Catalogue 77p. (perfect bound), $12.50
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