As the grandest international spectacle in a great age of spectacles, the 1893 World’s Fair shaped the expectations, experiences, and memories of audiences through a dazzling array of visual imagery. This imagery is now on display in our new exhibit, Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair.
While the collection items in our new permanent exhibition are all worthy of attention, the case in which they’re displayed is itself a marvel to behold.
With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Newberry, along with 10 other Chicago-based organizations, will lead a series of city-wide conversations on the legacy of the 1919 Chicago Race Riots.
As the paperbacks of their day, “limp parchment” bindings offer a path to discovering patterns in early-modern book production and consumption. Book historian Melissa Moreton is in the midst of an ambitious project to survey hundreds of these types of bindings.
At the heart of the Newberry is a set of collection strengths that attract a variety of readers and serve as inspiration for our public programs and academic endeavors.
