News from the Special Collections Research Center

Feature Story UChicago, NU launch UNCAP archives website

Posted on October 8, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

UNCAP archives website launched by University of Chicago Library and Northwestern University Library

The University of Chicago Library and Northwestern University Library are pleased to announce the launch of an innovative collaboration to support research in primary archival sources.

Uncovering New Chicago Archives Project (UNCAP), http://UNCAP.lib.uchicago.edu/, is a freely available web site that delivers hundreds of finding aids representing strengths of the archival collections of the University of Chicago Library and Northwestern University Library.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett wearing “Martyred Negro Soldiers” button, ca. 1917-1919. Ida B. Wells Papers, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library

Through the new UNCAP web site, researchers can search across collections and institutions for information on a broad range of topics: African American history and culture, theater, jazz, urban sociology, journalism, Native Americans, modern poetry, anthropology, African studies, literature, criminology and legal studies, art and photography, medical history, and the Manhattan Project.

UNCAP extends and expands the success of Mapping the Stacks, an initiative launched in 2005 by Jacqueline Goldsby, a scholar of African American studies. In January 2007, Mapping the Stacks became part of UNCAP, which was funded through September 2010 by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation. The UNCAP site provides archival finding aids created during the Mellon grant for collections at a group of Chicago institutions: the University of Chicago, the Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at the Chicago Public Library, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the South Side Community Art Center, and the Chicago Defender.

UNCAP is now being substantially expanded through the joint efforts of Northwestern University Library and the University of Chicago Library. UNCAP finding aids represent the extraordinarily rich array of archival collections at Northwestern and the University of Chicago. Among the highlights now accessible through the UNCAP web site are:

Northwestern University Library — UNCAP Highlights

The Melville J. Herskovits (1895–1963) Papers document the life and research of a seminal American anthropologist. Herskovits was the founder of Northwestern’s famous Library of African Studies, which now bears his name. Numerous other important archives in UNCAP, e.g. the papers of Lorenzo Dow Turner and Dennis Brutus, are central resources for students of Africa and the African diaspora.

John Henry Wigmore (1863–1943) was on the law faculty at Northwestern from 1893 until 1929. His “Treatise on Evidence” (1904–05) was probably the most heavily cited law text of its day. The Wigmore Papers are one of several important archives in the field of law and criminology, among which is Northwestern’s extensive Leopold and Loeb Collection, which includes hundreds of pages of original transcripts from the confessions, the psychiatric evaluations, and both original ransom notes from this famous 1924 murder case.

Several finding aids open to students and scholars the history and activities of the Northwestern University Settlement Association, founded in 1891 to provide social services, educational programs, referrals, and emergency relief to a poor immigrant neighborhood on Chicago’s near northwest side.

Finally, Northwestern’s strengths in theatre and the performing arts are represented by finding aids to the papers of the great Chicago director Frank Galati, winner of nine Jeff Awards, and Winifred Ward (1884–1975), founder of The Children’s Theater of Evanston, one of the pioneer theaters for children in America, which she led for 25 years before retiring in 1950. The guide to the Papers of Viola Spolin, the godmother of Chicago improv, will be added to UNCAP later this year.

University of Chicago Library — UNCAP Highlights

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, World War II Manhattan Project scientists organized a campaign to control nuclear weapons and assure civilian control of nuclear energy. Archival collections from this scientists’ movement include records of the Association of Los Alamos Scientists, Association of Oak Ridge Scientists and Engineers, Association of Pasadena Scientists, Association of Cambridge Scientists, Atomic Scientists of Chicago, and Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. Archival files of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists document emerging views of scientists on the technological and social impact of nuclear policy.

Sun Ra and His Arkestra, Jazz in Silhouette, Saturn LP 5786, 1959. Alton Abraham Collection of Sun Ra Papers, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library

Chicago jazz and poetry are also represented. The John Steiner Collection includes letters, publications, photographs, and other material about Chicago jazz musicians, groups, clubs, and recording companies. The Alton Abraham Collection of Sun Ra Papers documents the career of Sun Ra and his Arkestra with manuscripts, business records, printed ephemera, artifacts, photographs, album art. Poet, critic, and teacher Ralph J. Mills, Jr. (1931-2007) is represented by a collection that includes letters, manuscripts of his writings, and poetry publications. The papers of Michael Anania (born 1939) document his career as a professor, poet, novelist, and editor. The records of the Poetry Center of Chicago (founded 1973) preserve the history of an influential non-profit arts organization dedicated to providing broader access to poetry through poetry readings, public events, and educational programs.

The papers of Ida B. Wells, (1862-1931), the notable American civil rights leader and anti-lynching activist, include diaries, photographs, clippings about her many political and social achievements, and the manuscript of her autobiography, Crusade for Justice. The papers of Julius Rosenwald, progressive philanthropist and businessman, trace his influential role in supporting rural schools for African American, higher education at the Tuskegee Institute and Howard University, urban social welfare reform, and World War I civilian relief efforts.

