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University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

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University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

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

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09/11/2026

From the collections: Almanach Galant des Costumes Français with a treasure binding

Pictured is a French Almanac for the year 1781 with aMother-of-pearl and silver-gilt hinged case binding. Each cover has an intricate incised design overlaid in silver and Zwischgold (silver-gilding) with floral designs and nuptial symbols. It is crafted in the tradition of the medieval “treasure binding”—luxurious bindings covered in tooled gold or silver and often studded with jewels and gemstones, or decorated with detailed narrative scenes. Treasure bindings get their name not only for the value of the materials used to make them, but also because they, along with saints’ relics, vestments and plate, once formed part of a church’s treasury. Treasure bindings undoubtedly lend prestige to the texts that they envelop, as well as to the person or institution that possesses them.

This work is featured in our web exhibition, “A Book by Its Cover: Decorative Book Bindings from the Medieval Codex to Contemporary Artists' Books”. You can view this item and many more in the exhibit here: www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/a-book-by-its-cover/

Pictured Item:
Almanach Galant des Costumes Français
Paris: Chez le Sr. Boulanger, 1780
Call Number: ARREARAGE 2020-127
Catalog link: catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/12405872?sid=76742151 #

09/09/2026

The Kim-Park Program for the Study of the Book is excited to share our fall programming schedule! We have a host of illuminating presenters from Chicago and beyond sharing about a range of topics related to book history and the materiality of information throughout the quarter.

Registration for Fall events will become available on a rolling basis beginning in mid-September. Join our mailing list to stay up-to-date on all event information: forms.gle/Zq4VWoLKcpDTYRnq5

Learn more about our fall programming here: www.lib.uchicago.edu/research/kim-park-program-for-the-study-of-the-book/events/

We hope you will join us!

09/07/2026

From the collections in honor of Labor Day:

Pictured are three items in our collection related to Haymarket Affair, a bombing at a labor demonstration on May 4th, 1886 in Haymarket Square, Chicago. The labor demonstration was held in solidarity with workers striking for an eight hour work-day. The gathering was peaceful until an unidentified person threw a dynamite bomb as police moved to disperse the meeting and police open-fired in response. The explosion and ensuing gunfire killed 4 civilians and 7 police officers and wounded dozens of others.

The incident is considered important in both the choice of May 1st as International Workers Day and the wider popularization of Labor Day in the United States that eventually led to its designation as a federal holiday. Though the originator of the first “Labor Day” is somewhat contested, it was held in New York in September 1882, and would become a federal holiday in 1894. Oregon was the first state to recognize Labor Day as a holiday in 1887, the year after the Haymarket Affair.

The incident is considered important in both the choice of May 1st as International Workers Day and the wider popularization of Labor Day in the United States that eventually led to its designation as a federal holiday. Though the originator of the first “Labor Day” is somewhat contested, it was held in New York in September 1882, and would become a federal holiday in 1894. Oregon was the first state to recognize Labor Day as a holiday in 1887, the year after the Haymarket Affair.

Pictured:

Item 1 (image 1):
The Haymarket Speeches, as Delivered on the Evening of the Throwing of the Bomb, at Haymarket Square, Chicago, May 4, 1886
August Vincent Theodore Spies, and Albert Richard Parsons.
Chicago: Chicago Labor Press Association, 1886.
Catalog link: catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/2474993?sid=76725429 #

Item 2 (images 2-3):
Gov. John P. Altgeld's Pardon of the Anarchists and His Masterly Review of the Haymarket Riot.
John Peter Atlgeld, and Lucy E. Parsons.
Chicago: Lucy E. Parsons, Publisher, 1915.
Catalog link: catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/3693478?sid=76725429

Item 3 (images 4-5):
Haymarket 1886: 2011
Samuel Barnett, Paul Durica, and Euan Hague.
Chicago: AREA Chicago, 2011.
This special issue of AREA Chicago was released on April 30, 2011, in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the Haymarket tragedy. 500 copies were printed
Catalog link: catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/8776859?sid=76725429 #

09/06/2026

Happy Birthday to Jane Addams, who was born on this day in 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois.

Addams was an activist, reformer and pacifist. She is perhaps most well-known for co-founding Hull-House with Ellen Gates Starr on Chicago's west side in 1889, an early and hugely influential part of the settlement movement in the United States. She was also a co-founder of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915 and involved in the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. She became a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1931, along with Nicholas Murray Butler, becoming the first American woman to receive the honor.

Pictured is a photo of Jane Addams from the collection by Eva Watson-Schütze from ca. 1908. The Special Collections Research Center also holds the Jane Addams Collection, which contains incoming and outgoing correspondence from 1894 to 1919, primarily documenting Addams work at Hull House.

