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⏳ Portal to millennia of human history. 📚 Free + open to the public since 1887. ➡️ Follow us for exhibitions, programs, and classes!
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Zayd Ayers Dohrn is an award-winning playwright, documentary podcaster, and the son of Weather Underground radicals. In our free program on November 19, Dohrn will discuss the enduring intersections of faith, identity, political activism, and family memory with religious scholar Sarah Hammerschlag. The event is part of our Beyond Belief public history project, which explores religion and social change in the 1960s, forces that continue to shape the political questions of today. Register for the program via the Linktree in our profile or go our website and click on Calendar. #beyondbelief
12 Nov 2026
"I esteem you so highly, sir, that I think there never will be another writer so great as you," wrote the Filipino poet and short story artist JosĂ© GarcĂa Villa to American author Sherwood Anderson on February 7, 1930 (MS Anderson Box 30 Folder 1575). Villa was already the leading short story writer in the Philippines, but sent four early stories to Anderson in hopes of receiving feedback.
We don't know if Anderson replied, but here we learn how Villa was inspired to pursue short stories after reading Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio." Known as the "Comma Poet" or by his pen name, "Doveglion," Villa later had a successful career in the United States as a poet, short story writer, and literary critic in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1973, the Philippines honored Villa with the National Artist Award for Literature. But a key moment may have been in 1930, when Villa wrote Anderson, "the greatest of them all," and shared "the only copies I possess" of his early short stories for feedback.
#Anderson150
11 Nov 2026
A king ought to be merciful and debonair. One of the first books printed in English, “The Game and Playe of the Chesse,” isn’t actually about the game of chess. The Newberry possesses one of only fourteen known copies of the 1483 work, a translation of a political treatise that envisions social order as a game. Through text and image, readers meet the king, queen, bishops, knights, and rooks depicted as the king’s emissaries. The choice of text and illustrations emphasizes the emerging role of the printer in literary, social, and political networks. This year marks the 550th anniversary of William Caxton establishing his printing press in Westminster, London.
Want to try out reading Middle English? The text accompanying the above image reads in part:
The kynge must be thus maad. For he must sytte in a chayer clothyd in purpure, crowned on his heed, in his right hond a ceptre, and in the lift honde an apple of golde, for he is the most grettest and hyest in dygnyté above al other and most worthy. And that is signyfyed by the corone, for the glorie of the peple is the 5 dygnyté of the kyng. And above al other the kyng ought to be replenysshed with vertues and of grace. And this signyfieth the purpure, for in like wyse as the robes of purpure maketh fayr and enbelissheth the body, the same wyse vertues makyth the sowle. He ought alwey thynk on the governement of the royame and who hath the admynystracion of justyce, and this shold be by hymself pryncipally. This 10 signefyeth the appel of golde that he holdeth in his lift honde. And for as moche as it aperteyneth unto hym to punysshe the rebelles, hath he the septre in his right hond. And for as moche as mysericorde and trouth conserve and kepe the kyng in his trone, therfore ought a kyng to be merciful and debonayr.
Credit to a 2009 edition of “The Game and Playe of the Chesse,” edited by Jenny Adams, published by Medieval Institute Publications of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
#williamcaxton #incunables #incunabula
10 Nov 2026
We are thrilled to announce that our upcoming exhibition, "Impressive Textiles: Printing on Fabric," opening December 10, has a new catalog edited by curator and George Amos Poole III Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Suzanne Karr Schmidt!
"Impressive Textiles: Premodern Printing on Fabric" features 224 color reproductions of exhibit items, from satin reprintings of DĂĽrer copperplates to twenty-first-century apparel. Physical copies will soon be available for purchase in the Newberry's bookshop. The book is also available for free through Open Access at the link in our bio!
06 Nov 2026
Our upcoming exhibition, "Impressive Textiles: Printing on Fabric," opens to the public on December 10!
This show takes a look at the little-known history of printing on fabric from the fifteenth century to the present. These stunning artworks, books, broadsides, and maps were initially prized as unique luxury editions of works normally printed on paper. The exhibition also investigates the intentional choices of the printers and commissioners, some of whom were female, and shows how the origins of these lavish materials reflected the global world of the early modern textile economy. Click the link in our bio to learn more.
03 Nov 2026
Are there ghosts at the Newberry Library? Well, that’s up for debate, but we do have this eerie doll character gifted by dancer, choreographer, and Chicago legend Joel Hall, founder of Joel Hall Dancers and Center.
In 1980, Ruth Page (another Chicago dancer – choreographer – legend) choreographed a dance piece called “Chain of Fools” specifically for Joel Hall (Dance MS Page 386). Hall, pictured above (Dance MS Page Box 130 Folder 1816), performed with this ghostly spectre to the song, “Chain of Fools,” made famous by Aretha Franklin but, in this case, performed by flautist Herbie Mann. The doll was created by costumer Andre Delfau.
