Collections & Exhibits

Limit to  
web exhibits  
Exhibit Thumbnail Title Locations Subjects
Exhibits
B. Heller & Co. Collection The B. Heller & Co. Collection
Founded by Benjamin Heller, whose family practiced sausage-making for generations, Chicago-based B. Heller & Co. began in 1893. Eager to take advantage of new developments in food science and chemistry as well as his skills as a salesman, Benjamin Heller was the quintessential American entrepreneur.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
March 1 — June 30, 2009
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Advertising
Chicago and Illinois
Chicago Celebrates Darwin Chicago Celebrates Darwin
The John Crerar Library presents Chicago Celebrates Darwin, an exhibit which revisits the Darwin Centennial Celebration hosted by the University in 1959. We look back at the original letters, pictures, and documents from that conference to get a sense of the atmosphere and the importance of the events, including the effect of Darwin’s theories on the research and popular opinion of the day.
Locations
Crerar Library, 1st Floor: Other Spaces
Oct. 19 — March 26, 2010
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
University of Chicago
Ecology & Evolution
Organismal Biology
Biological Sciences
Chicago and Illinois
trains Chicago Central: A History of Rails and Trains in the City
The exhibit examines some elements of this history, including the city's stations, trains and rail workers and innovations in train technology.
Locations
Crerar Library, 1st Floor: Other Spaces
April 16 — Oct. 12, 2012
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
Technology
Exhibition Poster Dog Fight: The Animal Experimentation Debate in Twentieth-Century Chicago
What should be done with unclaimed pound dogs? This question inspired fierce debates in Chicago, where an unusual city ordinance in 1931 granted scientists at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and other local medical schools access to stray dogs for experimental purposes. This exhibition explores both sides of that controversy and shows how it continues to shape the ways we discuss biomedical ethics and scientific progress.
May 8 — Sept. 1, 2023
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
University of Chicago
Chicago and Illinois
History of Science
History
Lewis.jpg Expanding Sources: Recent Additions to Special Collections
As academic fields expand and diversify, Special Collections is building collections to support these new directions. Researchers are drawing on original materials in many areas including race and gender, cinema and media, graphic design, arts practice, and cross-cultural global studies. This exhibition displays recent acquisitions with research potential for a range of disciplines. The materials represent many formats, including children’s books, family letters, journals, fine book design, posters, research notes, clothing, board games, and printed ephemera.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
Jan. 6 — April 24, 2020
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
University of Chicago Library
Chicago and Illinois
University of Chicago
Mattys hot dog stand From Sausage to Hot Dog: the Evolution of an Icon
The hot dog is an American creation, and Chicago even has its own style. But where did this popular food come from and how did it develop? This exhibit looks to the hot dog's origins in sausage-making practices brought by European immigrants to the Midwest. We consider techniques used in neighborhood butcher shops and the rise of industrial meat production. Homemade recipes and artisanal makers past and present are also examined.
Locations
Crerar Library, 1st Floor: Other Spaces
Oct. 29 — Dec. 31, 2013
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
History of Science
History
American History
Chicago and Illinois
Julius Rosenwald Exhibit Program Julius Rosenwald 1862-1932: An exhibition honoring the One Hundredth Anniversary of his birth
This exhibition commemorates the centennial of the birth of Julius Rosenwald, president and chairman of the board of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and a major philanthropist in support of progressive and social welfare reforms.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
Jan. 1 — Jan. 31, 1962
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
Jewish Studies
Social Services
Mapping the Young Metropolis Mapping the Young Metropolis
Between 1915 and 1940, a small faculty in the University of Chicago Department of Sociology, working with dozens of talented graduate students, intensively studied the city of Chicago . They aspired to use the approaches of social science in developing a new field of research, and they took the city as their laboratory.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
June 22 — Sept. 11, 2015
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Sociology
Chicago and Illinois
Wilson & Co. pork sausage advertisement featuring Edward Foss Wilson, circa 1920-1927 Meatpacking in the Midwest: The Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection
From the Civil War through the 1930s, Chicago was the center of the meatpacking industry in the United States. The Thomas E. Wilson Family Collection provides a snapshot of one family-owned meatpacking business in Chicago during the first half of the twentieth century. The collection captures the meatpacking industry in the Midwest through the lens of one family's experience at the top.
