Freely available under the Newberry’s open access policy, a new digital archive of 26,000 postcards from early 20th-century Britain offers users access to a fascinating trove of visual culture. Many of the postcards are “Oilettes,” reproductions of specially commissioned oil paintings reflecting various aspects of British life and imagination.

In the 1930s, the Newberry designed its own typeface to be used on book bindings made by the library’s in-house bindery. Intended to make life easier for librarians in the dimly lit stacks, the typeface was optimized for legibility–and it continues to appear on Newberry signage and gallery labels.

In the centuries following Gutenberg’s use of the printing press, copies of his now-famous bible collected dust or suffered an even worse fate: some were dis-bound and scattered to the winds, their pages used to bind other books. Eric White, Curator of Rare Books at Princeton University Library, spoke with us about his quest to track down these fragments.

The Newberry and its 13 project partners are leading a year-long initiative to heighten the 1919 Chicago race riots in the city’s collective memory, engaging Chicagoans in public conversations about the legacy of the most violent week in Chicago history.