The program notes from its premiere in April 1981 say, “A young man is so entranced with his dream girl that when three dancers try to entice him, he becomes only mildly involved. In the end, he returns happily to his dream girl, who completely engulfs him,” (Dance MS Page Box 17 Folder 386).
Watch out for ghosts this Halloween, or else you might find yourself similarly enchanted!
31 Oct 2026
For American Archives Month, we asked staff at Chicago’s Newberry Library to introduce us to their favorite finds in the archive.
The Newberry (@newberrylibrary) holds one of the world’s largest collection of books and manuscripts on Indigenous history.
Among the holdings is Rodolphe Petter’s English-Cheyenne dictionary, published in 1915—one of fewer than 30 known copies—and an essential resource for Indigenous language revitalization efforts.
The Clara Falls Postcard Collection documents everyday moments at the Sac and Fox Indian School in Oklahoma, part of a 19th-century boarding school program that intended to sever students’ connections to their Native languages and cultures. By caring for these photos , the Newberry ensures this chapter of history is not erased or forgotten.
Mellon supports the Newberry’s partnerships with Native nations to expand access to the collections and advance research guided by culturally aligned practices.
Find out what makes these collections worth a closer look.
🎥 (in order of appearance)
Slides 1 & 3: Rodolphe Petter’s English-Cheyenne Dictionary. Kettle Falls, WA: Valdo Petter, 1915.
Slide 2: Clara Falls Postcard Collection, ca. 1900-1933.
#AmericanArchivesMonth #AskAnArchivist
29 Oct 2026
In need of some spooky reading to get into the "Halloday" spirit?
Pick up "Haunted Air," a collection of anonymous American Halloween photographs from 1875-1955, for $40 to get some inspiration for a truly haunting costume.
"Thirteen Terrifying Tales" ($25) is a compendium of skin-crawling tales told by the greats of weird fiction and will have you looking over your shoulder when taking a Kit-Kat out of your neighbor's candy bucket.
Ambrose Bierce's "The Ways of Ghosts: And Other Dark Tales," a British Library collection, is available for $17. His nineteenth-century contemporaries saw Bierce as Edgar Allen Poe's successor for his ability to inspire both delight and fright!
Stop by the shop or visit the online store to browse our full Halloween inventory at the link in our bio!
29 Oct 2026
"Black Designers in Chicago" is now available in the Newberry Bookshop for $37.50! Pick it up in person or online at the link in our bio.
28 Oct 2026
Designer and letterpress printer, Ben Blount, whose piece "Antiracism" (Wing oversize ZPP 2083 .P6288) is featured in our current exhibition, "Collecting Stories: New Acquisitions at the Newberry," stopped by the library last week to see his work on display. Ben created "Antiracism" in response to student protests over incidents of campus racism at Colorado College, where he was teaching in 2019.
"Collecting Stories" pairs new acquisitions with older items from our collection to create a dialogue between objects across time and space. "Antiracism" sits beside the "Specimens of modern printing types" (Case Wing Z 40583 .109). This catalog, shown above, was created by the Boston Type and Stereotype Company in 1841. The Boston Stereotype Company is a notable example of a foundry that was collectively owned by both white and black workers. This catalog of type samples includes text from the Declaration of Independence to highlight the beauty and clarity of its product.
Visit "Collecting Stories," open until December 30, to see how the exhibition opens up dialogues between collection items that explore themes like LGBTQ relationships, Indigenous sovereignty, diversity in experimental performance, and more.
28 Oct 2026
Sherwood Anderson’s modernist masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio or Vaynsburg, Ohayo (Hebrew) or Pikkukaupunki (Finnish) has been translated many times over since its 1919 publication. The Newberry, home to Anderson’s papers, has many of them thanks to Mrs. Sherwood Anderson (Eleanor Gladys Copenhaver), who gave them to the library. The 1947 donation was the result of a four-year courtship of Anderson’s widow by then-Newberry librarian Stanley Pargellis. This year is the 150th anniversary of Anderson’s birth. #anderson150
27 Oct 2026
Zayd Ayers Dohrn is an award-winning playwright, documentary podcaster, and the son of Weather Underground radicals. In our free program on November 19, Dohrn will discuss the enduring intersections of faith, identity, political activism, and family memory with religious scholar Sarah Hammerschlag. The event is part of our Beyond Belief public history project, which explores religion and social change in the 1960s, forces that continue to shape the political questions of today. Register for the program via the Linktree in our bio. #beyondbelief
23 Oct 2026
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