View web exhibit >> Subjects
Special Collections
Chicago and Illinois
Business
Lincoln Our Lincoln: Bicentennial Icons from the Barton Collection of Lincolniana
Marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, this exhibition presents a selection of documents and artifacts from the University of Chicago Library's William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
Jan. 1 — Feb. 28, 2009
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American History
Moses 9.jpeg Paul B. Moses: Trailblazing Art Historian
The extraordinary life of the art historian Paul B. Moses (1929–1966) was one defined by barriers overcome. Through his writings, photographs, video clips, personal correspondence, ephemera, and original art, the exhibition tells the story of his journey from Ardmore, Pennsylvania and Haverford College, where he was the first African-American student ever admitted, to the University of Chicago, where he distinguished himself through innovative teaching and scholarship until his untimely death.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
Sept. 12 — Dec. 16, 2022
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
University of Chicago
History
Art
Printing for the Modern Age Exhibit Printing for the Modern Age: Commerce, Craft, and Culture in the RR Donnelley Archive
The R. R. Donnelley Archive preserves a fascinating array of historical materials dating from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century, offering research potential in modern social and cultural history, the history of printing and the graphic arts, the history of advertising and mass consumption, economic and labor history, Chicago urban and community history, and modern cultural studies, among many other fields.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
Sept. 1 — Feb. 28, 2007
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
History of Print
Chicago and Illinois
American History
Green Roof on Searle The Science of Sustainability
This exhibit takes a close look at some aspects of sustainable building design and how they can produce greener buildings.
Locations
Crerar Library, 1st Floor: Other Spaces
April 5 — Oct. 1, 2010
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Environmental Science
Urban Studies
Organismal Biology
Chicago and Illinois
University of Chicago
Something's Brewing: The Art, Science and Technology of Beer Brewing Something's Brewing: The Art, Science and Technology of Beer Brewing
The Crerar Library exhibit, Something's Brewing: The Art, Science and Technology of Brewing, explores the development of brewing, from the ancient Sumerians' rice-based beverages to the rise and fall of the Chicago brewing industry.
Locations
Crerar Library, 1st Floor: Other Spaces
Jan. 8 — March 31, 2007
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
Materials Science
History of Science
Technology
Sun Ra Sounds from Tomorrow's World: Sun Ra and the Chicago Years, 1946-1961
This exhibit explores Sun Ra’s Chicago years through images and sound recordings of his poetry and music, vinyl records and album artwork, promotional materials and early controversial broadsheets. While living in Chicago, Herman Poole “Sonny” Blount became Sun Ra—the leader of the Arkestra and a composer and arranger of some of the most avant-garde jazz of the time.
Locations
Regenstein 3rd Floor Reading Room
Dec. 1 — Aug. 20, 2010
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Music
Chicago and Illinois
Souvenirs thumbnail Souvenirs! Get Your Souvenirs!
Souvenirs can come in all shapes and sizes; they can be simple or complex, tasteful or tacky. This exhibition presents various souvenirs created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the 1933 Century of Progress International Exposition, and the City of Chicago. It draws on collections throughout the Special Collections Research Center, catalyzed by the Ian Mueller Collection of Chicago Memorabilia.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
July 22 — Oct. 4, 2013
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Special Collections
American History
Chicago and Illinois
Cracker Jack advertisement Sweet Home Chicago: Chocolate and Confectionery Production and Technology in the Windy City
Drawing from items in the substantial cookery collection at the John Crerar Library, this exhibit explores the history of chocolate and confectioners in the city and the science and technology of the candy making process.
Locations
Crerar Library, 1st Floor: Other Spaces
Oct. 10 — June 11, 2011
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Advertising
Chicago and Illinois
Technology
Main exhibit poster Under Your Feet, Chicago's Water, Freight, Subway and Storm Tunnels
Under Your Feet explores the system—from the first water tunnels completed in 1867, to the now defunct freight tunnels of the early 1900's, to the subway system we use today, to the Deep Tunnel project and storm tunnels of the future.
Locations
Crerar Library, 1st Floor: Other Spaces
Feb. 14 — March 31, 2006
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Technology
Art
Chicago and Illinois
Ida B. Wells A Voice for Justice: The Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells
This web exhibit showcases the achievements of civil rights activist Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) and documents her lifelong campaign for the rights and lives of African Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth-century United States of America.
Locations
The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
View web exhibit >>
Subjects
Chicago and Illinois
American History
African-American Studies