UChicago Special Collections Research Center

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/

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Join the Kim-Park Program for our first Student Research Spotlight of 2026 with a presentation from Casey Foubert this Monday, February 2nd at 3:00 PM.

As both a creative practitioner with a 25 year career in the music industry, and an archivist and librarian in training, Casey has been preoccupied with questions about the durability and utility of cultural artifacts: What does it mean to write, record, and release music into the digital void? How do we decide what is worthy of preservation and what can be discarded or lost through neglect? Whose voices are missing from our collective cultural memories, and are these voices available for rediscovery?

In this student spotlight, Casey will share the insights, inspirations, mysteries, and erasure he encountered during the course of a year long, interdisciplinary research project he carried out at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois that combined archival research with creative practice. This research culminated in his research project, All is Moved by Love: Finding Creative Inspiration and Confronting Archival Silences in the Knox College Archives and Library, in which Casey selected ten student poems from the Knox College Archive, covering major historical periods from 1855 to the present, researched the historical and thematic context of each poem—confining his research to mostly what was physically available at the college library—and composed and recorded a song-cycle in response to the poems and research.

This event is open to all with registration and will be held in The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center.

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Work with us!

Head of Research and Instruction, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center

Position Description

The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center is the principal repository for the rare books, manuscripts, and archives of the University of Chicago Library. The resources of Special Collections are made available to a broad community of scholars, students, and independent researchers as part of the University of Chicago’s mission to support research and teaching. Programs and initiatives of Special Collections include on-site reading room consultation of materials, classroom instruction drawing on the collections, a regular series of exhibitions and web exhibits, digital collections, and academic and public events. The Special Collections Research Center forms part of the Library’s newly created Distinctive Collections Division.

Reporting to the Director of Special Collections, the Head of Research and Instruction is responsible for providing leadership for all Special Collections public services, research and instructional programs, and managing the Special Collections Reader Services Unit. In conjunction with the Director of Special Collections, promotes Special Collections as a center for enriching research, teaching, and learning at the University of Chicago. Ensures high-quality and innovative research and instruction; efficient reading room circulation, on-demand scanning and inter-library loan services; and creative outreach programs. Participates in Library-wide research, instruction, and outreach.

Responsibilities:

Comprehends current and emerging research trends, the structure of scholarly literature, and patterns of scholarly communication in areas of research and instruction supported by Special Collections.  

Communicates with faculty, colleagues, and students in order to be responsive to their needs and remains aware of changes and developments in disciplines and programs.

With other Special Collections and Library staff, collaborates with faculty and Library colleagues in integrating Special Collections holdings into teaching and instruction. Develops and implements programs and services to increase research and teaching use of Special Collections.

Provides oversight and management of the Special Collections public services spaces, implementation of policies for research use and services, and effective and secure circulation of Special Collections materials.

Provides leadership for the Reader Services Unit in Special Collections (4 FTE full-time staff, 2 FTE student staff). Directly supervises the Reader Services Manager and Public Services Supervisor, including hiring, training, scheduling, and evaluation.

Manages and responds to on-site and remote research inquiries along with Special Collections staff. Provides expertise in general and advanced research questions related to Special Collections. Promotes collaborative approaches among Special Collections staff for providing on-site and remote reader services.

Creates and maintains specialized research tools and learning aids (e.g., LibGuides, bibliographies, etc.) to enhance knowledge of and access to Special Collections resources.

Serves on Special Collections and Library-wide committees and task forces.

Participates in local, regional, and national professional and scholarly organizations.

Qualifications

Required:

MLS from an ALA-accredited library school or an equivalent combination of relevant library experience and an advanced degree.

Minimum of five years of successful experience providing research and instruction services for primary source materials in a special collections or a research library; other relevant library instructional experience may be considered.

Minimum of three years of supervisory experience.

Knowledge of current trends and methodologies in scholarship and teaching as they relate to the use of libraries and special collections sources.

Ability to communicate effectively and work well with colleagues, donors, faculty, students and other Library users individually and in groups.

Strong commitment to quality user-oriented reader services and understanding of research and teaching needs of special collections users.

