Registration for summer seminars is now open. Delve into Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, or the lovely world of Japanese bookbinding. Reacquaint yourself with Chicago’s public art, from commemorative statues to sprawling murals. Or join a writers’ group and pen that imaginative children’s book you’ve been thinking about.
Core Collections
American History and Culture
The Newberry has deep collections reflecting the breadth of American history and culture through World War One.
History of the Book
The Newberry’s collection on the history of printing and the book arts is one of the world’s leading collections in its field.
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.
Maps, Travel, and Exploration
The Newberry houses an extraordinary collection of over 500,000 maps and sources relating to the history and culture of travel.
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.