A select group of UNCAP collections have been digitized, allowing researchers to click on links in finding aids and view digital scans of the original content. Among these, the Dr. Harry and Dr. Ruth Morris Bakwin Soviet Posters Collection presents vivid images of political posters, many promoting Stalin’s First Five Year Plan (1928-1932) to develop heavy industry in the Soviet Union. The Middle Eastern Posters Collection provides graphic depictions of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iran-Iraq War, and mine safety programs for civilians in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

List of indentured servants on board the Vigor, January 30, 1785. Slavery and Indentured Servitude Collection, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library

Marking the launch of UNCAP, Judith Nadler, Director and University Librarian at the University of Chicago says, “UNCAP offers an effective new tool for students, teachers, and researchers to explore a rich range of historical collections located in Chicago. Finding aids of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University are now jointly accessible through searches in the same database, accompanied by guides to unique historical materials from the Harsh Collection, DuSable Museum, South Side Community Art Center, and Chicago Defender. We look forward to working with Northwestern in continuing to expand this valuable collaborative resource.”

Sarah Pritchard, Dean of Libraries and Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian at Northwestern University, says of UNCAP, “UNCAP represents an important new vehicle for scholars at each of these major universities to discover the archival riches of the other—as well as at their own institutions and several neighboring institutions. Collections of original archives, even in this digital age, are largely unique, physical, complex, and place-bound resources for making new discoveries. UNCAP ‘UNCAPs’ them for a whole generation of students and scholars.”

For additional information on the content of UNCAP archival collections, please contact:

Jeffrey Garrett
Associate University Librarian for Special Libraries & Director, Special Collections and Archives
Northwestern University Library
jgarrett@northwestern.edu

Daniel Meyer
Director, Special Collections Research Center & University Archivist
University of Chicago Library
arch@uchicago.edu

For technical information on the UNCAP database and finding aid encoding, please contact:

Charles Blair
Director, Digital Library Development Center
University of Chicago Library
chas@uchicago.edu

Calling all students and alumni! We Are Chicago is back!

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a web exhibition version of We Are Chicago: Student Life in the Collections of the University of Chicago Archives.

The We Are Chicago exhibition originally opened in the Special Collections Research Center Gallery in the winter 2012. The show highlighted student experiences over a span of 120 years and drew on the historical collections of the University Archives and featured recent donations as well as rarely seen materials from the University’s past. Costumes, photographs, T-shirts, letters, posters, publications, and memorabilia combined to make this the largest and most inclusive exhibition in the ongoing Special Collections archival series, Discover Hidden Archives Treasures.

The web exhibition includes images of the original exhibition design as well as images of specific pieces that had been on display. The web exhibition also includes reproductions of cards from the interactive comment board that allowed students, alumni and visitors to post a memory about their time here on campus.

Tracking student life on campus is an archival challenge. More than 300 Registered Student Organizations exist at the University. Understanding the history of student life is equally complex. Since the university’s founding in 1892, students have organized an amazing array of social, academic, cultural, residential, athletic, literary, and political groups.

The University Archives welcomes donations from alumni, students, and community neighbors who have historical materials on student life that can be preserved and made available to the students and researchers of the future.

View the online exhibition here: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/webexhibits/wearechicago/

Swiss Treasures: From Biblical Papyrus and Parchment to Erasmus, Zwingli, Calvin, and Barth

Posted on September 14, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

Exhibition Dates: September 21 – December 14, 2012

Situated in the heart of Europe, Switzerland has long been a center for Biblical studies and transformative contributions to Judeo-Christian culture. This exhibition explores the importance of Swiss religious influences across a range of traditions and historical personalities, among them Erasmus, Zwingli, John Calvin, and Karl Barth. Papyri, parchments, first editions, early printings, and modern manuscripts represent treasures in Swiss institutions that link these and other religious thinkers to the philosophical, theological, and political movements that have shaped the modern world.

The rare historical treasures displayed in this exhibition have been gathered from seven distinguished Swiss archives and libraries: Basel University Library (Basel), State and University Library (Fribourg), Abbey Library of St. Gall (St. Gall), Central Library (Zurich), the Martin Bodmer Foundation (Cologny), Karl Barth Archive (Basel), and Library of Geneva (Geneva). The exhibition also displays a rare volume from the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library.

This unique display of rare historical treasures from Swiss institutions has been brought together to mark the joint annual meetings in Chicago of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion in November 2012.

At the Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery
1100 East 57th Street, Chicago
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; Saturdays: 9:00 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
when classes are in session

Curator: Dr. Gabriella Gelardini, University of Basel, Switzerland

Use of Images

These images from the exhibition are available for members of the media, and are reserved for editorial use in connection with the University of Chicago Library exhibitions, programs, or related news. Email Rachel Rosenberg (phone: 773-834-1519) or Joseph Scott (phone: 773-702-6655) to request high-resolution images.

Liber Psalmorum, Medieval Bible in Latin and German, ca. 1200. Courtesy of Martin Bodmer Foundation in Cologny (Geneva)

Novum Instrumentum Omne, first printed Greek New Testament edited by Erasmus, 1516. Courtesy of Basel University Library – Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität Basel

Papyrus fragments of Psalms 33 and 34, Greek Old Testament, 3rd to 4th century. Courtesy of Martin Bodmer Foundation in Cologny (Geneva)

Special Collections Closed Monday, September 3, for Labor Day

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

The Special Collections Research Center will be closed on Monday, September 3, in observation of the Labor Day holiday. We will resume our normal weekday hours of 9:00am-4:45pm on Tuesday, September 4.