Excellent oral and written communications skills, subject research skills, interpersonal and organizational skills, energy, and creativity.

Preferred:

An advanced subject degree in a humanities or social science discipline

Experience in using Atlas System’s Aeon circulation and workflow staff client.

Knowledge of the application of technology to research, teaching, and special collections operations

Application Instructions To Apply: Submit cover letter, curriculum vitae, and reference contact information online through the University of Chicago's Academic Recruiting website: https://apply.interfolio.com/179656. Review of applications will begin after February 7, 2026. Screening of applications will continue until the position is filled or the search is closed.

Salary and Benefits: $75,000 - $85,000. The position is Benefits-eligible and also includes a relocation allowance for qualifying expenses.

The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook.

Questions: Contact the University Library Human Resources department at [email protected].

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination. Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-834-3988 or email [email protected] with their request.

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Good Grief! The Peanuts comic strip debuted on this day in 1950! Snoopy would make his first appearance two days later. These are the Peanuts books in our collections.

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On the heels of the completion of the George J. Stigler processing project, we have embarked upon the processing of the Harry Gordon Johnson Papers, the late Canadian economist and UChicago faculty member. Johnson was editor of the Journal of Political Economy in 1964 when Stigler was assembling Essays in the History of Economics (1965). Later, they would co-edit the journal from 1972 until Johnson’s death in 1976. A letter in the collection shows Stigler writing to obtain permission for the reprint of his essays.

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Happy 40th Anniversary to Back To The Future! TheSci-fi adventure film was released on this day in 1985. Items related to time travel in our collection include an 1895 edition of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The book popularized the idea of time travel and the term "time machine". Proving the idea of time travel transcends...time, from this century we also have Time Travel and Warp Drives by Allen Everett and Thomas Roman, which delves into scientific understanding of time and space. The book was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2012.

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Natalie Nitsch, a newly minted graduate of the Divinity School's MA program, has been a Rare Books Assistant for the past year. In honor of her last day, she wrote about one of her favorites from our collections: MS 120, a 13th-century manuscript containing Petrus Comestor's Historia Scholastica (and plenty of evidence of use by centuries of former owners). Congratulations, Natalie!

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Many scholars of medieval manuscripts are drawn to their field because of the ability of old books to, as it were, make eye contact with a person from across the centuries. Of course, manuscripts are neither animate (though I wonder about the life of the deer and livestock who gave up their skins for their binding and pages, and the wasp larvae that once inhabited the oak galls used in ink) nor conscious (though I always say goodbye to a manuscript when I reshelve it for the last time). Nevertheless they reward careful looking uncannily well, in a way that I have come to conceive of as meeting and holding the gaze of modern viewers. Of the materials I have written descriptions of over the past year of my employment---130 codex manuscripts and the hundred-odd piece Wandel Collection of Manuscript Fragment---UC’s MS 120 held my gaze the longest and looked back the hardest.

By way of its less recent history, MS 120 was written in the 12th or early 13th century in Germany. It contains an imperfect copy of the 12th-century Historia Scholastica by Petrus Comestor (whose name, delightfully, translates to Peter the Eater), a Biblical paraphrase that enjoyed huge popularity in the medieval period. MS 120 resided at either the Benedictine priory of St. Jakobsberg near Mainz or the Premonstratensian monastery at Steinfeld, both in modern-day Germany, until the desecularization of many German religious houses in the early 19th century. It was then acquired by the 18th-century German theologian Leander van Ess, and subsequently owned by the famed English book collector and ‘vellomaniac’ Thomas Phillipps, Baronet, in 1824. After the dispersal of Phillipps’ collection, it made its way to Ricketts.

By way of its recent history, MS 120 was given to the University of Chicago just before Christmas in 1924 by Coella Lindsay Ricketts (almost as delightful a name as Peter the Eater), a self-described “scribe, illuminator, and binder” who, among other occupations, produced the parchment diplomas issued by the U of C for the first several decades of its existence. MS 120 apparently looked back at Ricketts, just as it looked back at me: in Ricketts’ presentation letter to then-University president Ernest D. Burton, he writes, “Here is an old manuscript on vellum that has been knocking around this world for seven hundred years or more, and thinking that is long enough, I want it to find a permanent home where it will be welcome and appreciated and enjoy companionship.” I imagine he said a fond goodbye to MS 120 before sending it across the city, presumably by courier.

