Collections & Exhibits

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Collections
Collection Thumbnail Title Formats Subjects
Before and After the Fire, Davie's atlas Chicago Before and after the fire: Chicago in the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s
Sheet maps of Chicago from the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s that are held at the University of Chicago Library's Map Collection.
Formats
Digital
Maps
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
History
Maps
Mary Bowen Brainerd's calling card Brainerd, Mary Bowen. Papers. 1895-1915
Mary Bowen Brainerd, writer. The Mary Bowen Brainerd Papers consist of correspondence, research notes, and drafts of a dissertation.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Literature
University of Chicago
Fernán Caballero. Miscellaneous Notes Caballero, Fernán. Papers, 1855-1877
Fernán Caballero, pseudonym of Cecilia Francisca Josefa de Arrom, (1796-1877), Spanish author. The papers consists primarily of correspondence from Caballero to French scholar Antoine de Latour, but also includes other correspondence, manuscripts and articles.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Spanish Literature
Portuguese Literature
Cover of 	  Sky-ride pamphlet Century of Progress - International Exposition Publications, 1933-1934
Published informational and promotional material produced for the Century of Progress Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois, 1934.
Formats
Digital
Books & Journals
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American History
Cervantes Don Quixote Cervantes: Text and Image
Collection of scanned editions of Don Quixote and associated texts focusing on illustrations and critical texts. Created in conjunction with the Ekphrasis in the Age of Cervantes conference hosted by the University of Chicago in 2004.
Formats
Digital
Books & Journals
Subjects
Spanish Literature
Portuguese Literature
Aimed at the Pimp Flyer Chicago Committee of Fifteen. Records, 1909-1927
Also known as Manuscript Codex 1028, these twenty-six volumes were gathered for an investigation of Chicago crime, focusing on prostitution and the illegal sale of alcohol. Notes are from on-scene investigations, summaries of court records and newspaper clippings.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
American History
Chicago and Illinois
Sun Ra Chicago Jazz Archive
The collections span more than eight decades of Chicago and general jazz history. The collections include recordings, publications, photographs, articles, posters, programs, ticket stubs, and other ephemera of musicians, clubs, record companies, and jazz organizations.
Formats
Archives & Manuscripts
Audio
Music Scores
Subjects
Music
Chicago and Illinois
1945 Chicago shimpo front page Chicago Shimpo [シカゴ新報]
The Chicago Shimpo [シカゴ新報], which publishes articles in Japanese and English, is the only Japanese-American newspaper in the Chicago media market.
Formats
Books & Journals
Subjects
Japanese Studies
Chicago and Illinois
Journalism
Chicago in the 1890s Chicago in the 1890s
Sheet maps of Chicago in the 1890s that are held at the University of Chicago Library's Map Collection. The 1890s were an extraordinary decade for Chicago, perhaps the only period in the city's history when its status as a "world city" would be disputed by few.
Formats
Digital
Maps
Subjects
American History
Chicago and Illinois
Maps
Geography
Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s: the view from the Chicago School (the Social Science Research Committee maps)
"During the 1920s and 1930s numerous scholars at the University of Chicago did research on Chicago itself. These scholars, whose work is sometimes associated with the label "Chicago School," or "Chicago School of Sociology," played a major role in establishing urban studies as an important academic enterprise. All of these maps were produced under the aegis of the Social Science Research Committee or its immediate predecessor, the Local Community Research Committee.
Formats
Digital
Maps
Subjects
Sociology
American History
Chicago and Illinois
Maps
Chicago 1900-1914 Maps Chicago, 1900-1914
Sheet maps of Chicago from the years between 1900 and the onset of World War I. The maps portray a city where much that was true of Chicago in the 1890s remained the case. Chicago continued to grow, reaching a population (not counting suburbs) of nearly 2.2 million in 1910, and perhaps 2.4 million in 1914, when (by some measures) it was still the world’s sixth largest city.
