The Newberry Library at 60 West Walton on the Near North Side is one of the greatest research libraries in the world. It is neither part of the Chicago Public Library system, nor is it affiliated with one of Chicago’s universities. An independent institution with a private endowment, it is a research library on the humanities free and open to the public for researchers sixteen years of age and older. In 2012, The Newberry Library celebrated its 125th anniversary and in 2017 it celebrated the 130th anniversary of its foundation in 1887.
The Newberry Library’s book collection consists of approximately 1,500,000 books, including, the first Bible published in North America; fifteenth-century volumes based on Ptolemy that are foundational for cartography; an illustrated roll chronicle of the kings of France down to Charles VII; the only Shakespeare first folio in Chicago; an extremely rare first edition of Don Quixote; and Thomas Jefferson’s copy of The Federalist: A Collection of Essays (“The Federalist Papers”). Other collections include 5,000,000 manuscript pages (15,000 cubic feet), including illustrated handwritten manuscripts from Medieval Europe and modern manuscripts from Europe, the U.S., and The Philippines; 600,000 historic maps; atlases; sheet music; and archival documents, including the corporate archives of railroad corporations and the personal papers of Midwestern writers and politicians. The Newberry Library has maps and atlases published by the Rand McNally Company since 1876 and the archival records of Rand McNally, the General Drafting Company, and the H.M. Gousha Company. News organizations that have donated archival collections include the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader, and the Chicago News Bureau. The Sister Ann Ida Gannon Collection includes records from Mundelein College,[1] the Divine Word Society, the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great, Concordia University, the Passionist Monastery of Chicago, McCormick Theological Seminary, and the Catholic Theological Union. These collections are non-circulating. Other than those portions that can be glimpsed on-line, they can only be read in person, on-site.
One of the twelve founders of the Chicago Historical Society (C.H.S.), Judge Mark Skinner (1813-1887), was the lawyer for Walter Loomis Newberry (1804-1868), and convinced W. L. Newberry when he wrote his will that if his daughters should die without issue, his money should be used to found a library. Walter Loomis Newberry had come to Chicago from Detroit and amassed a fortune in real estate and railroad investments, as well as banking, served as President of the C.H.S. from 1860 until his death in ‘68. In 1841, Newberry had co-founded the Young Men’s Association, which in 1868 changed its name to the Chicago Library Association to avoid confusion with the Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.). Unfortunately, his daughters, Mary Louisa Newberry and Julia Rose Newberry, both died within ten years of their father’s death at sea while on his way to his home in the South of France. Newberry’s own personal library was one of many private libraries consumed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. His widow, Julia Clapp Newberry, died in 1885. In 1887, nearly twenty years after his death, half of Newberry’s estate ($2,100,000) went towards the founding of The Newberry Library. [The rest went to his nieces and nephews.] Today, there is a bronze bust of Walter L. Newberry in the lobby of The Newberry Library.
W. L. Newberry’s will invested estate trustees Eliphalet W. Blatchford and William H. Bradley with broad powers. Blatchford had been one of the co-founders of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Northwestern Branch of the United States Sanitation Commission. He was an early member of the Chicago Historical Society. Blatchford served as President of the Newberry Library until his death in 1914. Later, he also became a founding trustee of The John Crerar Library, which incorporated in 1894. The famous Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931) designed The Newberry Library’s original building. The Newberry Library incorporated in 1892 and the building opened in 1893, the same year as Chicago’s first World’s Fair, the World’s Columbian Exposition.
At the time of W.L. Newberry’s death, Chicago did not have a public library, as the Chicago Public Library was only founded six years after Newberry died, in 1874. By 1887, the Chicago Public Library was a thriving institution, and The Newberry Library’s original trustees consequently decided to devote Newberry’s bequest to the foundation of a “library for scholars and people desiring to make careful researches.” In 1896, the Chicago Public Library, The Newberry Library, and The John Crerar Library (which later merged with The University of Chicago Library) had reached an agreement by which they would divide the work of developing collections. This is known as the Metropolitan Library Agreement. The Chicago Public Library would concentrate on general literature and Chicagoana, The Newberry Library would concentrate on the humanities, and The John Crerar Library would concentrate on biology, medicine, and physical science.
The Newberry Library occupies the block bounded by Walton Street to the south, Clark Street to the west, Oak Street to the north, and Dearborn Street to the east. It faces Washington Square Park (also known as Bughouse Square), as if it was The Newberry Library’s front lawn. Washington Square Park takes up a block bounded by Walton Street to the north, Dearborn Street to the east, Delaware Place to the south, and Clark Street to the west. It is in the cathedral district, about three blocks northwest of Holy Name Cathedral on State Street, less than one block southeast of Annunciation Cathedral on LaSalle Street, and about five blocks northwest of the cathedral-like Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue.