Feature Story Rare Chinese texts spark collaboration

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Susie Allen, The University of Chicago

The United States is home to many important pre-modern Chinese texts, from the only surviving copy of some volumes of a 15th-century Encyclopedia, the Yongledadian, to the Sequel to Yuanxiang qijiu shiji, an unpublished manuscript of a poetry collection from the Qing dynasty held at the University of Chicago Library. The University of Chicago’s collection of Chinese rare books alone comprises some 10,000 volumes.

Detail from “Xing jun ji xiang yi tu,” roughly translated as “Prophecies for Success in Military Campaigns,"

“Xing jun ji xiang yi tu,” roughly translated as “Prophecies for Success in Military Campaigns,” was written and drawn in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It is held at the University of Chicago Library. (Photo by Sherry Byrne)

Yet not enough is known about how scholars use these collections, the preservation needs of the materials, or what preservation efforts are under way across the country. According to Yuan Zhou, curator of the Library’s East Asian Collection, scholars from China and the West need more ways to share expertise and to learn from each other.

So this May, Zhou and Prof. Edward Shaughnessy organized a conference at the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Library to provide a forum for scholars, collection curators, and preservation specialists from China and the West to collaborate and share their knowledge of pre-modern Chinese materials. “Texting China—Composition, Transmission, Preservation of Pre-modern Chinese Textual Materials” also provided a rare opportunity for scholars of Chinese texts to present alongside library curators and preservation specialists from leading institutions in China, Taiwan, the United States, Canada, and Europe.

The Mansueto Library was an especially fitting choice of location for the conference, according to Library Director Judith Nadler. The new library, with its cutting-edge preservation facilities, Nadler said, “is both a symbol and the realization of the commitment to preservation and access to global resources that support scholarship worldwide.”

The event was held in honor of Tsuen-Hsien (T.H.) Tsien, Professor Emeritus in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, who made what Nadler described as a “remarkable contribution to the study and preservation of China’s literary heritage” during his lengthy career at UChicago. The event was a reunion of sorts for Tsien and several of his students, who now head the East Asia collections at top universities throughout the United States and returned to Chicago to celebrate the work of their former teacher.

“A needed collaboration”

“I went into this conference thinking there were major differences in the things that needed to be done with Chinese books and with Western books,” says Shaughnessy, the Lorraine J. and Herlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in Early Chinese Studies. He was encouraged to discover that the knowledge gap was significantly smaller than he initially thought.

A Dunhuang manuscript scroll that contains three fragments of Buddhist sutras was initially appraised by the UChicago Library and determined to date back to the ninth century. An expert from the National Library of China, who has studied numerous similar pieces at his own institution, examined the manuscript during the conference. He has suggested the piece dates back to the seventh century. (Photo by Michael Kenny)

The fundamentals of preserving and conserving Western and Chinese materials are very similar, although early Chinese materials often use types of paper and ink, and binding methods that are less familiar to conservators trained in the West. “Even though the science is the same, the format is different,” explains Shaughnessy.

Preservation of early texts is vital to the work of scholars like Shaughnessy, who studies the cultural and literary history of the early Zhou period. He is currently at work on a survey of recently excavated examples of the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) an ancient Chinese text used for divination.

During the conference, all participants reaped the benefits of their counterparts’ expertise. For example, the Library holds a Dunhuang manuscript scroll that contains three fragments of Buddhist sutras, thought to date back to the 9th century. An expert from the National Library of China, who has studied numerous similar pieces at his own institution, examined the manuscript and suggested the piece was even older than it was initially appraised by the Library. Judging from the paper and calligraphy, he dated the piece to the seventh century.

In addition, Zhou and a delegation of experts from the National Library of China visited the Field Museum to examine a Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) rubbing of the Lanting Xu, a collection of poetry inscribed by master calligrapher Wang Xishi. Based on his expertise with early royal families and collectors’ seals, Zhang Zhiqing, deputy director of the National Library of China, was able to verify the authenticity of the rubbing, and proposed that it may be the oldest existing copy of the Lanting Xu.

Edward Shaughnessy, the Lorraine J. and Herlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in Early Chinese Studies, speaks at the “Texting China” international symposium at the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library Special Collections Research Center held in May. (Photo by Jason Smith)

This kind of interchange is exactly what the conference was designed to promote. “Everyone agreed it was a needed collaboration,” Zhou says. In fact, the conference was the first of its kind in the United States that brought together an international assemblage of scholars who use the entire span of pre-modern Chinese written materials in their research with librarians who care for these materials to discuss their making, dissemination, and preservation.

“Texting China” also came in the midst of significant efforts to broaden the study of China at the University of Chicago. In addition to the creation of the University’s Center in Beijing and the Confucius Institute, two leading experts on China, historian Kenneth Pomeranz and comparative literature scholar Haun Saussy, have joined the faculty as University Professors.

“A legendary figure”

The conference provided an opportunity to honor Tsien, whom Zhou described as a “legendary figure” in his field. Tsien, 102, came to the University in 1947 and went on to become the curator of the East Asian collection. He also taught at UChicago’s former library school and in East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

The “Texting China” international symposium celebrated the life’s work of Tsuen-Hsien (T.H.) Tsien, Professor Emeritus in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Library Director Judith Nadler described Tsien’s work as a “remarkable contribution to the study and preservation of China’s literary heritage.” (Photo by Jason Smith)

In addition to his work at Chicago, Tsien is known for his heroic efforts to protect China’s literary heritage in World War II. During the Japanese occupation of China, Tsien risked his life to help smuggle more than 100 wooden crates of rare books from the National Library of China to the United States.

