Special Collections Research Center

Announcing New Acquisitions!

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-15^th 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

Chicago Humanities Festival Programs Feature U of C History of Medicine Collections

The theme of the 2010 Chicago Humanities Festival is The Body. On Sunday, October 24, is the Festival's Hyde Park Day.  Three speakers will discuss rare medical texts and their use of the University of Chicago Library's collections at a panel session entitled Studying the Body.  Participants in special viewing sessions will be able to view a selection of rare medical books in a small group setting. 

Jazz Curator Deborah Gillaspie on Eight Forty-Eight

Deborah Gillaspie, Curator of the Chicago Jazz Archive at the University of Chicago Library, recently appeared on Eight Forty-Eight, a radio program on Chicago's public radio station WBEZ. She appeared with Judith Stein of the Hyde Park Jazz Society to discuss the Hyde Park Jazz Festival.

The episode is available to download as a podcast on WBEZ's website.

Nota bene: The segment on the Hyde Park Jazz Festival begins at 34:11 and runs to 47:20.

The Chicago Jazz Archive is a constellation of archival collections that is located in the Special Collections Research Center. Visit our website for more information!

Jazz Facts for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival

[Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra, Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Saturn SR9956-2-B, 33 1/3 rpm, 1965.]

The Special Collections Research Center’s Chicago Jazz Archive will have a booth at Saturday’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 25. 

In honor of the festival, Chicago Jazz Archive Curator Deborah Gillaspie provided these jazz facts, which celebrate Chicago jazz-related materials in various repositories around the city and the U.S.

Did you know…

1. Herman Poole “Sonny” Blount (later known as Sun Ra) was an arranger for the bands of Red Saunders and Fletcher Henderson here in Chicago? See a web exhibit of materials on Sun Ra’s Chicago years from the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago Library! Sounds From Tomorrow’s World : Sun Ra and the Chicago Years 1946 – 1961

2. There is a now a Library Guide on Chicago Jazz on the University of Chicago Library website? It takes the place of the old CJA website, and can be found at http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/chicagojazz

3. Many of Chicago’s most celebrated jazz musicians studied with Capt. Walter H. Dyett at Wendell Phillips and Du Sable high schools? Learn more about this legendary musician and jazz educator by examining the finding aid to Capt. Dyett’s papers, which have their home at  CPL’s Vivian Harsh Research Collection: http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/archivalcoll/dyett.php

4.The Chicago Jazz Archive at the University of Chicago Library contains the large format originals and reprints of the Esquire Jazz Book 1946, which had Chicago jazz as its theme.  Paul Eduard Miller edited that volume and did the wonderful end paper map of Chicago jazz clubs; his research collection can be found at the Center for Black Music Research:  http://www.colum.edu/CBMR/Library_and_Archives/Archival_Collections/Research_Collections/

5. The American Federation of Musicians Chicago Chapter Files are available for use in the Music Information Center at Chicago’s Harold Washington Library downtown? These include the deceased member files 1940-1979, which can be very useful when researching the lives of jazz musicians.

6.You can search photos from the old Chicago Daily News for free, thanks to the Chicago History Museum and the Library of Congress? There are wonderful jazz images to be found, start at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/cdnhome.html

7.Cab Calloway (b, 1907) had an older sister named Blanche (b. 1902) who was also a musician and bandleader, and that they both worked in clubs in Chicago? Enjoy the Cab Calloway Jive Dictionary online, thanks to the Cab Calloway Estate and the Cab Calloway Orchestra: http://www.cabcalloway.cc/jive_dictionary.htm

8.The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) was founded in Hyde Park? Look up the bio entries of AACM members playing the Hyde Park Jazz Festival at the Chicago and New York websites of the AACM.

9.That while Benny Goodman was from Chicago, his papers are at the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library at Yale University? Learn more about Benny Goodman from the finding aid to his collection: http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/music.Goodman.nav.html

10.Chicago drummer Barrett Deems played with the Louis Armstrong All-Stars in the 1950’s, and was on Louis’ State Department Tour of Ghana?  Learn more about Barrett from the finding aids to his collections:
The Barrett Deems Papers in the Chicago Jazz Archive collections at the University of Chicago Library, and in the Barrett Deems Collection at the Music Information Center,  Harold  Washington Library.  If you’ve ever seen the movie High Society, Barrett is the guy playing the bongos on the bus at the beginning, and he’s the drummer in the band scenes.