The Newberry Library’s shelves hold over twenty-one miles worth of books.[2] Its collections encompass Western Civilization from the late Medieval period to the end of Napoleonic Wars in Europe; Latin America from the Era of Discovery (exploration, conquest, and colonization) to the Wars of Independence; and to recent times in North America. The Newberry Library’s administration considers the strengths of the library’s collections to be European (especially British) history and literature, religious history, the Renaissance, the French Revolution, American history and literature, Chicago and other local history, American Indian history; Brazilian history, Portuguese history, the history and theory of music, calligraphy, the history of printing and the book arts, and the history of linguistics.
The Newberry Library has three research centers: the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography, and the Center for Renaissance Studies. In 2017, the Chicago Studies Program replaced the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History & Culture.
The Newberry Institute for Research and Education has fellowship programs for scholars and graduate students, scholarly seminars, the Scholar-in-Residence program and Graduate Scholar-in-Residence program, Mellon Summer Institutes in Vernacular Paleography, two undergraduate seminars, professional development opportunities for teachers, digital collections for the classroom, public programs, and adult educations seminars. These efforts are meant to promote the use of The Newberry Library’s collections for research, education, and publication.
Dr. William Frederick Poole, (1821-1894), who had been the first Librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1873 to 1887, served as the first Librarian of The Newberry Library from 1887 until his death in 1894. He started the collection and built the original library building. In 1889, Poole purchased the library of Count Pio Resse of Florence. The next year, he purchased an even larger library, that of Henry Probasco, a Cincinnati businessman, politician, and bibliophile whom Poole had met while head of the Cincinnati Public Library.
The poet and essayist John Vance Cheney (1848-1922) became the second Librarian of The Newberry Library, and held the position until his resignation in 1909. The Newberry Library acquired the linguistics collection of Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813-1891),[3] in 1909. It was comprised of some 18,000 items.
Author W.N.C. (William Newham Chattin) Carlton (1873-1943) became the third Librarian of The Newberry Library. In 1911, Edward E. Ayer (1841-1927), a railroad tie magnate who served as first President of the Columbian Field Museum (which evolved into The Field Museum of Natural History), endowed The Field Museum Library, and was a founding member of The Newberry Library’s Board of Trustees, donated over 17,000 documents on contacts between American Indians and Europeans.
In 1920, George Burwell Utley (1876-1946), who had been the first Librarian of the Jacksonville Public Library down in Jacksonville, Florida, became the fourth Librarian of The Newberry Library. He had moved to Chicago in 1911 to serve as Secretary of the American Library Association (A.L.A.), a post he held until 1920. In the 1920s, The Newberry Library began the intensive acquisition of incunabula (books and pamphlets printed in Europe before 1501). Newberry Trustee William Greenlee (1872-1953) donated his Portuguese library in 1937. Utley retired in 1942.
Stanley McCrory Pargellis (1898-1968), the fifth Newberry Librarian (1942-1962), broadened The Newberry Library’s mission. He established scholarly outreach programs (fellowships and conferences).
Between 1962 and 1986, The Newberry Library greatly expanded under the leadership of the sixth Newberry Librarian and President Lawrence William (“Bill”) Towner (1921-1992), a historian and veteran of the Second Great World War. In 1963, Towner created the Special Collections department. It was also he who founded the research centers. He hired Paul Banks (1935-2000), a book conservator, to head a new preservation program. Professor Towner acquired the Louis H. Silver collection of books and manuscripts on the Renaissance and English literature for The Newberry Library at a cost of $2,687,000. In the early 1980s, he oversaw renovations and construction of the Stacks Building. Another famous Chicago architect, Harry Weese (1915-1998) oversaw interior renovations in 1983 and designed the ten-story Stacks Building, an addition at the northwest corner of the library building site to provide additional, temperature-controlled storage space for The Newberry Library’s 1,500,000 books, 5,000,000 manuscripts, and 300,000 maps.
