The Chicago Calligraphy Collective was founded in 1976 to promote the study, practice, and appreciation of calligraphy in all its historical and present-day applications. This annual juried exhibit of members’ work includes handmade artists’ books and broadsides as well as three-dimensional works executed in various media and styles, from classical to contemporary.
Core Collections
Chicago and the Midwest
The collections contain extensive materials on the history of Chicago and the Midwest, including its growth, politics, and eclectic inhabitants.
American Indian and Indigenous Studies
As a collection of Americana, the Edward E. Ayer Collection is one of the best in the country and one of the strongest collections on American Indians.
Manuscripts and Archives
The Newberry has a rich collection of manuscripts ranging from medieval Books of Hours to twentieth-century scrapbooks and letters.
Genealogy and Local History
The Newberry has been actively collecting genealogy and local history materials since 1887.
From the Stacks
John Adams Letter
In the early spring of 1788, John Adams returned from Europe, where he’d spent a decade conducting diplomatic business. He arrived in Massachusetts at a seminal moment; he was stateside, acclimating to his Braintree home, when the U.S. Constitution was formally ratified.
May Day
This bilingual broadside, written by labor activist Adolph Fischer, calls on “workingmen” to attend a rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. In the demonstration’s aftermath, eight anarchists (including Fischer) were unfairly accused of slaying police officers. An openly biased judge sentenced seven of these defendants—known as the Haymarket martyrs—to death; the eighth was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1887, four were executed, after one committed suicide.