The fruits of Tsien’s effort to protect Chinese rare books were on display at the conference, as scholars from UChicago and elsewhere discussed their work on pre-modern Chinese texts. Donald Harper, the Centennial Professor of Chinese Studies, discussed his study of the provenance of the Chu Silk Manuscript, now held by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. Yuming He, Assistant Professor in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, presented her work on global consciousness in the Ming Period.

Only a beginning

During this two-and-half-day conference, 23 presentations were delivered, followed by two roundtable panel discussions. The scholars and librarians from China and the West exchanged their research findings in studying pre-modern Chinese texts, shared their experience in preserving and conserving these materials, and discussed issues of mutual concern.

Yuan Zhou, curator of the Library’s East Asian Collection, and co-organizer of the “Texting China” symposium. (Photo by Jason Smith)

In an era when many are forecasting the death of the physical book, Shaughnessy found it especially meaningful to have scholars present alongside the librarians who care for the materials they study. “As the significance of the digital age has really dawned on scholars of all stripes, I think it’s impressed itself upon them that we really need to know [about] the media that carries this information,” he says.

Zhou says he was heartened by the collaboration that took place at the event. In this regard, “this conference is only a beginning,” Zhou says. He and Shaughnessy hope to eventually develop an exchange program with the National Library of China that would allow preservation specialists in the East and West to work together. Other conference participants proposed assessing the preservation needs of pre-modern Chinese texts, creating an international digital registry of these materials, undertaking more collaborative digitization projects, assessing educational needs and developing a curriculum to meet them, and fundraising to support preservation efforts.

“These materials need to be preserved,” Zhou says. “The conference brought people a higher awareness of such need, and [it] shows that colleagues from the West and China are very willing to work together and pursue this shared goal.”

A University of Chicago news release

Gift from Professor Michael Allen honors librarian James Vaughan

Posted on July 10, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

In honor of James Vaughan, Associate University Librarian for User Services, Michael Allen, Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and the College, and an associate in the Department of History, has presented a rare 17th-century book to the University of Chicago Library.

Vita D. N. Jesu Christi, by Ludolphus of Saxony, a 14th-century Carthusian monk, draws from the work of previous writers to present the life of Christ with meditations and prayers. It was a very popular devotional work, with many manuscript copies, translations, and printed editions, the first of which was published in 1474.

Jim Vaughan joined the University of Chicago Library staff in 1984 when the University merged with the John Crerar Library of Science and Medicine, where he had served as Chief of Photoduplication and Circulation Services. He began as Head of Access Services in Crerar, a position he held until 1996, when he became Access Services Librarian. In 1999, Vaughan became Assistant Director for Access and Facilities Services; and in January 2012, as part of the Library reorganization, Jim was promoted to the new position of Associate University Librarian for User Services.

Professor Allen said of his gift: “I’m pleased to offer a special book in honor of Jim Vaughan. Like all the library staff, Jim Vaughan makes positive things happen. As users of a great and ever changing library, we are very fortunate with the consistently fine access support we receive, and for that we are much indebted to Jim Vaughan’s intelligence and quiet omnipresence. He tends personally and thoughtfully to myriad questions, problems, and suggestions. He has helped me personally on countless occasions to find solutions for matters great and small, from tracking down a personal book inadvertently left weeks before in a reading room, to entertaining and then helping to realize suggestions about on-line search templates or the next generation scanning technology. Jim has a golden ear, and the tact, awareness, and intelligence to make the most of those very gifts in our collective interest. I am grateful to him.”

Exhibits Feature Story Student life meets medieval marginalia

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Rachel Rosenberg, Director of Communications at the University of Chicago Library

What does a 16^th-century French Book of Hours have in common with the Latke-Hamantash Debate, founded in 1946? And what do small cherubic nudes in a 1441 manuscript of Juvenal’s Satirae have in common with an a cappella performance at Wendt House?

Kelli Wood in the Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery

Ph.D. candidate Kelli Wood with the exhibition she curated, “On the Edge: Medieval Margins and the Margins of Academic Life.” (Photo by Michael Kenny.)

For art history Ph.D. candidate Kelli Wood, there are parallels to be found between the drawings of humans, beasts, and angelic beings in medieval marginalia and the extracurricular life of students at University of Chicago—parallels that she elucidates as curator of the exhibition On the Edge: Medieval Margins and the Margins of Academic Life. These surprising connections are on display in the Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery through September 10 and online in an associated web exhibit.

Wood’s inspiration for the exhibition came from two sources. First, while studying for her Ph.D. exams, she read the late University of Chicago art historian Michael Camille’s groundbreaking 1992 study, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art. “Camille studied the uncommon: the strange, remarkable, and extraordinary images at the edges of the medieval world, bringing light to the confluence of the serious and the playful, the sacred and the profane,” a panel in the exhibition explains. In doing so, Wood says, he recuperated medieval marginalia as an appropriate topic of study for art historians, making sense of what he describes in his preface as the “lascivious apes, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting jongleurs that protrude at the edges of medieval buildings, sculptures and illuminated manuscripts.”