Formats
Digital
Maps
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American History
Maps
The Chicagoan Vol 7 no 9 The Chicagoan
A jazz-aged magazine, modeled on the New Yorker, that aimed to portray the city as a cultural hub and counter its image as a place of violence and vice. The magazine contains a wealth of material on the literary, cultural, artistic, athletic and social milieu of Chicago between 1926-1934.
Formats
Digital
Books & Journals
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American Literature
American History
EFTS Logo Electronic Full Text Sources (EFTS)
The Library makes available a wide variety of full-text, searchable scholarly texts. A large number are mounted under PhiloLogic, the University of Chicago's Full-Text System.
Formats
Digital
Books & Journals
Subjects
Literature
Eugene Field, Correspondence Field, Eugene. Correspondence, 1884-1895
Eugene Field, writer, poet. The Eugene Field Correspondence consists of 301 letters written to Eugene Field by various admirers, friends, family members, and business associates during the years 1884 - 1895. The collection also contains newspaper and magazine clippings pertaining for the most part to Field and his poetry.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Literature
Government Maps of Chicago Government maps of Chicago in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s
During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, there was a slow growth in the planning role of municipal governments in many large American cities, including Chicago. Cartographic materials of various sorts were one of the byproducts of this growth.
Formats
Digital
Maps
Subjects
American History
Political Science
Chicago and Illinois
Maps
Geography
The Whale Helen and Ruth Regenstein Collection of Rare Books
In 1965 Helen and Ruth Regenstein established the Helen and Ruth Regenstein Collection of Rare Books in order to secure for the University of Chicago Library excellent copies of important works of literature and the humanities in first or early editions.
Formats
Subjects
English Literature
Special Collections
Hyde Park Center Hyde Park Center. Collection, 1910-1917
Established in 1908, the Hyde Park Center was an independent welfare organization providing services to children and youth in the neighborhood, such as a free kindergarten and playground, clubs and activities, and job training for youth.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
American History
Chicago and Illinois
"Sibilla Cumana con un Putto" by Guercino Italian Women Writers (IWW)
The Italian Women Writers project (IWW) is a long-term research endeavor to preserve and provide access to an extensive corpus of literature written by Italian women authors.
Formats
Digital
Subjects
Italian Literature
Ebenezer Lane Papers Lane, Ebenezer, Family. Papers, 1811-1866
The Ebenezer Lane Family Papers contain materials relating to Lane and his son, also named Ebenezer. The papers of the father (1793-1866) document his career as an attorney and judge, with materials including financial records, legal documents, letterbooks, notes on law cases, and a travel diary.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
American History
Chicago and Illinois
Elon N. Lee and Edson S. Bastin Papers Lee, Elon N. and Edson S. Bastin. Papers, 1864-1919
Elon N. Lee and Edson S. Bastin, early students. The Elon N. Lee and Edson S. Bastin Papers consist of Edson S. Bastin's correspondence (1866-1919), Elon Lee's diary (1864-1865), drafts of essays, and miscellaneous ephemera concerning the Old University of Chicago (1867-1881).
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American History
Fire!! Modern Poetry
Poetry holds a special place at the University of Chicago Library, particularly after Harriet Monroe presented us with her poetry library, papers and the editorial files of Poetry magazine in 1931. The collection continues to grow, with a particular focus on modern poetry from the Chicago area. Highlights include first editions and manuscripts of works by Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Marianne Moore and Michael Anania.
