The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Robert Rosenthal Papers 1962-1989
© 1999 University of Chicago Library
| Title: | Rosenthal, Robert. Papers |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1962-1989(inclusive) |
| Size: | .75 linear feet (2 boxes) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | The papers of Robert Rosenthal, Curator of Special Collections in the University of Chicago Library, include .75 linear feet of published and unpublished lectures, and other writings gathered from Rosenthal's files and other sources. Subjects range widely and touch upon many aspects of his career in Special Collections, as well as other interests in libraries and book collecting. The papers are typescript drafts unless indicated otherwise. |
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection the preferred citation is:
Rosenthal, Robert. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Robert Rosenthal was born February 9, 1926, in Patchogue, New York. He received his bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 1949 and an A.M. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago in March 1955. He joined the staff of the University of Chicago Library in 1949, and in 1950 was appointed Curator for Manuscripts, Archives, and Lincolniana. Three years later, he was named the first Curator of the newly created Special Collections Research Center, and held that position for 36 years.
Rosenthal was responsible for the early growth of the Department in its first home in the West Tower of Harper Library and continued to direct its development after the move to Regenstein Library in 1970. Beginning in 1958, he offered classes and seminars in the Graduate Library School on the curatorial aspects of retrospective historical collections, with special emphasis on rare printed books, manuscripts, and archives. His research and writing focused on the antiquarian book market, the definition of rarity, the social movement of books and book collections, and the history of book collecting and library development in the city of Chicago.
Among his many professional activities, he was a trustee of the Modern Poetry Association of Chicago and a visiting fellow to the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University. He served on the Committee on Libraries and the Publications Advisory Committee of the Art Institute of Chicago, and on the Advisory Committee of the Mulholland Library of Los Angeles. He was also a member of the Grolier Club, the Caxton Club, and a member and president of the Quadrangle Club. Robert Rosenthal died on December 27, 1989, while visiting friends and book dealers in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The papers of Robert Rosenthal, Curator of Special Collections in the University of Chicago Library, include .75 linear feet of published and unpublished lectures, and other writings gathered from Rosenthal's files and other sources. Subjects range widely and touch upon many aspects of his career in Special Collections, as well as other interests in libraries and book collecting. The papers are typescript drafts unless indicated otherwise.
| Box 1 Folder 1 | Curriculum vitae, 1986 |
| Box 1 Folder 2 | Introduction to the "Guide to the Julius Rosenwald Papers, " ca. 1962 |
| Box 1 Folder 3 | Lecture on rare books, May 1964 |
| Box 1 Folder 4 | Lecture on the formulation of manuscript guides, Modern Language Association convention, December 27, 1965 |
| Box 1 Folder 5 | "The Chicago Area Historical Records Committee, " November 29, 1967 |
| Box 1 Folder 6 | Stochastics lecture, May 1968 |
| Box 1 Folder 7 | "An Exhibition for the Dedication of the Joseph Regenstein Library, " December 1970 |
| Box 1 Folder 8 | Lecture on Special Collections, Special Libraries Association, March 23, 1971 |
| Box 1 Folder 9 | "The Minotaur among Manuscripts, " Society of American Archivists, October 14, 1971 |
| Box 1 Folder 10 | "History of Science Collections in Chicago, " June 1972 |
| Box 1 Folder 11 | "Restrictions and the Donor, " October 31, 1972 |
| Box 1 Folder 12 | "Acquisition of Non-Current Special Materials; Manuscripts, Rare Books, Maps, and Microforms, " in Acquisition of Foreign Materials for U.S. Libraries, ed. Theodore Samore (Metuchen, New Jersey, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1973), pp. 275-282, photocopy |
| Box 1 Folder 13 | "Remarks on Paraprofessionalism, " Midwest Archives Conference, March 23, 1974 |
| Box 1 Folder 14 | "The User and the Used, " Drexel Library Quarterly 11 (January 1975):97-105, typescript and photocopy of printed text |