Learn more on the Chicago Jazz Library Guide at http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/chicagojazz

Explore the History of Chicago Jazz, Online and in Person

[Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra, Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Saturn SR9956-2-B, 33 1/3 rpm, 1965]

The Chicago Jazz Archive at the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collection Research Center invites all community members to explore the history of Chicago jazz online and in person this September:

1.  View and hear our new Web exhibit, Sounds from Tomorrow’s World:  Sun Ra and the Chicago Years, 1946-1961.  While living in Chicago, Herman Poole “Sonny” Blount became Sun Ra—the leader of the Arkestra and a composer and arranger of some of the most avant-garde jazz of the time. He was also the architect of a philosophy that informed his music, his life, and the lives of those around him: a synthesis of Black Nationalism, Egyptology, futurism, occultism and Southern Baptist preaching.  This Web exhibit explores Sun Ra’s Chicago years through images and sound recordings of his poetry and music, vinyl records and album artwork, promotional materials and early controversial broadsheets.

2.  Visit the Special Collections Research Center to consult the original materials shown in the Sun Ra Web exhibit and thousands of other publications, photographs,  articles, posters, programs, ticket stubs, and other ephemera of musicians, clubs, record companies, and jazz organizations found in the Chicago Jazz Archive.

3.  Visit our updated Chicago Jazz Library Guide for information on researching the history of Chicago jazz at libraries across the city.

4.  Stop by the Chicago Jazz Archive table at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on September 25.  The Special Collections Research Center is a member of the Hyde Park Alliance for Arts and Culture (HyPa), which co-produces the festival.  

Please feel free to contact the Special Collections Research Center with any questions!

University of Chicago Math Club visits Special Collections!

[Pictured: Members of the University of Chicago Math Club at the Special Collections Research Center, April 2, 2010]

On April 2, the Special Collections Research Center welcomed a visit from the University of Chicago Math Club. The group visited on a sunny spring afternoon to view and discuss important books in the history of mathematics, as well as archival collections illuminating the history of mathematics at the University of Chicago.

Ryan Julian, the Math Club’s President (pictured above, standing second from the left), selected the books for the group to discuss. His fantastic pick-list included Isaac Newton's 1687 Principia, Leonhard Euler's 1770 Vollstandige Anleitung zur Algebra, and Carl Friedrich Gauss' 1801 Disquisitiones arithmeticae, among many others. The earliest printed book on display was the 1482 edition of Euclid’s Elements.

One of the most exciting manuscripts on view was Isaac Newton's "Of an universall language," a small, handmade notebook that also includes a tiny family genealogy tree (see below). The manuscript is part of the Joseph Halle Schaffner Collection in the History of Science.

[Isaac Newton's "Of an universall language." Click image to enlarge]

The group also enjoyed examining the early records of the University of Chicago Mathematical Club and Junior Mathematical Club. The Mathematical Club was established January 5, 1893 in order to provide a forum for graduate students in mathematics. The club’s records contain programs of meetings (1893-1894), and notes on lectures delivered (1896-1903). The Junior Mathematical Club (1905-1941) collection includes books of minutes kept by the club, including information about student presentations, guest lectures, and social events like tea and Halloween parties.

Special Collections Joins in the Soviet Experience

 
In one of the largest collaborative artistic efforts across Chicago since the Silk Road Chicago in 2006/07, eleven of the city's prominent arts institutions will join together in 2010 and 2011 to present The Soviet Experience, a 14-month-long showcase of works by artists who created under (and in response to) the Politburo of the Soviet Union.

The Special Collections Research Center’s contribution to the festival will be an exhibition: Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary. From September to December 2011, the exhibition will showcase collections of Soviet children's books, posters and other print materials. It is being organized by a team of faculty and graduate students of the University of Chicago based in the departments of Art History, History, and Slavic Languages and Literatures. Drawing on these diverse backgrounds and approaches, each participant is designing one or more display cases to be devoted to a specific topic, including prominent historical and ideological themes, stylistic features, and the contributions of individual authors or artists.

