Columbia College Chicago Archives & Special Collections

Columbia College Chicago has been a diverse part of Chicago culture and community since 1890. The College Archives & Special Collections (CASPC) serves as the designated repository for records of the College and collections of select rare books, publications, and manuscripts which support College curricula in a student-centered environment, document the narrative legacy of the College, and weave Columbia College Chicago into the culture of the city and the world.

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This week's Architecture April is 1014-16 South Michigan Avenue, the home of the Columbia College Music Department.

Built in 1912 by Christian A. Eckstorm and rehabilitated for the Sherwood School of Music in 1941. The building was acquired by Columbia College Chicago in 1997. It's faced with red brick and trimmed in white terra cotta, on top of a four story steel frame structure. Its classical revival style is influenced by buildings built along Parisian boulevards during the 1800s, in the style of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

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On Monday we got out our Early Photography Collection out to share with a Photo Foundations I class who came to visit, focusing on portraiture.

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April is National Card and Letter Writing Month.  Here at the National Archives at Riverside, we have many cards and letters within our holdings from different record groups and series.

Today, we’d like to share a 1969 handwritten letter from Maude A. Lobdell to The Smothers Brothers – Tom and Dick Smothers, comedians and musicians popular in the 1960s. The letter is located within civil case file 69-1898, Tom Smothers, et al. v. Columbia Broadcasting System. This controversial case was one of many regarding censorship during a time when California’s counterculture was continuing to manifest in many different ways.  

Item: RG 21, Records of  U.S. District Courts, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Civil Case Files, 1938-2001, Tom Smothers, et al. v. Columbia Broadcasting System Inc. [Civil Case 69-1898], Letter from Maude A. Lobdell to The Smothers Brothers, 9/29/1969, (National Archives Identifier 7861710). https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7861710

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"A Little Bit About Punctuation and Other Funny Marks," by Murial Underwood, 1995, Center for Book & Paper Arts.

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Continuing Architecture April on this Throwback Thursday with the 1104 S. Wabash building!

Also called The Ludington for its original owners, the building was constructed in 1891 by the credited inventor of the skyscraper, William LeBaron Jenney. 1104 is listed both as a City of Chicago Landmark (as of 1996) and on the National Register of Historic Places (as of 1980), as it is considered to be the first skyscraper entirely clad in terracotta (now painting white). Columbia purchased the building in 1999. Read more about The Ludington under the 'Building History' tab on our website.

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The Wanderbibliothek, a Volkswagen bus served as a Bookmobile in Stuttgart, Germany.

11 Bookmobiles that Make Archivists Want to Hit the Road

By Hilary Parkinson | Public and Media Communications

Librarians have different jobs than archivists. And the National Archives is not the Library of Congress (hi, neighbors!). But, librarians and archivists have a lot in common, and the Archivist of the United States had a long career as a librarian before crossing over to the other side of the stacks.

Like librarians, archivists love books–and we’d love to have any of these bookmobiles pull up in front of the National Archives Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. So until hipsters bring back the bookmobile (and we hope they do), get your mobile book fix from these historic photos.

Are you ready to join us? There’s plenty of room in our Wanderbibliothek!

One more here, you’ll have to check out the Pieces of History blog for nine more awesome bookmobiles. 

Once you check out your book, the best place to be seen reading it is on the hood of the bookmobile, obviously. Bookmobile from a German town.

Head on over to the Pieces of History blog for more bookmobile photos!

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Happy 162nd to Ida Morey Riley!

Today would have been college co-founder Ida Morey Riley's 162nd birthday! Morey Riley's career in education began when her husband died in 1879. Morey Riley returned from Ashley, Ohio to Iowa where she taught and became the principal of the public school she attended as a child. While teaching at the State Agricultural College in Ames, Iowa, she met Mary Ann Blood, who urged her to move to Boston and study at the Emerson School. Morey Riley recieved her Bachelors degree in Oration in 1889 and a Masters degree in Oration in 1890 from Emerson before joining Blood in Chicago, where they established the Columbia School of Oratory in 1890.

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"Baynard Claudia"

Typeface for initials by Barnett Freedman "Distinguished from the capital by the fact that it is not part of the fount of type." From "Signature: A Quadrimestrial of Typography and Graphic Arts Vol. 1," 1935.

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Exploring a Hidden Archive of New York City's Historic Trash

A museum's basement holds a trove of fascinating castoffs.

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For April this year we're doing #ArchitectureApril once again to share some of the building history of our campus.

First up: the Dance Center at 1306 S. Michigan Ave. Built in 1930 by architect Anker S. Graven, the four-level Art Deco building originally served as a film exchange to the Paramount Publix Corporation. Other occupents included the Equitable Life Insurance Company, the Seafarers International Union, and the City of Chicago's Environment Health Clinic, before Columbia bought and renovated the building in 1999.

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Transactions of the Linnean Society

Post contributed by Ethan Heusser, SCARC Student Archivist

Among the many scientific organizations now present in the Euro-American milieu, few rank as prominently as the Linnean Society of London. Founded in 1788, the organization has served as an important nexus for discussion, research, “and the dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution and taxonomy” (Wikipedia). It endures as the oldest active biological society to date.

Although it represented a cohort of only 200 fellows in its early decades, the Linnean Society now sports a fellowship of well over 2,000 members (Wikipedia). Its annals have recorded contributions from scientists as influential as Charles Darwin, Robert Brown, and Marie Stopes.

  Our first series journal collection contains all issues between its 1791 inception and 1875. (Our second series of Linnean transactions, which splits into zoology and botany specifically, continues after that point as well.)

  The journals offer a fascinating snapshot of science at work in the form of detailed illustrations and in-depth conversations around species and genera.

“Linnean Society of London.” Wikipedia, 4 April 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnean_Society_of_London

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For Chicago Flag Day, watch Roman Mars' TedTalk explaining vexillology and what makes good flag design. (Spoilers: Chicago's is a great example!)

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This 1911 title is part of our Nesbitt Collection of children’s literature. Mrs. Molesworth was a prolific 19th century children’s author and was called the “Jane Austen of the nursery.” It seems she wrote for pre-teen girls before that term even existed! Her audience was described as girls too old for simple books but too young for books from Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. Fairies Afield is a charming and whimsical book of four stories about its young heroines and the help they receive from fairies. It also contains an inscription from the author herself: “For dear Elinor with Mrs. Molesworth’s love, Christmas 1911.”

-Lauren Galloway, Archival Assistant

Source:

“Mary Louisa Molesworth.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Louisa_Molesworth. Accessed 27 Nov. 2017.

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"Buddhist Parables"

Interpreted and illustrated by Margaret Roche, printed at Artists Books Works, Chicago, 1991. Handset monotype is in Bodoni. The illustrations are linoleum block prints. 

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In honor of Poetry Month, we're sharing these poems by Columbia student Richard Frank Lubbers, class of 1965. He wrote them after taking a poetry workshop with Gwendolyn Brooks, and they were published in the Columbia Comment, a precursor to the Columbia Chronicle. 

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April Fool's Day is this weekend, so don't be fooled by tricks like this one from the "Columbia Comical," 1991 !

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An original leaf from the 1499 Aldine Edition of "Scriptores Astronomici Veteres" printed by Aldus Manutius at Venice in 1499.