Jane Addams Collection: www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.ADDAMSJ&q=

You can visit Hull-House's original residential building and learn more about her life, work, and the Hull-House Settlement today by visiting The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, now on University of Illinois Chicago’s campus. Admission to the museum is free. Learn more: hullhouse.uic.edu/

Pictured Item:
Photograph of Jane Addams by Eva Watson-Schütze ca. 1908
Schütze, Eva Watson. Photographs, Box 2, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

09/02/2026

Curious what new archives, manuscripts, rare books, and digitized items are available at the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center?

You can see a list of everything that became available this August here: www.lib.uchicago.edu/about/news/new-at-scrc-august-2026/

Pictured:
Täʾammərä Maryam [Miracles of Mary]
Ethiopia, between 1700 and 1730.
University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center
Codes Ms. 1800
Call Number: Ms1800
Catalog Link: catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/14527006

08/26/2026

In honor of national dog day, we wanted to share this photo from the collection by Eva Watson-Schütze of Henry Castle Mead and his furry friend ca. 1908.

This work is featured in our web exhibition, “I Step Out of Myself: Portrait Photography from Special Collections”. You can view this item and many more in the exhibit here: www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/i-step-out-of-myself/

Pictured Item:
Photograph of Henry Castle Mead by Eva Watson-Schütze ca. 1908
Schütze, Eva Watson. Photographs, Box 2, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

08/24/2026

From the collections: La Guerre et la Rue de la Paix, La Baïonnette, 1916

During World War I in France, fashion, an important industry, became a strong symbolic tool to assert the power and predominance of Gallic culture and to differentiate the French from their wartime enemies. Fashion illustrators, largely unemployed by the fashion business for the duration of the conflict, turned their talents to supporting the war effort in a variety of venues. The pictured image by Gerda Wegener from the sixth issue of La Baïonnette, a French satirical magazine, is an example of this.

This issue La Baïonnette, "Elégances berlinoises," was the first to focus exclusively on fashion, and throughout the years a number of issues were devoted to this topic. But women in every issue were suffused with the modishness of the mannequin, not surprisingly since many illustrators had previously worked for fashion magazines. The Danish illustrator Gerda Wegener, who had begun working for Vogue in 1912, was a featured contributor. Her cover on national dress offered an opportunity to show off her highly detailed, delicately colored, curvilinear style contrasting French fashion through the ages with wartime austerity.

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 here: www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/en-guerre-french-illustrators-and-world-war-i/

Pictured Item:
Modes de Guerre, La Baïonnette 20 avril 1916
Illustrated by Gerda Wegener
Rare Book Collection
Call Number: D526.3.B2 c.1

08/19/2026

From the collections: Antiphonary, Venice ca. 1500-1550

This large manuscript is a gradual—a liturgical book containing music for the Mass. Its size reflects its use in Catholic services, where the chorus sang from a single book with large script that enabled them to read it from afar. The music on this page is for the foot washing ceremony on Holy Thursday, during which the chorus sang psalms.

This work is featured in our web exhibition, “Tensions in Renaissance Cities”. You can view this item and many more in the exhibit here: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/tensions-renaissance-cities/

Pictured Item:
Antiphonary
Venice, ca. 1500-1550
Codex Manuscripts Collection, Gift of William O. Petersen
Call Number: Ms 1383

Note: Image has been cropped for social media

08/17/2026

Join the Black Metropolis Research Consortium on August 19 at 2:00 PM for the 2026 Archie Motley Archival Internship Program Final Presentations!

Throughout the summer BMRC's Archie Motley Archival Interns, Brian and Carlisle, have been working on archival projects at BMRC member institutions. Each intern will share a brief presentation reflecting on their summer experiences in the archives and contributions to preserving Black history and culture.

Carlisle White has spent their summer with us in the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center working on The Oscar Brown Jr. Papers. We hope you will join the BMRC to hear about their archival project!

Register to join on Zoom: tinyurl.com/36xzs76f

08/14/2026

Did you know that the Special Collections Research Center has a large collection of playbills & theatrical programs?

The pictured items may have some familiar faces & places in them, and are just a small portion of our holdings in the Playbill and Program Collection 1843-1979, which contains more than 100 archival boxes of posters, programs, souvenir books, Playbill and Showbill magazines, and even some musical performance programs for amateur recitals, operas, and ballets.

A special thank you to SCRC processing assistant Isabel, who has been hard at work updating the records and organization of this huge collection, sorting them by type of item, city, theater, and date to make the collection more easily navigable for anyone looking for materials in the collection! Swipe to the last photo for a small snapshot into the massive amounts of materials she worked through for the benefit of future SCRC visitors.

Collection finding aid: www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.PLAYBILLSPROGRAMS&q=

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