The reason MS 120 held my eye for so long is not necessarily its copious annotations, though it does appear to have been continuously annotated by monks from its creation to the 18th century, when it was acquired by Ess. (Frankly, copious annotations are cool, but a bit of a pain for a person writing a description of a manuscript. They are 1. not often written legibly and 2. not usually particularly revealing.) Its erased 13th century musical notation on four-line staves (ff. 46r-47r, f. 106r) is similarly eye-catching, but must be left for some future researcher to decipher; they are illegible even using the usual imaging methods that help scholars to read faint text. Two relatively minor and unimportant details were, instead, what stared me down.

First, there is a drawing of a woman on the right margin of f. 44r. It was done with a sharp instrument that had no pigmentation, so it is nearly impossible to see unless you hold the parchment at the right angle---imagine the impressions that are left on the next page of a notepad if you press hard with your pencil. (These kinds of annotations, not uncommon in parchment manuscripts, are often called “scratch” or “fingernail” glosses, because they can also be done with a fingernail.) The woman doesn’t seem to have anything in particular to do with the text that accompanies her, a commentary on the First Commandment, “you shall have no other gods before me”. It’s impossible to know which German monk drew her, or why, or who she is intended to represent; she has no identifiable attributes, and the art quality is not that of a master (her eyes bulge). She is fascinating to me mainly because of her invisibility and anonymity. I flipped past this page several times without noticing her, and the fact that I did eventually---I believe I selected the text on this page to check against an edition of the Historia Scholastica totally by chance---felt like MS 120 rewarding me for my diligence. I wondered how many of MS 120’s former owners had noticed this woman, and whether they had any more of an idea than I did about what she was doing there.

The second detail is even less arresting than a marginal drawing, but felt even more like a direct intervention from MS 120. A previous library assistant had noted that a break in the text at one spot in the manuscript, between the pages labelled f. 121 and f. 122---essentially, that some text was missing. After some comparison with an online edition of the Historia Scholastica, I discovered that there was, indeed, about a page’s worth of text missing. I recorded it in my very-21st century description (in an Excel spreadsheet, in accordance with modern descriptive cataloging standards) in the following terms: “Text is complete except for the contents of one folio following f. 121. Text ends at Migne P.L. Vol 198 col. 1366D ‘qua terminata iterum dedica[tione]’ and picks back up at 1369C ‘[sacrifi]cia et frequenta’.” Giving the page a final once-over, I noticed a small note at the bottom of the page (f. 121v), in a medieval hand: “Hic deficit 1 folio”, or, “Here, one page is missing.” Someone who lived at least a half a millennium ago had noted concisely and exactly what I needed to know, not knowing that the simple fact of a missing page would ever need to be recorded in such detail as I recorded it, nor that anyone would need to fiddle around with a digital edition of the text to figure out how much text the manuscript was missing. It was as simple as “here, one page is missing”, all along.

Medieval manuscripts, perhaps more than any other artifact of the past, are indelibly, undeniably human. That should be enough to hold our attention, and our collective gazes.

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Today is National Typewriter Day, but everyday is International Typewriter Day in Special Collections! Meet our newest addition:

This Greek-alphabet Olympia typewriter is one of several interesting items donated to Special Collections by Professor Walter Kaegi. Professor Kaegi (1937-2022) was a scholar of the late antique Mediterranean who taught in the Department of History at the University of Chicago for over 50 years. Acclaimed for his erudition and demanding precision, Kaegi was an admired faculty member credited with mentoring three generations of historians.

A polyglot and prolific researcher, Professor Kaegi was an expert in Byzantine Greek who made frequent use of this typewriter in his work. He was also famous for his travels, having visited every former province of the Roman Empire. His typewriter is part of the newly accessioned Walter Kaegi Collection which has now found a home in Special Collections.

