by Karen Christianson | Nov 10, 2022
Calligraphy evolved into a fine art practice in the mid-20th century, and it continues to be reimagined by artists today. To keep the art of beautiful lettering alive, it must be practiced.
Join us and the Chicago Calligraphy Collective for an interactive and family-friendly event focused on the history of handwriting. Enjoy demonstrations of different lettering styles, participate in hands-on lettering activities, and tour our current exhibition, A Show of Hands: Handwriting in the Age of Print. This event is open to writers of all ages.
The Chicago Calligraphy Collective is organized for the charitable and educational purposes of promoting the study, practice and appreciation of calligraphy in all its historical and present-day applications and strives to enhance public awareness and interest in the calligraphic lettering arts.
This event is part of the programming inspired by the Newberry exhibition A Show of Hands: Handwriting in the Age of Print, open September 9 through December 31, 2022.
by Karen Christianson | Nov 10, 2022
Renowned printer and type designer Russell Maret will discuss the creation and use of script fonts, past and present, with Jill Gage, curator of the exhibition A Show of Hands: Handwriting in the Age of Print.
SPEAKERS
Russell Maret is a letter designer and letterpress printer working in New York City.
Jill Gage is the Newberry’s Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History Printing.
by Karen Christianson | Nov 10, 2022
For centuries, handwriting served as a powerful tool for communicating information, preserving knowledge, shaping identity, and building empires. In our digital world, however, fewer and fewer people can read handwritten words.
Handwriting has survived disruptive technologies before. The invention of printing did not diminish the need for handwriting. Instead, it created new markets for ambitious printers and entrepreneurial writing teachers. These men and women used advances in print technologies to widen the influence of handwriting in everyday life.
A Show of Hands focuses on people, cultures, and technology to illustrate how handwriting has been taught, reproduced, and reimagined over the past five hundred years. Displaying a range of books and manuscripts from the Newberry’s collection, the exhibition makes the role of handwriting in the age of print newly legible.
A Show of Hands is generously supported by the Richard C. von Hess Foundation, the Fitzgerald Family Foundation, and Diane and Richard Weinberg.
by Karen Christianson | Oct 19, 2022
D’Arcy McNickle Distinguished Lecture with Philip Deloria
Oct 20, 2022
6:00pm-7:30pm
Hybrid – Ruggles Hall and Zoom
This program will be held in-person at the Newberry, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, and livestreamed on Zoom.
In the early morning of November 13, 1833, meteors from the annual Leonid showers fell in such abundance, frequency, and size that people across North America ran from their homes to contemplate the celestial light show. In the winter count calendars of the Great Plains, the “Year the Stars Fell” has been used to link up disparate local histories. But the event appears in memory and in writing all across the continent, from enslaved African Americans in the South to Latter Day Saints and Second Great Awakening revivalists in small towns, to the scientists of Philadelphia, Cambridge, and New Haven, among others.
In this year’s D’Arcy McNickle Distinguished Lecture, historian Philip Deloria will discuss how the falling stars called into question assumptions about faith, reason, and nature. Making connections across time and place, Deloria will also explore how these stars can help us understand an unknowably broad geography in the narrowest of historical moments.
Speakers
Phil Deloria is a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and Professor of History at Harvard University, where his research and teaching focus on the social, cultural, and political histories of the relations among American Indian peoples and the United States, as well as the comparative and connective histories of Indigenous peoples in a global context. Dr. Deloria is the author of many books and articles, including Playing Indian and Indians in Unexpected Places, both of which are widely recognized as essential texts in the fields of Native American and Indigenous Studies, and American Studies. Deloria is also a trustee of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and serves at the liaison for Harvard University within the Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies.
Fred Hoxie is an esteemed historian of Indigenous peoples in North America and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. Dr. Hoxie was on staff at the Newberry for fifteen years, where he served first as the Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center and later as Vice President for Research and Education. Hoxie is the author of many books and articles related to Indigenous history and has also served as a consultant and expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, the National Congress of American Indians, and the National Park Service.
Dorene Wiese is a citizen of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation and CEO of the American Indian Association of Illinois. Dr. Wiese’s relationship with the Newberry spans nearly fifty years and includes serving as the co-chair of the Newberry American Indian Oral History Project (1982-1985) and the Seeing Indian in Chicago Photography Exhibition (1985). Wiese also serves on the Advisory Group for the library’s current Indigenous Chicago project, which will debut in 2024.
This program is free and open to all.
Register to attend IN PERSON.
Register to attend virtually ON ZOOM.
by afoss | Jul 27, 2022
Chicago’s most popular used-book sale is back! Browse through thousands of books in dozens of genres, including fiction, philosophy, history, art, cooking, children’s literature, and much, much more. With many items priced at $3 or less, you can stock up on new reads and expand your own personal library on the cheap. Admission is free.
Everything for sale at the volunteer-led Book Fair is generously donated, and all proceeds help further the Newberry’s mission to foster a deeper understanding of our world through research and learning.
Know in Advance:
- Book Fair is cashless: only debit and credit cards accepted.
- Please bring your own shopping bags.
- We recommend taking public transportation to the Book Fair, as street parking is limited.
Learn more in our Guide to the 2022 Book Fair.