| Box 1 Folder 15 | "The Scholar's Right to Know vs. the Individual's Right to Privacy, Some Considerations from the View of the Private Depository, " Rockefeller Archives Center, December 5, 1975 |
| Box 1 Folder 16 | "How the Durrett Collection Left Louisville and Came to Chicago, " Filson Club, Louisville, Kentucky, November 1, 1976 |
| Box 1 Folder 17 | "The Antiquarian Book Market, " in Book Collecting; A Modern Guide, ed. Jean Peters (New York, R. R. Bowker Company, 1977), pp. 58-73, photocopy |
| Box 1 Folder 18 | "Book Buying and the Antiquarian Book Trade, " rough draft of "The Antiquarian Book Market, " 1977 |
| Box 1 Folder 19 | Being a History and Exhibition of the Books and Manuscripts Purchased in Berlin in 1891 for the University of Chicago by William Rainey Harper with the Support of Nine Citizens of Chicago (Chicago, University of Chicago Library, 1979), pp. 3-23 |
| Box 1 Folder 20 | "Medicine and Books at the University of Chicago, Some Notable Collections, " Society of Medical History of Chicago, February 27, 1980 |
| Box 1 Folder 21 | "As It Came to Be, The Harriet Monroe Modern Poetry Collection, " May 7, 1980 |
| Box 1 Folder 22 | "Making Our Posterity, " University of Texas Law School, January 7, 1981 |
| Box 1 Folder 23 | "Berlin and Bacon, " Chicago Literary Club, March 8, 1982 |
| Box 1 Folder 24 | "Books and the City, The Printed Past Comes to Chicago (to 1911), " proposed book outline, June 21, 1982 |
| Box 1 Folder 25 | "Three Early Book Collectors of Chicago, " Library Quarterly 53(1983):371-383, typescript and offprint |
| Box 1 Folder 26 | "The History of Chemistry Collections of the John Crerar Library of the University of Chicago, " American Chemical Society Conference, St. Louis, April 10, 1984 |
| Box 1 Folder 27 | "Los Angeles & Chicago, Two Cities, Two Bibliophiles, " in A Bibliophile's Los Angeles, Essays for the International Association of Bibliophiles on the Occasion of Its XIVth Congress (Los Angeles, 1985), pp. 3-27, photocopy |
| Box 1 Folder 28 | "Los Angeles & Chicago, Two Cities, Two Bibliophiles, ", research proposal, September 1984; typescript, March 24, 1985 |
| Box 1 Folder 29 | "Los Angeles & Chicago, Two Cities, Two Bibliophiles, ", typescript, n.d. |
| Box 1 Folder 30 | Posterity's Marketplace, A View of the Rare Book Trade (Providence, Rhode Island, The Associates of the John Carter Brown Library, May 1985), typescript and photocopy of printed text |
| Box 1 Folder 31 | "My Book Collection, " August 13, 1985 |
| Box 1 Folder 32 | "The Origins of the Chicago Book World, " summary of presentation at International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions meeting, Chicago, August 20, 1985 |
| Box 1 Folder 33 | "The Crerar Case, " ca. 1985 |
| Box 1 Folder 34 | "Crerar Caper Lecture" Department of Library and Information Studies and the Graduate School, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, November 6, 1985, including list of slides, and "Chronology of the Relationship Between Joseph Putna and John Howell Books," compiled July 8, 1983 |
| Box 1 Folder 35 | "Crerar Caper Lecture", list of slides for New York lecture, December 1985 |
| Box 1 Folder 36 | "Crerar Caper Lecture", list of slides for San Francisco lecture, June 1986 |
| Box 1 Folder 37 | "Treasures of a Kind, The Shaping of the University Library, " June 1986 |
| Box 2 Folder 1 | "The Problems of Making Books Unrare, " Internationales Seminar in Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbettel, Germany, September 30-October 3, 1986 |
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Lecture on Special Collections exhibition entitled "Treasures of a Kind, " November 14, 1986 |
| Box 2 Folder 3 | "Two Sides of the Same Street, " with Anthony Rota, Minneapolis, October 21, 1988 |
| Box 2 Folder 4 | "Book Auctions, " March 1, 1989 |
| Box 2 Folder 5 | Out-of-Print and Antiquarian Book Market Seminar, University of Denver, August 6-11, 1989, program |
| Box 2 Folder 6 | Introductions, prefaces, and forewords to Special Collections exhibit catalogs, 1972-1989 |
| Box 2 Folder 7 | List of proposed papers, n.d. |
| Box 2 Folder 8 | "Rarity In the Community of Books, " n.d. |
| Box 2 Folder 9 | Rarity Study; Proposal, n.d. |
| Box 2 Folder 10 | "Some Observations on the Economics of the Antiquarian Book Trade, " n.d. |
| Box 2 Folder 11 | Lecture, given in Old Divinity Reading Room, Swift Hall, University of Chicago, n.d. |
| Box 2 Folder 12 | Untitled fragment on book collecting, n.d. |