This #nationallibraryweek, we’ll be sharing how staff find their joy in our collection.
Here's Jill Austin, VP for Public Engagement. “The Dil Pickle Club collection, particularly the photo documenting the entrance on Tooker Alley, remains my favorite item and collection.” #findyourjoy
The Newberry on this platform brings us joy!
Calling all historians, we might have a purposeful skill for the folks over at the @newberrylibrary.bsky.social - transcribing handwritten texts in their collection. It could make for an excellent assignment I should think.
www.chicagomag.com/chicago-maga...
We’re celebrating the joy of libraries all next week! What brings you joy at the Newberry? Take a photo of yourself, a book, or another item that brings you joy. Upload it to social media and tag us with #findyourjoy. We’ll provide a special prize to one lucky poster.
Thank you to all who attended our 2026 Award Celebration yesterday evening honoring author Jonathan Franzen! Special thanks to our Event Co-Chairs Michael Pope, left, and Christopher Hagenah. The Newberry Library Award is presented annually to recognize extraordinary achievements in the humanities.
Flyer with dramatic abstract images of stars, seeds, and an open book. Text reads: Planting Seeds: Indigenous Zine Fest 2026. Saturday May 16th, 11 am–3 pm. Hosted by the Newberry Library and Zine Mercado. 60 W. Walton Street, Chicago.
Our friends at ZINEmercado & @newberrylibrary.bsky.social are hosting Planting Seeds: An Indigenous Zine Fest in Chicago on Saturday May 16th! 🌱 www.newberry.org/calendar/zin... #zines #IndigenousZines
Kudos to our Conservation Department!
A few selections from last week's Edible Books Festival, including our winner of the Golden Spatula: a cake dressed up as a Victorian poisonous green book, a shade created by combining copper and arsenic (by the Victorians). Also featured are The Works of John Locke and Bookfish. #historysky
Thanks to WBEZ and the Sun-Times for their coverage of our America 250 activities, starting with our "Free and Independent" exhibition opening Thursday. Our presidential portraits featured here with our colleague Jill Austin. www.wbez.org/wbez-newslet... @wbez.org
This Thursday! Just a few seats remain (but you can also stream on Zoom for free) for our Writers on Writing event with @newberrylibrary.bsky.social -- we can't wait to welcome Jennifer Egan to Chicago! She'll be in conversation with @michaelzapata.bsky.social.
www.newberry.org/calendar/wri...
To fully digitize its archives, the Newberry Library is tapping people who can decipher a foreign language: cursive.
Ha ha! My recent article, "Found in Translation," about the @newberrylibrary.bsky.social's Newberry Transcribe project, for @chicagomag.com, is now online. Enjoy! Share! Consider transcribing a few letters and diaries!
www.chicagomag.com/chicago-maga...
Always a pleasure to see an article of mine in literal print.
A vintage postcard from the early 20th century shows an Illinois pennant and a woman in a dress holding a pumpkin in a basketball pose. The text reads "This passes for a letter from Champaign."
This postcard from our Digital Collections is especially apt as the University of Illinois women’s team opens the NCAA tournament tomorrow! Illinois is a No. 7 seed and takes on Colorado in Nashville. Illinois’s men’s team was victorious last night against Penn. An exciting time in Champaign!
The Sunday ban was just the first spark. The Lager Beer Riot blended European beer riot patterns and US political traditions in a way no one expected. It changed Chicago history forever.
I cover it all in an upcoming virtual course w/ @newberrylibrary.bsky.social.
www.newberry.org/calendar/bee...
Boy reading comic book in Lincoln, Nebraska. Photo from 1948. Chicago Burlington and Quincy Company Records.
The Newberry recently celebrated a milestone: 150k public items in Digital Collections! Images include the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company Records documenting everyday life along the route, which covered the Midwest and stretched all the way to Wyoming. @digitalnewberry.bsky.social
Reserve your seat for our Award Celebration on April 10 at The Drake! We are thrilled to honor Jonathan Franzen, recognizing his cultural impact through monumental novels such as "The Corrections," "Freedom," and "Crossroads." All proceeds support the Newberry.
www.newberry.org/calendar/202...
Transforming Fairy Tales @newberrylibrary.bsky.social, 3/31-4/21, 6-7:30pm CT. www.newberry.org/calendar/tra...
Y'all: Spaces are still available in my @newberrylibrary.bsky.social online seminar for this term! It's a discusson of Chicago poetry, from Sandburg and Brooks to our lucky city's contemporary poetry Renaissance: Coval, Olivarez, Marshall, and Ewing. Check it out: www.newberry.org/calendar/chi...
Our next exhibition opens April 9 and features a rare broadside of the Declaration as well as John Jay's handwritten draft of The Federalist No. 3. Learn more -->
www.newberry.org/calendar/fre...
The Newberry’s Center for Renaissance Studies recently held its Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference in Premodern Studies, welcoming advanced doctoral students from more than fifty universities. Attendees represented fields of classical, medieval, Renaissance, and early modern studies.
A rectangular graphic shows images of an online catalog manifest for a medieval missal leaf at the Newberry Library at the top and a book bound in a medieval manuscript leaf with musical notation in the lower right. The lower left quadrant has white text on a black and red background that reads, “RBS Impact Story: Cataloging Medieval Manuscript Fragments in Chicago. Rare Book School has been integral to helping Chicago librarians Megan Kelly and Rebecca Flore make the medieval collections in their respective libraries more accessible to researchers.”
RBS has been integral to helping librarians Megan Kelly & Rebecca Flore make the medieval collections in their libraries more accessible to researchers.
Read about their efforts at rarebookschool.org/impact-story-cataloging-fragments-in-chicago
@lisafdavis.bsky.social @newberrylibrary.bsky.social
Happening tonight!
A painting of Abraham Lincoln shows him seated in a chair with his chin resting on his hand.
Happy Presidents Day from our painting of Abraham Lincoln in the 3rd floor reading room! We hold three George Healy portraits including Lincoln, Grant, and Arthur. It has been said artist Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Barack Obama was influenced by Healy’s portrait of Lincoln. #historysky
Here's a look at the artist whose works are all around the Newberry, including Presidents Arthur, Grant, and Lincoln on the 3rd floor, and our namesake Walter Newberry on the 1st floor. Healy came to Chicago thanks to the city's first mayor, William Butler Ogden. www.newberry.org/blog/the-pai...
An illustration of a ballroom fashioned in the French Baroque style of its namesake: the Trianon Palace at Versailles. Text at top states, "Trianon, the World's Most Beautiful Ball Room." At bottom, "Cottage Grove Avenue at Sixty-Second Street, Chicago."
Trianon Ballroom in Woodlawn, "The World's Most Beautiful Ball Room," hosted the 1926 National Charleston Contest, 100 years ago this month. A couple from Grand Rapids, Mich., took home 1st place. Alas, the Trianon was demolished in 1967. Postcard from our Teich Postcard Collection. #historysky
Florence Price was the first African American woman to achieve national recognition as a symphonic composer, including for the Chicago Symphony. Price's first major work was Symphony in E minor, premiered by the Symphony (1933). Image: Chicago Reader archives. #blackhistorymonth
We’re excited to share today that the Newberry has received a $4 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand access to our Indigenous Studies collections and strengthen collaboration with tribal nations. www.newberry.org/news/newberr...
Read about western resistance in the Revolutionary War and the 1st published mention of Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable, who was briefly imprisoned at Fort Michilimackinac. Col. De Peyster was key to rallying Indigenous nations to the British. On the blog: www.newberry.org/blog/de-peys... #historysky