Also featured are a Hebrew alphabet typewriter, a German alphabet typewriter, and oh yes, an English alphabet typewriter.

(calling Tom Hanks)

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Today we remember those who died while serving in the armed forces. First celebrated in the years following the American Civil War, Memorial Day became an official holiday in 1971.

This lithograph and sheet music represent only one piece of Memorial Day history. The history of Memorial Day, previously known as Decoration Day, can be traced back to Charleston, SC in 1865. In mid-1864, Confederate forces had converted a Charleston race track into a prison, to hold between 6,000 and 10,000 Union captives who had been evacuated from Georgia prisons. The captives suffered harsh conditions including starvation, disease, and the indignity of being paraded into town, where some Black Charlestonians would sneak pieces of bread to the captives, at risk of being punished for doing so. At least 257 Union soldiers died during their imprisonment there.  

In autumn, under a worsening yellow fever outbreak, Confederate officials relocated the prison to Florence, SC, leaving behind the Union dead in unmarked graves.  Black Charlestonians worked to build a proper burial ground at the race course, and reconsecrate the soldiers’ graves. They then organized a memorial event held on May 1, 1865. An estimated 10,000 people attended the event which included processions, singing, speeches, and laying of flowers. 

Learn more about the role of Black Charlestonians in the founding of Memorial Day in David W. Blight’s book “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory” and “Denmark Vesey’s garden: slavery and memory in the cradle of the Confederacy,” by Kytle and Roberts.

This TIME magazine article includes images of the race track and the burial ground from the Library of Congress. The event was covered by the “Charleston Daily Courier” on May 2, 1865 and by the “New York Tribune” on May 13, 1865. 

While we are unaware of any primary sources within our Special Collections that document this event, we still wish to acknowledge and share this piece of American history that is continually ignored or erased.  

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We are excited to announce that we are hiring Archives and Manuscripts Accession Assistants for the summer and academic year. Accessions Assistants work with new collections and prepare them to be open for research. This role offers an opportunity for graduate students to apply research skills and learn archival best practices.

This is a student position open to graduate students at the University of Chicago. Apply via the link in our LinkTree.

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DYK that Ida B. Wells was a self-taught Shakespearean? These selected entries from her diary indicate her interest in memorizing Lady Macbeth's soliloquy to recite at a performance, attending a literary meeting discussing Macbeth, and seeing Edwin Booth "the greatest living actor" (and brother of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth) in productions of Hamlet and Othello.

To see the full digitized diary, click here.

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Carter G. Woodson (AB’07, AM’08), the Father of Negro History

Carter G. Woodson (AB’07, AM’08), the Father of Negro History, founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (1915), the Journal of Negro History (1916), and The Associated Publishers, Inc. (1921), and published the Negro History Bulletin (1937).  He championed the idea and formation of Negro History Week (inaugurated in 1926) that, in 1976, ultimately became Black History Month. Woodson’s life and work continues to inspire many students and scholars of African and African Diaspora Studies. This year marks the 150th anniversary of his birth.

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Correspondence in the George J. Stigler papers

The series arrangement in the Stigler papers for Correspondence are divided into two sub-series: Alphabetical and Chronological. This ordering is consistent with the original order of the collection, the way in which it was arranged and used by Professor George Stigler and his office and research staff. In total, the correspondence series is composed of 48 boxes (24 linear feet), and include memos, postcards, greeting cards, notes, telegrams, facsimiles, printed emails, and, of course, letters (both handwritten and typed). Some of the Stigler correspondence files explore the discovery, genealogy, history, and advancement of thought, theory, and praxis in economics.