A monkey in the right margin apes the image of a patroness appearing in the crucifixion scene at the page’s center. Book of Hours (Use of Rouen) France, ca. 1500-1510, Parchment, MS 343, ff.89v-90r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

When Wood later saw a call for proposals from the University’s student-run Uncommon Fund, she says, she “saw a resonance between the contemporary campus life and the margins of medieval manuscripts that Camille is discussing in his book. The University has a reputation for being super-scholarly – for being ‘a place where fun comes to die.’ Yet, if you spend any time on campus, you’ll see that the student traditions are so much fun, and things that go on outside the classroom enrich that center of scholarship.”

For an example of that resonance, first consider a French Book of Hours (Use of Rouen) that features an illuminated drawing of the medieval patroness it was created for kneeling in a crucifixion scene at the page’s center. Although the patroness is depicted as a participant in the holy scene with the Virgin Mary, this exalted placement is counterbalanced by a drawing of a monkey that is aping her from the margins—“to remind her of her baser nature,” as Wood explains.

Near this Book of Hours hangs a banner with a 2011 photograph of the celebrated UChicago Latke-Hamantash Debate. Founded in an era when Jewish contributions to the academy were often marginalized, the exhibition text indicates, the Debate was designed to celebrate those contributions even as it mocks serious academic disputes.

Creating an exhibition, becoming a scholar

After first conceiving of an exhibition that would make such connections, Wood contacted Alice Schreyer, assistant university librarian for humanities, social sciences, and special collections, and Daniel Meyer, director of the Special Collections Research Center and University archivist, to gain their support for her concept, and then applied for and won an Uncommon Fund grant that would help to support a student-focused opening event and scholarly symposium on medieval art.

Professors listen to the introduction of the 2011 Latke-Hamantash Debate. Photo by Darren Leow, ’12.

“Wood’s project exemplifies the direct engagement with the collections by students and faculty that Special Collections aims to promote,” Schreyer explains. She adds, “It also showcases the new gallery as a site for experimentation and creativity.”

Wood then consulted with art history professors Rebecca Zorach and Aden Kumler and worked with a team of students to uncover and describe medieval marginalia in the collection. She was delighted to discover more than 25 examples in the course of the research, far more than the eight to 10 she was originally expecting. “We found that the Library’s collection is rich in this area, which was really exciting because there are now new points of research,” Wood says. A few of the displayed marginalia were previously known, she explains, but many have never been described in publications before.

After identifying the medieval items she wanted to use in the exhibit, Wood solicited photographs of student life from College students and engaged others in helping her assess them. Finally, she organized the Library’s medieval manuscripts and books together with the contemporary images around common themes, including heraldry, diagrams, vines and architecture, the academy, music, and gargoyles, to name a few.

At the top of the page a small cherubic nude plays a horn in Juvenal’s Satirae, Florence, Italy, 1441, Parchment, MS 29, f. 1r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

The Library’s rich collections, the expertise of its staff—including exhibition specialist Joseph Scott—and the availability of the new Special Collections Exhibition Gallery provided Wood with an extraordinary opportunity for intellectual and professional growth. “What was really special for me was to take something that could have been just a reading from an exam list and use it to enrich my curatorial experience, to enrich my teaching experience, and to build a community around the manuscript with my fellow graduate students, advisors, and people attending the symposium from other universities,” Wood said. “It has helped me to see where my work fits into academia as a whole and to see other people’s contributions and have them enrich my thinking process.”

Kumler, who reviewed the preliminary selection of manuscripts with Wood, agreed: “The exhibition demonstrates what a crucial role the SCRC plays in the intellectual life of the University—not simply as a steward of pieces of the past but also as a place where creativity, intellectual discovery and collaboration happens on a daily basis.”

“I love teaching at the SCRC,” Kumler says, “and I’ve seen what a huge impact the collections and the SCRC’s librarians have on my students, but the exhibition also shows how much students can discover and create on their own in the SCRC, according to their intellectual priorities. Many rare book libraries and archives, even at universities, are not so welcoming: it’s a major testament to the vision that guides the SCRC and its incredible staff. The exhibition explores aspects of the medieval past and our very local, very eccentric contemporary culture that might easily be dismissed as marginal. It makes a strong statement that no pursuit, pursued passionately, is ever ‘marginal’ and that playfulness and pleasure animate both great universities and history, alike.”

Camille’s legacy lives on

Zorach, who proudly claims Camille as her dissertation adviser, believes that he “would have loved the rhyme that Kelli created between manuscript margins and the margins of academic life.”

Members of the Wendt House residence hall and Chicago Men’s A Cappella sing at the annual birthday party honoring Lisa Wendt, namesake of the residence hall. Photo by Vivian Wan, ’14.

Kumler, who studied with Camille as a College student, was delighted to see archival selections from his papers on display as part of the exhibition. “The incorporation of Michael’s drawings, doodles and manuscript notes make a strong case for how much our engagement with the past shapes our practice in the present.”

Meanwhile, the play goes on in Special Collections, as viewers of the exhibition are invited to record their own marginalia in a copy of Camille’s Image on the Edge, which sits atop a pedestal in the Gallery until the show closes, when it will be added to the University Archives. Much like the medieval marginalia on display, these 21^st century notations are sometimes sexual or scatological, sometimes bestial, and sometimes philosophical, as they explore the relationship of the note maker to the text at the center.

