Special Collections Research Center

Special Collections Re-Opens in Renovated Space

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

SCRC Closed March 24-27 in Preparation for Re-opening March 28

The Special Collections Research Center will be closed on Thursday and Friday, March 24 and 25, 2011, at the end of the University’s Spring Break, in order to move staff and equipment back to our newly renovated spaces. We will be open at 9:00am on Monday, March 28, ready to welcome new and returning researchers. For more information on the renovated Special Collections space, and the Mansueto Library project, please see our Construction Update web page.

Please note that some collections will continue to be inaccessible while we are loading them into the Mansueto Library. See our Unavailable Collections page for more information and list of available collections.

Beginning March 28, 2011, our regular reading room hours will be 9:00am to 4:45pm, Monday through Friday. We are  open on Saturdays from 9:00am to 12:45pm when classes at the University of Chicago are in session. For more information about our hours, please see our web page: SCRC Hours

DEADLINE EXTENDED for University of Chicago Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowships

The deadline for applications for the Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowships at the University of Chicago Library has been extended to February 22, 2011, due to an incorrect email address in the initial posting. If you submitted an application and have not received confirmation of receipt, please resend it to scrcfellowship@lib.uchicago.edu.

Special Collections Renovation Update

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Collections Receives 2011 Paul Cornell Award

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.

Highlights of Special Collections

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.

Uncovering New Chicago Archives

At today's event celebrating the completion of the Uncovering New Chicago Archives Project (UNCAP), a database providing cross-collection, cross-institutional searching of over 100 archival collections in African-American history and literature, modern poetry and the Chicago Jazz Archives will be launched.

Digitizing Archives and Manuscript Collections

 

The University of Chicago's Special Collections Research Center has started a program to digitize selected archives and manuscript collections. The digital images are being made available via the online finding aid for each collection. This will recreate for the online user the experience of a researcher encountering the original materials in the SCRC Reading Room, with documents displayed as they are housed in each folder, and with description of the contents in the form of folder headings.

Individual, high-resolution images of each page will be permanently preserved in the Library's digital repository, and can be made available for publication or other research needs. Digitization efforts are currently focused on materials in the public domain, or those for which the University of Chicago holds copyright.

Collections with digitized content now available online include:

 

 

• The Ida B. Wells Papers: The collection contains diaries, correspondence, manuscripts and photographs documenting the life of the teacher, journalist,
and anti-lynching activist.
 

 

• The Dr. Harry Bakwin and Dr. Ruth Morris Bakwin Soviet Posters Collection:
Nineteen Soviet political posters produced in the early 1930s, collected by the American physicians Dr. Harry Bakwin and Dr. Ruth Morris Bakwin during two trips to the Soviet Union.

• The Fielding Lewis Papers: Business, personal, and legal records documenting life on a plantation on the
James River in Virginia, both before and after the Civil War.

 

 

• The University of Chicago Laboratory
School Work Reports:
These reports are about the
Elementary and Secondary division
of the Laboratory School, and
document classroom activities in
the School's first decade.

 

This initiative is a collaborative effort between University of Chicago Library Special Collections, Preservation, and the Digital Library Development Center. Many thanks to Eileen Ielmini, Kathleen Feeney, Daniel Meyer, Kathy Arthur, Karen Dirr, Charles Blair, and the student scanners in Preservation.

Update: Mansueto Library Construction

Construction crews at the Mansueto Library continue work on both the ground and basement levels. Here are some photos from November 5 highlighting the latest progress.

 

 

 

 

Just in case there might be any question as to what this will be,
it is clearly marked as a “hole,” located within our ground level
space where the automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) will deliver large racks containing boxes of archival materials.

 

 

 

 

 

The site of the future work station where the ASRS will deliver the bins containing rare book materials, which will then be retrieved by staff members and delivered to patrons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A midday view looking southeast  
through the Mansueto dome. 

 

  An aisle of ASRS racks on the basement level.
The robotic crane at the end of the aisle will retrieve materials stored in the racks and deliver them to the ground floor

 

 

 

Workers assembling   
an ASRS rack prior   
to installation.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Collections Closed Wednesday, December 13, 2010

As previous images on our blog indicate, the renovation work within the Special Collections Research Center continues to progress. Work relating to this construction will affect our reading room and necessitate our being closed to the public on Monday, December 13.

We regret any inconvenience this closure may cause to our readers. We will resume our normal hours on Tuesday, December 14.