In 1986, Dr. Charles T. Cullen became the seventh President and Librarian of The Newberry Library. The Queen Elizabeth I quadracentennial exhibit in 2003 was the most popular in The Newberry Library’s history. That same year, McAdam/Cage published Audrey Niffenegger’s debut novel The Time Traveler’s Wife, the hero of which, research librarian Henry DeTamble has a genetic abnormality that causes him to uncontrollably travel through time and space, and he uses The Newberry Library as an anchor in time and space (somewhat like the concept of the constant in the TV series Lost). Collaboration between The Newberry Library’s Scholl Center for Family and Community History and the Chicago Historical Society (which later renamed its building in Lincoln Park the Chicago History Museum) led to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, which The University of Chicago Press published in 2004.
Dr. David Spadafora became the eighth President and Librarian of The Newberry Library in 2005.[4] In 2008, The Newberry Library installed a new red tile roof. In November of 2011, The Newberry Library launched a fundraising campaign called the “Campaign for Tomorrow’s Newberry” designed to raise $25,000,000 by the end of 2012, the year in which The Newberry Library celebrated the 125th anniversary of its foundation in 1887. Between July 21, 2011 and January 1, 2012, The Newberry Library installed a new compact shelving system on the lowest three floors of its thirty-year-old, ten-floor Stacks Building.[5] This new system holds twice as many books as the old system. While The Newberry Library remained open, collections on the affected floors of the Stacks Building were temporarily unavailable. This construction project was funded by the late Gerald F. Fitzgerald, Sr., a longtime Trustee of the Newberry Library who died in 2010, and his widow, Marjorie. More renovations took place last year, effecting 23,000 square feet of space on the first floor and lower levels. This was a $12,700,000 project. The Boston architectural firm of Ann Beha Architects designed the renovations. The Herget Welcome Center opened, as did the Hanson Gallery and the Trienens Galleries. Meanwhile, the Newberry Bookstore, renamed the Rosenberg Bookshop, doubled in size.
Last year, Dr. Spadafora announced he would retire in 2019. In March of 2019, The Newberry Library announced that the Board of Trustees had chosen Dr. Daniel Greene to become the ninth President and Librarian of The Newberry Library effective Monday, August 19, 2019. He is not new to The Newberry Library. Dr. Greene earned his doctorate at The University of Chicago and after a stint as a staff historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. from 2005 to 2008, he served as Director of the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History & Culture from May of 2008 to December of 2011. He concurrently served as Interim Director of Research and Academic Programs from September of 2010 to December of 2011. In July of 2011, Greene received a promotion to Vice President for Research & Academic Programs, a post he held until February of 2014. His most recent book is The Jewish Origins of Cultural Pluralism: The Menorah Association and American Diversity, which Indiana University Press published in 2011. He was also the co-editor of Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North, the companion book to the Newberry exhibit he curated. The University of Chicago Press published the book in 2013. Since 2013, he has been Adjunct Professor of History at Northwestern University and since 2014 he has been Exhibitions Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
D. Bradford Hunt is the Vice President for Research and Education Programs.[6] Keelin Burke is the Fellowships Manager. Mary Hale is the Program Manager for Scholarly and Undergraduate Programs. Katie Dyson is the Seminars Manager. Kara Johnson is the Manager for Teacher and Student Programs. Elizabeth Cummings is the Public Programs Manager.
Alice D. Schreyer is the Roger and Julie Baskes Vice President for Collections and Library Services. Lisa Schoblasky is the Special Collections Services Librarian. Chris Ciadella is the Stacks Coordinator. James R. Akerman is the Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography and Curator of Maps. Patrick A. Morris is the Map Cataloging Librarian. Lisa Markey is the Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies. Christopher Fletcher is the Program Manager for Outreach and Claire Ptaschinski is the Program Manager for Operations. Rose Miron is the new Director of The D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Lisel Olson is the Director of the Chicago Studies Program. Will Hansen is the Director of the Reader Services Department and Curator of Americana. Jill Gage is the Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of printing. She is also the Bibliographer for British Literature and History. Alison Hinderliter is the Lloyd Lewis Curator of Modern Manuscripts and Selector for Modern Music. Catherine Grandgeorge is the Manuscripts and Archives Librarian. Emily Richardson and Samantha Smith are the Project Archivists. Suzanne Karr Schmidt is the George Amos III Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. Alan Leopold is the Director of the Collection Services Department and Selector for Library Science. Matthew Rutherford is the Curator of Genealogy and Local History. Emma Morris is the Acquisitions Manager. Linda M. Chan is the Serials Librarian. Jessica Grzegorski is the Principal Cataloging Librarian. Cheryl Wegner is the Cataloging Librarian. Megan Kelly is the Cataloging Projects Manager. Lindsey O’Brien is the Cataloging Project Librarian. Joy Orillo-Dotson is the Cataloging Project Librarian. Margaret Cusick is the General Collections Services Librarian. Katy Darr, Graham Greer, Becky Lowry, Katie McMahon are the Reference Librarians. Analú López is the Ayer Librarian. Jo Ellen McKillop Dickie is the Reference Services Librarian. Lesa Dowd is the Director of the Conservation Services Department. Jennifer Thom Diane Dillon is the Exhibition Curator. Amanda Cacich is the Assistant Registrar and Exhibition Specialist. Dalzin is the Director of the Digital Initiatives and Services Department. John Powell is the Digital Services Manager. Jennifer Wolfe is the Digital Initiatives Manager. Karen Christianson is the Director of the Department of Public Engagement.