Formats
Archives & Manuscripts
Books & Journals
Subjects
Literature
Bristol Family Papers Murdock, Fanny Bristol and Sarah Bristol Family. Papers, 1836-1866
These papers contain the personal correspondence of Fanny Murdock, her mother Sarah Bristol, and other family members in the mid-19th century. They document the family life and war-related difficulties of a Mississippi family. Material in the collection dates from 1836 to 1866.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
American History
Women's Studies
O'Hara family portrait O'Hara, James E. Papers, 1866-1970
James E. O'Hara (1844-1905), Lawyer and Republican Congressman, 1883-1887. Contains letters from family and constituents, photographs, a biographical sketch (1970) written by O'Hara's granddaughter, Vera Jean O'Hara Rivers, and memorabilia.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Images
Subjects
American History
African-American Studies
Philip Klutznick Philip M. Klutznick: Community Builder, Jewish and Civic Leader, Diplomat
Digital archive drawn from the Philip M. Klutznick Papers highlighting his multi-faceted life and career as a pioneering community developer, philanthropist, United Nations representative, U.S. Secretary of Commerce and leader of the American and international Jewish community.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American History
PhiloLogic Logo Philologic Full-text Collection
Searchable full-texts available via the locally-developed Philologic full-text search, retrieval and analysis tool. The collection includes texts from Bibliopolis, Chadwyck-Healey, Alexander Street Press, the ARTFL project and others which cover a variety of humanities disciplines in a variety of languages.
Formats
Digital
Books & Journals
Subjects
Literature
History
Religion
RegReads Logo.jpg Reg Reads Collection
The Reg Reads Collection is a small collection of popular fiction and non-fiction on the 1st Floor of Regenstein.
Formats
Books & Journals
Subjects
Humanities and Social Science
Literature
Detail from Le Roman de la Rose Rose and Chess
Two medieval French manuscripts written and decorated in France ca. 1365, Le Roman de la Rose and Le Jeu des échecs moralisé, were originally bound together but later separated and have once again been reunited both in the University of Chicago Library collections and as digital facsimiles.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Medieval Studies
French Literature
Brighton Park, prepared by Department of Sociology, The University of Chicago Social Scientists Map Chicago
Geographer Chauncy Harris often argued that Chicago in the first half of the 20th century was the most studied city in the world. This claim is unprovable, but there were certainly an enormous number of scholarly studies of Chicago between the 1920s and the middle of the 20th century. Many of these included maps.
Formats
Digital
Maps
Subjects
Sociology
Political Science
American History
Chicago and Illinois
Maps
UNCAP Folders UNCAP: Uncovering New Chicago Archives Program
Electronic finding aids to contemporary poetry collections and the Chicago Jazz Archive at the University of Chicago Library and to important archival collections that chronicle Black Chicago from Chicago Defender, The DuSable Museum, The Vivan Harsh Collection of the Chicago Public Library, and the South Side Community Art Center.
Formats
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American History
African-American Studies
Madeline Wallin Papers Wallin, Madeline. Papers, 1887-1955
Madeline Wallin was one of the first female graduate students at the University of Chicago. A student of political science, she received her Ph.M. in 1893. Contains personal correspondence, graduate school papers, articles, and photographs. Includes accounts of student life at the new University of Chicago and material relating to the University of Chicago Settlement League.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Women's Studies
University of Chicago
Ida B. Wells Campaign Card Wells, Ida B. Papers, 1884-1976
Ida B. Wells, (1862-1931) teacher, journalist and anti-lynching activist. Paper contain correspondence, manuscript of Crusade for Justice: the Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, diaries, copies of articles and speeches by Wells, articles and accounts about Wells, newspapers clippings, and photographs.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
Women's Studies
Chicago and Illinois
African-American Studies
Cover of manuscript Whitman, Walt, "The Bible as Poetry." Manuscript, 1883
Original manuscript of Whitman's essay, first published in The Critic in 1883. Included with the manuscript are two portraits of Whitman, a copy of the published essay and Whitman's cover letter to the publishers Jeannette Leonard Gilder and Joseph B. Gilder. Codex MS 263.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Subjects
English Literature
World's Columbian Exposition - Java Theater World's Columbian Exposition. Records, 1891-1895
This collection includes documents and ephemera from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It includes photographs, newspaper clippings, reports, guides, and visitor memorabilia.
Formats
Digital
Archives & Manuscripts
Books & Journals
Photographs
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
Not Your Sister (zine) Zines
The zine collection focuses on those related to Chicago, by or about people who have a relationship to the city. Collecting began in 2010.
Formats
Books & Journals
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
History of Print
Literature