The Pullman Company maids have long been overshadowed by the more well-known Pullman porters. Drawing on extensive research in the Pullman Company Records at the Newberry, Handmaidens for Travelers highlights the maids’ experiences navigating challenges and opportunities aboard the celebrated Pullman train car.

We’re thrilled to announce the winner of the inaugural Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award: Dawn Turner, author of Three Girls from Bronzeville, a bracing memoir that illustrates how race, class, and geography intersect to shape both communities and individual lives in Chicago. Turner will accept the award at a public event at the Newberry on July 30.

Make room on your bookshelves and mark your calendars for the return of the Newberry Book Fair. Browse thousands of used books in dozens of categories, including fiction, philosophy, history, art, cooking, children’s literature, and much, much more.

In Crossings, maps, guidebooks, travelogues, postcards, and more from the Newberry collection recreate travelers’ experiences along four historic routes: the northern and southern borders of the US, across the continent’s interior, and up and down the Mississippi River.