Perhaps none does so better than a note on the first page alongside Camille’s statement that he is interested in the ways medieval marginalia “seem to celebrate the flux of ‘becoming’ rather than being.” An exhibition visitor has circled “the flux of ‘becoming’” and connected the phrase to a marginal declaration: “THIS IS UCHICAGO.”

8/31/12 update: The gallery exhibition will run until September 10, 2012.

Alert SCRC Circulation Request migration moved to Tuesday, July 10th

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

The SCRC Circulation Request System server migration has been moved to Tuesday, July 10th at 7am. During the migration, the Circulation Request System is expected to be down for approximately one hour. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Time Out: Library ‘harbors a beautiful and robust collection of illuminated manuscripts’

Posted on June 15, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

On the Edge: Medieval Margins and the Margins of Academic Life
Time Out Chicago – June 14, 2012

Special Collections Opens at 10:30am June 26th

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

The Special Collections Research Center will open at 10:30am on Tuesday, June 26th. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. We will return to our usual hours on Wednesday, June 27th, when we open at 9:00am.

Congratulations to the Class of 2012

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

Procession of students in Hutchinson Court, University of Chicago convocation. (Archival Photographic Files.)

“Solitary, singing in the west, I strike up for a new world.” – Walt Whitman; often quoted by Robert Maynard Hutchins.

We wish you the best, graduates, as you move into your own new worlds.

Happy birthday, Anthony Braxton

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

This image of Anthony Braxton is from the John Steiner Collection of the Chicago Jazz Archive

Anthony Braxton, born June 4, 1945 in Chicago, celebrates his 67th birthday today. Braxton is an American music pioneer whose style closely resembles jazz but spans many genres and forms. Braxton’s instruments include saxophones, flute, clarinet, and piano.

Braxton was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side. In 1963, he joined the army and was stationed with the Fifth Army Band in the northern suburbs of Chicago. In 1965, he went to South Korea and played with the Eighth Army Band all the while keeping up with the recordings of free jazz pioneers Albert Ayler and John Coltrane. Braxton returned to Chicago in 1966 and sought out and joined the newly-formed Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). He formed his own ensembles with musicians such as Leroy Jenkins, Thurman Barker, Charles Clark, Kalaparush, and Leo Smith while also playing in groups led by AACM members like Ajaramu, Amina Myers, and Muhal Richard Abrams. Although greatly influenced by John Coltrane, Braxton quickly developed his own voice.

Braxton spent time recording and performing with his own group in Paris in the late 1960s. Throughout much of the early 1970s, Braxton played in New York and the Midwest, touring with Chick Corea’s trio and Musica Elettronica Viva.

In 1994, Braxton was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for his outstanding and original contributions to jazz. Braxton founded the Tri-Centric Foundation, a New York based not-for-profit corporation that includes an ensemble of musicians, vocalists, and computer-graphic video artists all of whom aid in the performances of Braxton’s compositions. Braxton studied philosophy at Roosevelt University. He is currently a tenured Professor of Music at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, teaching music composition, music history, and improvisation.

Despite the many improvisational aspects to Braxton’s compositions it is difficult to categorize his music solely as jazz . In March 2007, in an article that appeared in Time Out-New York, Braxton is quoted as saying: “I know I’m an African-American, and I know I play the saxophone, but I’m not a jazz musician. I’m not a classical musician, either. My music is like my life: It’s in between these areas.”

The Special Collections Research Center is home to the Chicago Jazz Archive, which contains a small collection of materials related to Anthony Braxton as well as many collections that document jazz in Chicago and the work of Anthony Braxton.

Scout Report explores Centennial Catalogues

Posted on May 30, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

The University of Chicago Centennial Catalogues
The Scout Report – May 25, 2012

Bert Kelly’s Stables

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

In the 1920s, as Chicago was quickly becoming a major hub for jazz, many jazz hotspots were popping up all over the city. One that stood out was Bert Kelly’s Jazz Stables, pictured in the map on the left between Grand and Kinzie (click on the image for an enlarged view.) Kelly’s Stables, as it was commonly referred to, was located in what was then known as the Towertown neighborhood on the Near North Side. Located at 431 N Rush Street, in the heart of what was once a bohemian enclave, Kelly’s Stables showcased many of the great Chicago jazz legends night after night. Counted among the respected alumni are Alcide “Yellow” Nunez, Joe “King” Oliver, Freddie Keppard, and the Dodds Brothers: Johnny and Baby. Nunez composed a popular tune titled “Livery Stable Blues,” which served as inspiration for the club’s name.

Exterior view of Kelly’s Stables

The club’s namesake and founder, banjoist Bert Kelly, was no stranger to swing and is often cited as the first to bring jazz to Chicago, a distinction believed to have been assigned by Kelly to himself. Kelly also claimed to have coined the term “jazz.” Regardless of these various assertions one thing is certain: Kelly’s Stables was one of the most popular jazz clubs in Chicago during the 1920s. Bert Kelly went on to open Kelly’s Stables on 52nd Street in New York City. The New York City location quickly became a prominent club during the 1930s and 1940s when New York took over as the reigning Jazz Capital.

The history of Kelly’s Jazz Stables and many other popular historic Chicago Jazz venues can be found in the John Steiner collection, one of the many distinctive collections that comprise the Chicago Jazz Archive. Jazz scholars and enthusiasts have much to view and enjoy thanks to the diligent collecting of John Steiner, who began attending jazz shows in and around Chicago starting in 1924.