The exhibition will draw on our Encyclopaedia Britannica Collection of Literature for Children, which includes more than 500 Soviet children’s books published in the 1930s. The image above is a single panel from Elizaveta Shabad’s fold-out book Sever, Vostok, Iug, Zapad, which represents the political economy of the Soviet Union as a tight grid arranged on the four geographical axes.  The pictured panel represents the role of the peat industry in the nationwide grid of resources and power.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

For more information about the Soviet Experience festival, including a schedule of events, visit the University of Chicago Presents Web site.

Passport To Jazz

From February through September 2010, the Hyde Park Alliance for Arts and Culture (HyPa) is presenting Passport To Jazz, a program of jazz events, workshops, and performances at Hyde Park’s landmark cultural and arts organizations.

As a member of HyPa and the home of the Chicago Jazz Archive, the Special Collections Research Center is offering a free workshop:

Saturday, May 1, 10:30 a.m. – noon
Exploring Jazz Musicians and Clubs at Chicago’s Libraries
The Joseph Regenstein Library, 1100 East 57th Street, Room A-11

Chicago Jazz Archive Curator Deborah Gillaspie and Reference and Instruction Librarian David Pavelich will explain how jazz enthusiasts can investigate Chicago’s jazz scene at libraries throughout the city, including the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center, the Chicago Public Library, the Newberry Library, and the Chicago History Museum. Selected treasures from our Chicago Jazz Archive will be on display.

Please register for this free event by e-mailing jazzworkshop [@] lib.uchicago.edu or calling 773-702-8705.

Other Passport to Jazz events that are coming up in the next few weeks include:

Saturday, February 27 – 8 p.m.
Jubilation 2010 featuring Reginald Robinson
presented by Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre
DuSable Museum of African-American History
$30 general admission; $25 passport holders, seniors and students

Sunday, March 7 – 2-3 p.m.
Reginald Robinson
Oriental Institute
Free

Friday, March 12 – 6:30-9 p.m.
Sarah Marie Young Trio
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House
$10

For more information, including a complete calendar of all Passport to Jazz events, visit hypachicago.org/passport. 

Attendees at Passport To Jazz programs can earn prizes by picking up a Passport to Jazz booklet, filling out the attached Official Passport Application Form, and gathering stamps at each qualifying event they attend.  Prizes include jazz festival CDs, T-shirts, posters, special discounts, and preferred seating at many of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival performances in September.  Passport books and event calendars can be picked up at the Special Collections Research Center now, and Passport books and stamps will be available at events. 

Sponsors and funders of the Passport To Jazz program include Boeing, The University of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Illinois Arts Council, and HyPa.  

Jeffrey Kallberg's Chopin Seminar

[Photos by Dan Dry]

The University of Chicago Magazine has published a report on a seminar recently held in the Special Collections Research Center.

You can read the entire story on the Magazine's website.

From the piece:

Sixteen graduate students stand over two musical scores in a seminar room at the Regenstein Library’s Special Collections Research Center. “Go ahead and turn the pages—don’t be shy,” says their guide, Jeffrey Kallberg, AM’78, PhD’82, an expert on the composer Frédéric Chopin. “I want you to get a feel for these things as material objects.”

Jeffrey Kallberg, Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Pennsylvania, visited campus as part of the University's 500th Convocation Celebration. 

The graduate seminar made of use the SCRC's extensive collection of the works of Chopin. The Chopin Early Editions collection can also be used online.

Chicago's Archaic Mark:
A Report on the Results of Chemical, Codicological and Textual Analysis

Presented by the Early Christian Studies Workshop and the Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago

Speakers:

Joseph Barabe,
The McCrone Group, Westmont, IL

Abigail Quandt,
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
 
Margaret M. Mitchell,
The University of Chicago Divinity School

Monday October 26 from 6-8 pm
Special Collections Research Center
Joseph Regenstein Library 1100 E. 57th Street

At a special session of the Divinity School's Early Christian Studies Workshop, the final results of a multi-year commitment by the University to solve a decades-long enigma — is this miniature codex a genuine Byzantine manuscript preserving a very early text-type of the Gospel of Mark or a modern forgery? — will be announced.

The manuscript will be available for viewing, and Barabe, Quandt and Mitchell will document their findings and their implications in advance of their forthcoming article in the journal Novum Testamentum.

All interested parties are welcome to attend. A light reception will follow. (Please note special evening time.)