A rather unexpected letter is included. It is written from within the confines of the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon in Pennsylvania, from an inmate named Sunni Ali Ber (Frank Reynolds Harwell Sr.). He requested a conference poster from the History of Economics Society and an “old or worn or used or slightly abused or messed up” copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. The shortest letter in the collection was from Alan G. Hirsh writing, simply, “I quit.” There is also the interesting case of the Nobel Prize in Economics and the responses it generated in the form of congratulatory letters, greeting cards, telegrams, invites, postcards, and such. Most interestingly among them were several letters from people in Indiana, New York, Uruguay, Switzerland, and Germany, inquiring of Stigler’s genealogy. Is it possible that we’re related, they asked. He could not affirm that they were related but noted that “My father, Joseph Stigler, was born in the small town of Lengenfeld, south east of Nuremberg, on March 24, 1978.” Further, “I have received several letters from different families in southern Germany but with no clear evidence of relatedness.” Adding, “I am sorry that I didn’t learn or remember, more family history."

There are many other interesting letters in the collection. Many of them will be quite useful to researchers and other library patrons.

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It's a busy day for Waldo: researching, working, helping patrons, and meeting with the Dean of Spooky Sciences!

HappyHalloween from the Special Collections Department of Waldo Sightings!

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“A Memento from 1913”

One hundred eleven years ago, The Women’s Trade Union League of Chicago hosted the “Hallowe’en Dancing Party.” Somehow a ticket from the event made its way to Claire Friedland, former Research Associate at the Center for Study of Economics and the State (now named in honor of George Stigler), perhaps while she was preparing for a conference presentation for the “Women in Early Economics” session for the Midwest Economics Association.

In 2015, it appears, as she gathered remaining material to deliver to SCRC as addenda to previous accessions acquired in the 1990s, she added that ticket, enclosed in an envelope labeled “A Memento from 1913.”

This finding moves the historical timeline of the George J. Stigler Papers back to 1913; however, originally, it was dated in the 1930s.

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The Students for Violent Non-Action (SVNA) installed The Dean of Spooky Sciences as a prank in The Harper Memorial Library Reading Room, aka, The Arley D. Cathey Learning Center, or, to more accurately reflect the true nature of the room as they saw it: NERD HELL, or, The 10th Circle of Hell). The SVNA wanted to warn students that they “should abandon all hope of ever attaining a 4.0 by graduation.”

Today the Dean warns students about the consequences of bringing food, beverages, and ink into Special Collections. Bwa-ha-ha!

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Forest of Leaders: Talents and Impacts of UChicago's Korean International Students

For over a century, Korean students have traveled to the University of Chicago to study. During an era of hardships and political instability, unfortunately, many were unable to finish their courses of study.

In 1945, imperial Japanese occupation ended in Korea and, in 1950, the Korean War broke out. Political and societal disorder continued for years, and amidst upheaval, Chey Jong-hyon, founder and former Chairman of SK Group, traveled to the US and earned an MA in Economics from UChicago. After graduation, in 1961, he returned to Korea and contributed greatly to the growth of several commercial industries. Today, the late SK Chairman is widely recognized as an innovator who changed the course of Korea’s economic development, and importantly, through his philanthropy, also enabled generations of Korean students to complete advanced degrees.

Based on his belief that young and talented individuals determine Korea’s future, Chey Jong-hyon established the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies (KFAS) to support the educational pursuits of Korea’s top students. At present, KFAS has awarded over 4,000 scholarships, growing Chey Jong-hyon’s hundred-year vision to cultivate a forest of leaders.

This exhibition, celebrating KFAS’ 50th anniversary, follows the footprints left by talented Korean students at UChicago and highlights some of the lasting impacts they have made in various professional and academic fields.

KFAS, SK Group, and the SK Heritage Museum lent photographs, periodicals, books, awards, and medals for this exhibit.

This exhibition is cosponsored by the University of Chicago Library and the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies.

Exhibit on view in our gallery through December 13th. Click here for the English web exhibit, and here for the Korean web exhibit.

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On this day in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Johnson Publishing Company produced this book of photographs from the march, and included the texts of the speech as well as the lyrics to “We Shall Overcome”. 

Our copy of this book is in the W. Alvin Pitcher Papers. Pitcher was a  professor, minister, community and social justice activist, who worked with Operation Breadbasket (an arm of Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference) in the 1960s and 1970s, helping to found a cooperative house in Woodlawn that is still in existence today, and participating in a variety of community development groups into the 1990s.