Haggadah exhibition will close with lecture May 13

Posted on May 9, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

Special Collections exhibition on Haggadah will close with lecture May 13
UChicago News – May 9, 2012

On the Edge: Medieval Margins and the Margins of Academic Life

Posted on May 8, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art by University of Chicago art history professor Michael Camille (1958-2002), a work that looks at the playful and parodic images in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. Inspired by Camille’s work, published by the Harvard University Press, this exhibition explores the symmetry between medieval margins and the modern margins of academic life. Camille studied the uncommon: the strange, remarkable, and extraordinary images at the edges of the medieval world, bringing to light the confluence of the serious and the playful, the sacred and the profane. The serious and the playful also converge at the University of Chicago, and “On the Edge” features medieval manuscript marginalia paired with student photographs that capture the margins of campus life. The photographs show what happens outside of the classroom at the University, highlighting quintessential traditions such as the Scavenger Hunt.

On May 21 at 5 p.m., an opening reception in Special Collections will celebrate the work of students who organized the exhibition.

Web Exhibit
An associated web exhibit is online at lib.uchicago.edu/e/webexhibits/ontheedge/

Use of Images

A page from a Book of Hours, France, ca. 1500-1510. University of Chicago Codex Manuscript Collection, ms343.

Detail of a monkey wearing a headdress from the margins of a Book of Hours. University of Chicago Codex Manuscript Collection, ms343.

A depiction of a mythical beast in the margins of a Book of Hours

Detail of a mythical beast in the margins of a Book of Hours. University of Chicago Codex Manuscript Collection, ms343.

A tiger bought by the Snell-Hitchcock scavenger hunt team is displayed on the Midway Plaisance (Photographer Jamie Manley, Class of 2014)

Students react to a model at the Festival of the Arts 2010 Launch Party Fashion Show held in Hutchinson Courtyard. (Photograph by Jasmine Kwong, Class of 2006)

Scout Report highlights Library’s map of Chicago’s South Side Jazz Clubs, ca 1915-1940

Posted on April 20, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

Chicago Jazz
Scout Report – April 20, 2012

Quincy Wright and Middle East history

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

General Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, Lord Arthur James Balfour, and Sir Herbert Louis Samuel, in Jerusalem, 1925.

Researchers come to the Special Collections Research Center looking for items of all kinds, from Aztec manuscripts, to fragments from Walt Whitman, to stereoscopic images of skin diseases, to a picture of former University of Chicago quarterback Milton “Mitt” Romney (cousin and namesake to the former Massachusetts governor and current presidential candidate). Once in a while, a request will direct us to an unexpected gem.

Philip Quincy Wright (1890-1970) joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as a professor of political science in 1923. Among his enduring legacies to the University is the Committee on International Relations, which he founded in 1928. A scholar of international law, politics, and social science, Professor Wright made many trips overseas for his research, and today his vast collection of papers and photographs are held at the Special Collections Research Center. In 1925, he took a trip to Palestine and other areas of the Middle East. This was a particularly potent time for the relationship between the region’s inhabitants and their colonial governors in France and Britain. French troops had shelled Damascus in October of 1925, while the British were negotiating their mandate in Palestine and Trans-Jordan.

With this context in mind, Professor Wright’s photograph is all the more astonishing. Taken in Jerusalem, the print depicts three men, all of whom had a direct hand in shaping the politics of the Middle East in the early twentieth century: General Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, head of the military forces which conquered Palestine and Syria; Lord Arthur James Balfour, former Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom and author of the Balfour Declaration of 1917; and Sir Herbert Louis Samuel, British High Commissioner of Palestine from 1920 to 1925. The picture was taken in front of the Government House, located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

The Quincy Wright Papers do not yet have an online finding aid, but researchers are welcome to consult our paper guide to the collection in the Special Collections Research Center.

David Stern’s ‘The Haggadah and the Jewish Imagination’ lecture available online

Posted on April 13, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

David Stern, professor of Classical Hebrew Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, opened the Haggadah exhibition and lecture series on April 1 with a talk on the Haggadah, the book of prayers, illustrations, and stories recited on the Jewish holiday of Passover, marking the freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

An audio recording of the lecture is now available for download and listening on the UChicago News site.

Jewcy on Special Collections’ Passover Haggadot exhibition and lectures

Posted on April 5, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

Haggadot on view at the University of Chicago
Jewcy – April 5, 2012

Exhibits Feature Story Passover Haggadot from Durchslag Collection

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center

Illustration of Seder dinner - 1867 Livorno Haggadah

Illustration of a Seder dinner from an 1867 Haggadah printed in Livorno, Italy

Archetype and Adaptation: Passover Haggadot from the Stephen P. Durschlag Collection
An exhibition at the
Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery
1100 E. 57th Street, Chicago
April 2 — May 12, 2012
Mon. — Fri., 9 a.m. — 4:45 p.m.
Sat: 9 a.m. — 12:45 p.m. when University of Chicago classes are in session
Free and open to the public

The week-long, springtime Jewish holiday of Pesach, or Passover, is beloved for its symbolic meaning and joyous customs. Passover marks the freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, a narrative with universal appeal as a paradigm for collective and, according to some traditions, personal liberation. The Haggadah (plural: Haggadot), or “telling,” is the collection of prayers, legends, and stories recited on the eve of Passover.

