As one of the world's leading independent research libraries, the Newberry Library houses a collection that embraces the history and literature of the civilizations of Western Europe and the Americas from the Middle Ages through World War I. For many fields, notably Chicago history, genealogy and local history, cartography, and printing, there are also rich sources from the 20th century.
The collection numbers some 1.5 million books, five million manuscripts pages, and 500,000 historic maps.
For more than a hundred years, the Newberry has refined its broad scope, amassing collections that support research and discovery in a number of the Collection's strengths:
In addition, since the 1950s, the Newberry Library has collected modern manuscripts documenting the history and culture of the Midwest during the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries. These holdings now number 500 separate manuscript collections.
The Newberry Library is a wonderful center for primary source materials and rarities complemented by a rich collection of reference and secondary works in the humanities.
For more information regarding specific collection strengths, please call our reference desk at (312) 255-3506 or visit our online catalog.