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University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

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The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center is home to the University of Chicago Library's Archives, Rare Books, and Manuscripts.

Find us on Tumblr: http://uchicagoscrc.tumblr.com/
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10/30/2026

Happy All Hallows' Eve Eve from the Dean of Spooky Sciences and their Special Collections Skeleton Crew!

10/29/2026

In honor of national cat day, we wanted to share this photo from The University of Chicago Photographic Archive! Pictured is student Richard Pinegar laughing with a cat for company in 1973.

You can view this photo and many others that document the history of the University of Chicago and the development of its campus, academic programs, and student life in the photographic archive by following the linktree in our bio and clicking on "Digital Collections".

Pictured:
Richard Pinegar laughing, with cat
Series IV: Student Activities
Photographer: Frank Gruber
Photograph Date: 11/9/1973=
Repository: University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center
Image Identifier: apf4-04168

10/27/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined the Kim-Park Program for the Study of the Book recently for a Manuscript Meet & Greet! Manuscript Meet & Greet programs are collections presentations that provide up close encounters with items from our Special Collections. Pictured are our recent iterations of the program: Manuscript Meet & Greet: Meet the Map presented by Marcy Bidney, the UChicago Assistant University Librarian for Distinctive Collections and Manuscript Meet & Greet: Printing on Fabric presented by Suzanne Karr Schmidt, George Amos Poole III Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Newberry Library.

We hope you will join us for more opportunities engage with book history and the materiality of information soon. Join the Kim-Park Mailing list to be the first to know about upcoming events and opportunities like these at the Kim-Park Program link in our bio

10/25/2026

Upcoming Event: The Kim-Park Program for the Study of the Book is pleased to present Dictaminal Attitudes: Transcribing and Compiling Peter of Blois with Thomas C. Sawyer, Assistant Professor of Medieval Literature in the Department of English at Case Western Reserve University.

🗓 Friday, November 6th at 3:00 PM in Regenstein Library

This program is free and registration is open to all who would like to attend.

Free Registration: https://PeterofBlois.eventbrite.com

More about the program:

In 1993, Lena Wahlgren enumerated over 250 manuscript collections witnessing the epistles of Peter of Blois. These witnesses had been categorized previously by Ethel Higonnet, whose 1973 thesis posited at least seventeen distinct manuscript groups. Whether and how Peter altered which of his own letters after their first inscription remains an open question, and the task of producing a complete edition of his works remains a feat of textual criticism few scholars might feasibly accomplish. He remains one of the most influential prose authors of over four-hundred years – and one of the least accessible to modern audiences. Bewildering though the manuscript record may be in sum, individual witnesses reflect how medieval scribes and readers customized their encounters with Peter’s dictaminal ouevre. In this talk, Thomas C. Sawyer (Case Western Reserve University) will examine the production of two manuscripts that yield divergent views on the legibility of the epistolary collection as a genre and reflect changing motives for reproducing staggeringly popular texts in the weave of late-medieval scribal cultures.

10/22/2026

From the Collections: Les Remplaçantes, La Baïonnette, 25 novembre 1915

Presumably many serving in the military during World War I enjoyed the barbed satire of French magazine La Baïonnette, but the primary audience for the magazine was those who remained on the home front. A number of issues dealt with their lives. "Les Remplaçantes", illustrated by Charles Gentry, put a spotlight on the substitutes, mostly women, for men away fighting for the cause. Genty, was a well-known humorous illustrator who served during the war and also worked for such magazines as Le Rire, Le Rire Rouge, and Fantasio and illustrated novels. Other issues of the magazine dealt with such subjects as "Nos Gosses" (Our Kids), "La Vie Chère" (The Expensive Life), and "Les Nouveaux Riches."

This work is featured in our web exhibition, “En Guerre: French Illustrators and World War I”. You can view this item and many more in the exhibit by following the linktree in our bio and clicking on “Web Exhibits”.

Pictured Item:
Les Remplaçantes
Charles Genty. La baïonnette, 25 novembre 1915. Paris: L'Edition Française Illustrée Rare Book Collection
Call Number: f D526.3.B2 c.1
v.1 no.1-v.2 no.45 1915-16

10/19/2026

From the Collection: Fine Peepshow of Acrobats engraved by Martin Engelbrecht, ca. 1740

Peepshows, also known as tunnel books, date back to the 18th century. The hand-colored paper panels are spaced out so a person looking through the hole at the front sees a three-dimensional theatrical scene. Martin Engelbrecht is credited with inventing peepshows along with his brother and fellow engraver, Christian.

This work is featured in our web exhibition "But Is It A Book?". You can view this item and many more in the exhibit from anywhere by following the linktree in our bio and clicking on “Web Exhibits”.

