Bibliosaurus! Dinosaurs in the Popular Imagination
Exhibition Dates: January 2 – April 19, 2024
Exhibition Location: The Joseph Regenstein Library, 1100 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Associated web exhibit
Sixty-six million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, dinosaurs became extinct. Yet look around, and they are everywhere: on billboards, company logos and cereal boxes. They leap out of the pages of children’s pop-up books, appear in editorial cartoons and dominate comic strips, television and film. They are the subject of countless books, journal articles, toys and video games. Bibliosaurus! Dinosaurs in the Popular Imagination draws on the recent gift to the University of Chicago Library of the Edward Valauskas Collection of Dinosauriana to explore how dinosaurs transformed from objects of intense scientific inquiry into outsize figures in everyday life.
Using children’s books, field guides, journal articles, movie posters, lobby cards, original artwork and even Barbie dolls, Bibliosaurus! investigates subjects from the enduring legacy of Godzilla to the lasting contributions of amateur fossil hunters. The exhibition also illustrates how paleontology has been presented to and captured the public imagination during the past two hundred years.
Curators
Edward Valauskas, AM'82, and Charles Valauskas
Visitors
Visitors to the University of Chicago Library may obtain a visitor pass by checking in at Regenstein Library's entry desk. Get more visitor information.
Exhibition Gallery Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 9 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.; Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Associated Events
Doc Films is running a special series of dinosaur and monster movies throughout the Winter Quarter, in collaboration with the exhibition. Learn more at https://docfilms.org/
Images and Media Contact
Images from the exhibition included on this page are available for download to members of the media and are reserved for editorial use in connection with University of Chicago Library exhibitions, programs, or related news. For more information, contact Rachel Rosenberg at ra-rosenberg@uchicago.edu or 773-834-1519.
