Following our move during the University's Spring Break, Special Collections re-opened in our newly renovated spaces on Monday, March 28. The Reading Room, classrooms, and group studies have seen use from the first hour of our re-opening, and we look forward to welcoming both new and returning visitors to our space.
We can be reached by walking down the newly opened corridor from the Regenstein Library lobby. Along the way visitors will pass our new exhibition gallery, which will open on May 9.
Please see theUniversity of Chicago News Site for a complete story detailing our re-opening, or come visit us in person!
Image by Michael Kenny
On March 28 Special Collections will reopen in its newly renovated spaces on the first floor of Regenstein Library. Below are photographs (taken by Patti Gibbons) of the spaces to show what work was done and preview what users will experience once on-site.
The circulation desk has been reinstalled in its previous position; it is now off the entry from the Mansueto Library pathway.
A few reinstalled alcoves cases opposite the circulation desk.
New staff lockers. The visitors' locker room contains 95 such lockers, including handicap accessible ones.
The repainted and recarpeted Reading Room.
The hallway heading south toward the “Crerar Room.” On the left: previously existing group study; new group study; Head of Reader Services and Reference Librarian’s offices. On the right: previously existing Marie Louise Rosenthal Seminar Room.
Straight ahead: view into the “Crerar Room” visible from the Mansueto
pathway; at right behind column: offices for the Director and Associate Director of Special Collections.
The renovated “Crerar Room” for use as a classroom and event space.
Sound baffles have been installed in the ceiling, and the room features a built-in projector and screen.
HVAC modifications have also been made to improve temperature regulation.
The exhibition Gallery with entrance from the Mansueto
pathway and most -- but not all -- of the new exhibition cases.
The Special Collections Research Center has been selected to receive the 2011 Paul Cornell Award presented by the Hyde Park Historical Society. The award is being granted based on Special Collection’s “extraordinary service to the Society” and its archival collections, which are housed in Special Collections.
In 2009 the HPHS and SCRC agreed to collaborate in organizing the historical collections of the Society. Thanks to private fundraising efforts by the Society, support was acquired to organize all of the general historical collections of the Hyde Park Historical Society; the records of the Hyde Park Co-op, and the Hyde Park-Kenwood Razed Building Collection. The Award grants particular recognition to former Special Collections archivist Maija Anderson (pictured), who played the central role in reorganizing the historical materials and producing the greatly enhanced and expanded finding aid to the HPHS collection that is now available online.
The Special Collections Research Center is deeply grateful to the
Hyde Park Historical Society for this award and its continued support.
The cooperative relationship between the Society and the Library
has produced a remarkable and unique set of historical resources for
members of the community, students, teachers, scholars, and
many other researchers.
The award will be presented at the Hyde Park Historical Society’s annual dinner, to be held on Saturday, February 26, 2011, at the Quadrangle Club.
Soaring Flight. . . Edward Chalmers Huffaker
E. C. Huffaker was an engineer and aeronautical experimenter. He built gliders or early flying machines based on his observations of bird flight. Huffaker worked at one time under Samuel P. Langley at the Smithsonian as part of their aeronautical staff, and later for famed aviation pioneer Octave Chanute.
Crerar Manuscript 294 contains a manuscript and drawings
of Huffakers Soaring Flight. The drawings of a glider are
depicted from several angles, and contain considerable
description of the glider and its parts. The manuscript
appears to be handwritten observations of the machine
in flight, along with some general principles of flight.
Special Collections has acquired two unique items of great interest for the study of manuscript production and illumination and the transition from handwritten manuscripts to printed books in the first century after the invention of printing. One of the new acquisitions is a Prayerbook in Latin and French, c. 1500-1520; the other is a printed Book of Hours, c. 1515-1530.
Left: Unfinished Prayerbook, f.36v, Two Angels Holding Scrolls
Right: Printed book of Hours, f.12v, Four Cardinal Virtues
The Prayerbook has several distinct features: there are decorations inspired by the Gőttingen Model Book, produced in Mainz in the mid-15th century and used in manuscripts and early incunabula in the Lower Rhine; the text and illustrations are incomplete, enabling study of the work patterns in a medieval scriptorium; there is an initial of St.-Trond (infrequently depicted), suggesting an original provenance in the diocese of Liege; and linguistic evidence in the vernacular portions suggests that the Prayerbook or this part of it was made for a woman.
Unfinished Prayerbook, f.13, Historiated initial O (43x43mm) of St. Trond the Abbot, who holds a cross.
A scroll identifies the Saint: Sancte Trudo ora pro me.
Unfinished Prayerbook, f.24v, Crucifixion
The woodcuts in the Book of Hours (printed in Paris by Gillet Hardouyn, ca. 1515) are heavily painted by hand and are accompanied by added gold architectonic frames. The volume is so lavishly illuminated that is was most likely done by an artist active in the production of illuminated manuscripts, rather than a “colorist” employed by printers to create something that looked like an illuminated manuscript.
Printed Book of Hours, f.26, Nativity
The style resembles artists active in the workshop of Jean Pichore, who contributed designs for the large miniatures, which come from several different series of prints over different years.
Most of the smaller woodcuts are adaptations by the Master of the Très petites Heures of Anne of Brittany.
Printed Book of Hours, f.36, Fight Into Egypt
The Margaret Burton Collection
The Margaret Burton Collection, recently inventoried by the University of Chicago Library, contains the papers of Margaret Burton, daughter of University president Ernest DeWitt Burton. Ms. Burton, apparently a well-traveled graduate of the University, was a missionary to China and Japan in 1909 and published several books on the subject.
Margaret Burton
This collection contains some of her correspondence, one example of which shows that Ms. Burton made some very high-ranking friends in her travels. The envelope that the letter came in, marked “From the Headquarters of the Generalissimo,” is the most arresting sign of its importance.
The letter itself, written in 1937, is written by none other than Madame Chiang Kai-shek. It reveals that she and Margaret Burton were close friends and corresponded regularly at the time. The letter is also notable for the almost eerie comments made on the international situation at the time. She writes: “…out in this part of the world the ambitions of the Japanese Army leaders are likely at any time to start a conflagration the result of which there is no foretelling. The day of treaties seems almost to have passed… but I must confess that I have lost a lot of faith in what is called international justice, as well as in the sanctity of treaties.” The letter gives valuable insight into the sense of foreboding that prevailed before World War II, as well as the close friendship shared by Margaret Burton and Madame Chiang Kai-shek.
Discovered by Laura Alagna
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) is located on the first floor of The Joseph Regenstein Library. We're the University of Chicago's home for its rich collections of rare books, manuscripts, and archives. We're also an exciting place for research, collaborative learning, and teaching, and an excellent place to view exhibits of books and manuscripts.