Pictured:
Fine Peepshow of Acrobats
Martin Engelbrecht, engraver
Augsburg: ca. 1740
Purchased on the Celia and Delia Austrian Study Fund
Call Number: GV1525.E64 1740

10/17/2026

Upcoming Event: The Kim-Park Program for the Study of the Book is pleased to present a guided exhibition tour of Created Equal: The Premises and Promises of the Declaration of Independence with Curator Eric Slauter, Deputy Dean of the Humanities.

🗓 Monday, October 26th at 3:30 PM in the Special Collections Exhibition Gallery, Regenstein Library

This program is free and open to all. Advanced registration is strongly recommended.

Learn more and register for free here: CE-CuratorTour.eventbrite.com

About the exhibition:
The Declaration of Independence asserted the revolutionary right of a people to alter or abolish a government, grounding that principle in the “self-evident” claims that “all Men are created Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” and “that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Over time, many readers have come to consider the radical philosophical premises in the Declaration as founding political promises of the United States. In doing so, they transformed an indictment of the British King and a manifesto of secession from the British Empire into an American charter of liberty, equality, and rights.

But the Declaration’s meaning has never been solitary. From the start, readers disagreed about what its authors intended. Since 1776, radically different interpretations of the Declaration’s ideas have been put to different ends—from demands for the legal, political, and social equality of all persons, to claims for the rights of states to secede from the union, to calls for the revolutionary overthrow of the government.

How did the Declaration’s premises become its promises? Drawing on rare materials from the seventeenth century to the present, this exhibition invites you to explore the document’s meanings in its own time, to consider contested interpretations across history, and to reflect on what the Declaration means today.

10/14/2026

From the collections for its 100th anniversary: Winnie-the-Pooh first edition copy with the original dust jacket

On this day (October 14th) in 1926, Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne was published by Methuen & Co in London with illustrations by E.H. Shepard. The book was the debut of not only the honey-loving Pooh Bear but also his friends Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Christopher Robin.

Milne’s main inspiration for the characters came from his son, Christopher Robin Milne’s stuffed toys. Christopher Robin named his teddy bear Winnie the Pooh after Winnie, a bear at the London Zoo and a swan that the young Milne called Pooh.

Due to the book’s success, a sequel book titled The House at Pooh Corner was published in 1928 and introduced Tigger to the Hundred Acre Wood. The Walt Disney Company acquired the licensing rights to Winnie the Pooh in the 1960s and throughout the decades have released several films and TV shows featuring Pooh and his friends.

Pictured:
Winnie-the Pooh
A. A. Milne & Ernest H. Shepard
London: Methuen & Co., 1926.
Call number: PZ167.M65W5 1926

10/12/2026

From the collections: Photograph of a Native Hawaiian weaving Lauhala mats, Island of Hawaiʻi, 1936.

The Hala tree is a palm-like tree from the Pandanus family found in Hawaiʻi. Dry hala leaves, called Lauhala, are gathered and used by master weavers to craft mats that can be used as a base to make art and other artisan objects such as baskets, jewelry boxes, and hats. While this photo captures a women weaving Luhala in 1936, Luahala weaving is a living art in Hawaiʻi.

Pictured:
Title: Hawaii
Scientific Plant Name: Pandanus tectorius
Common Plant Name: Hala (Hawaiian screwpine)
Photograph Date: 1936
Location: Hawaii County, Hawaii
Collection: University of Chicago Department of Botany Records
Repository: University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center
Image Identifier: apf8-01261

10/10/2026

Happy Birthday to Oscar Brown Jr., born October 10th, 1926, in Chicago, IL. Brown passed away in 2005, but today marks the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Brown was a musician, an essayist, poet, playwright, and activist. He is well known for his work in the arts and for promoting and committing to the liberation of the global Black diaspora through philosophy and active initiatives for self-improvement and self-determination. He created his own art form, Dramatic Organizations of Musical Expressions (D.O.M.E.s.), and wrote numerous plays, songs, and poems. Some of his more famous works include Kicks & Co., Big-Time Buck White, Great Nitty Gritty, and Cybersoul.

You can learn more about Oscar Brown Jr. at , thanks to his daughters, Maggie and Africa. They implemented the Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project at Logan Center for the Arts and donated his papers to the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. Their work has continued Brown’s work by sharing his creations, most of which were never published. Oscar Brown Jr.’s legacy continues to live on and be explored.

Pictured is the cover of Oscar Brown Jr.'s book, ‘What It Is’. Released in 2005, ‘What It Is’ is a collection of Brown's poems and opinions.

Pictured:

Brown, Oscar, Jr. Papers, Acc. #2026-085, Box 5, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Monday	9am - 4:45pm
Tuesday	9am - 4:45pm
Wednesday	10am - 4:45pm
Thursday	9am - 4:45pm
Friday	9am - 4:45pm

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+17737028705

Website

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/, https://linktr.ee/uchicagoscrc

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