The basic text of the Haggadah derives from the biblical instruction to retell the story of the Exodus each year during Passover in conjunction with a ritual meal called the Seder, or “order” (Exodus 13:8). Over the centuries songs and illustrations have been added to engage children, to whom the story was to be told, and some passages are given added prominence when they resonate with contemporary concerns. Illustrations in medieval manuscripts depict scenes from Exodus, the life of Moses, and Jewish Patriarchs. Many of these scenes continue to appear in early printed Haggadot, but the emphasis shifts to passages drawn directly from the text. The Haggadah has shown remarkable stability and flexibility: thousands of editions in all languages testify to its central role in Jewish life and its ability to incorporate new themes and respond to changing conditions.

This exhibition is drawn entirely from the private collection of Stephen P. Durchslag, the largest known collection of Haggadot in private hands. “Archetype and Adaptation” explores the enduring influence of early printed Haggadot as well as the ability of modern versions to reflect political and social developments such as the Holocaust, Zionism, gay rights, and feminism. The Haggadah embodies the adaptive genius of Jewish practice and the consequent vitality of Jewish life. Items selected for the exhibition exemplify early Haggadah archetypes and later adaptations, framed by facsimiles of medieval manuscripts and modern Haggadot illustrated by noted artists.

Illustrations were often copied and pirated in early printed books. Images were expensive to produce, so woodcuts were reused until they wore out and copper plates made long journeys from one city to another. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, several Haggadot became models for countless later editions. Yosef Yerushalmi has identified four early printed editions that served as “archetypes”: Prague (1526), Mantua (1560), Venice (1609), and Amsterdam (1695). Each of these was shaped by the artistic culture and printing trades of the city in which it was produced—for example, Renaissance Italian borders and architectural frames appear in Venice, copperplate engraving is used instead of woodcut in Amsterdam—and introduced iconography that can be seen in Haggadot produced hundreds of years later. The exhibition traces the movement of these models across continents and time, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the Haggadah story and the infinite variety of interpretation and adaptation it inspires.

Curator: Pesach Weinstein, Ph.D. Candidate, Divinity School

Illustration of the Four Sons from a 1695 Haggadah printed in Amsterdam

The Haggadah: An Exhibition and Lecture Series

The Chicago Center for Jewish Studies, the University of Chicago Divinity School, and the Special Collections Research Center are presenting a lecture series, associated with the exhibition described above. All lectures take place in the Special Collections Research Center and are followed by a reception and opportunity to view the exhibition. All are free and open to the public.

April 1
“The Haggadah and the Jewish Imagination”

5:00 p.m. — Introductory comments in the Exhibition Gallery – Stephen P. Durchslag
5:30 p.m. — Lecture: The “Haggadah” and the Jewish Imagination – David Stern, Moritz and Josephine Berg Professor of Classical Hebrew Literature, University of Pennsylvania
6:30 p.m. — Reception and Exhibition Viewing

April 22 – 5:30 p.m.
Marc Michael Epstein (Vassar College)
“Birds’ Head Revisited: Identity, Politics and Polemics in the Birds’ Head Haggadah”

May 6 – 5:30 p.m.
Vanessa Ochs (University of Virginia)
“The Coconut on the Seder Plate: A Biography of the Contemporary Haggadah”

May 13 – 5:30 p.m.
Katrin Kogman-Appel (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
“Popularizing Books in a Manuscript Culture: The Visual Language of the Late Medieval Haggadah”

When:	Friday, May 11, 2012, 9:00 a.m. to Sunday, May 13, 2012, 1:30 p.m.
Where:	Regenstein Library, The Special Collections Research Center 1100 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL
Description:	Texting China—Composition, Transmission, and Preservation of Pre-Modern Chinese Textual Materials: An International Symposium Celebrating the Life and Career of T.H. Tsien and the Opening of the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Library Scholars of pre-modern China, curators of Chinese research library collections, and preservation experts from China, North America and Europe will come together for the first time in the United States for this international symposium on pre-modern Chinese texts hosted by the University of Chicago Library. The symposium is designed to develop a worldwide strategy for preserving pre-modern Chinese manuscripts and printed texts, while advancing scholarship on Chinese manuscript and print culture. Co-sponsors include the University of Chicago, the National Library of China, the Harvard-Yenching Library, and Princeton University Library. Schedule Highlights Friday, May 11 9:00 – 9:25 Opening Ceremony 10:05 – 12:05 Opening Panel 13:45 – 15:45 Manuscripts and Manuscript Culture 16:05 – 18:05 Printing and Print Culture Saturday, May 12 9:00 – 10:20 Preservation of Pre-Modern Chinese Texts (A) 10:40 – 12:00 Preservation of Pre-Modern Chinese Texts (B) 13:30 – 14:40 Preservation of Pre-Modern Chinese Texts (C) 15:00 – 17:00 Roundtable Discussion I: Preservation of Pre-Modern Chinese Texts: Conditions and Challenges Sunday, May 13 9:00 – 11:00 Roundtable Discussion II: Preservation of Pre-Modern Chinese Texts: Working towards a Consensus on Strategies and Action Plan 11:00 – 11:30 Wrap Up
Contact:	Joseph Regenstein Library 773-702-4685