Meredith Petrov is the Director of Development. Dan Crawford is the Book Fair Manager. Vince Firpo is the Director of Individual Giving. Rebecca Haynes is the Manager of Volunteers. Luke Herman is the Annual Giving Manager. Jacqueline Johnson is the Director of Major and Planning Giving. Jo Anne Moore is the Associate Director of Development Events.
James P. Burke, Junior is the Vice President for Finance and Administration. Ron Kniss is the Controller. Michael Mitchell is the Facilities Manager and Chief Security Officer. Jennifer Fastwolf is the Manager of the Rosenburg Bookstore. Judy Rayborn is the Director of Human Resources. Nancy Claar is the Payroll manager. Drin Gyuk is the Director of Information Technology. Chayla Bevers Ellison is the Director of the Office of Events.
More than 100,000 visitors enter the Newberry Library every year to conduct research and attend special events, seminars, music concerts, programs for teachers, and exhibitions. It is free of charge to conduct research in the Reading Rooms, but one must be sixteen years of age or older (or at least juniors in high school). To acquire a Newberry Library Reader card, one must present a valid photo ID, proof of one’s current address, and a research topic that fits the Newberry Library’s collections. Staff members refer researchers to the appropriate Reading Rooms. The Local and Family History reference section is located on the second floor; the catalogs, general reference desk, and general reference collection are located on the third floor; and the Roger & Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections is located on the fourth floor.
The Newberry Library Reading Rooms are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, they are open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. On Wednesdays, they are open from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The reference librarians are available on the second and third floors during reading room hours, and can be contacted at reference@newberry.org or (312) 255-3506.
The Exhibition Galleries are closed on Sundays. On Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays, they are open from 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, they are open from 8:15 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The Rosenberg Bookshop is closed on Sundays and Mondays. It is open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It sells an eclectic mixture of gifts, cards, and toys produced by local artisans, books, notecards, postcards, and buttons. Proffered items range from merchandise with the Newberry logo to de-accessioned items from Newberry holdings. There is a Button-O-Mattic on site that dispenses buttons featuring images from the Newberry collections.
Free tours of the Newberry Library are conducted on Thursdays at 3:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. Reservations, which are required for groups, can be made at least two weeks in advance by calling Rebecca Haynes, Manager of Volunteers at (312) 255-3526 or e-mailing her at haynesr@newberry.org. These private tours need to take place during Reading Room hours. There will be no tours during the 35th Annual Newberry Book Fair (between Thursday, July 25, 2019 and Saturday, July 27, 2019).
The Newberry Library’s Website is www.newberry.org and the general phone number is (312) 943-9090. To receive a current copy of the Newberry Library’s Public Programs catalog, call (312) 255-3700.
Figure 1 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a view of the southern end of Washington Square Park on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 2 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a lamp-post at the southern end of Washington Square Park, as seen on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 3 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a view of the fountain at the center of Washington Square Park and The Newberry Library on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 4 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a close-up of the fountain at the center of Washington Square Park and The Newberry Library on Sunday, July 14, 2019. The Newberry Library is a privately-funded research library that is open to the public, located at 60 West Walton Street on the North Side of Chicago. In 2012, it celebrated the 125th anniversary of its foundation in 1887.
Figure 5 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the top of the southwest corner of The Newberry Library, as seen on June 5, 2010. Notice the “NL” logo on the banner that advertised the exhibit galleries. The famous architect Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931) designed the building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.
Figure 6 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the top of the southeast corner of The Newberry Library, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 7 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the central pavilion of the Richardsonian Romanesque façade Cobb designed for The Newberry Library, seen here on Sunday, July 14, 2019. The portal was inspired by a 12th Century abbey church in the South of France. Engaged columns support the triple round compound arches at the base of the central (entrance) pavilion. Arcaded pilasters and engaged columns for the second and third floors on the façade give the impression of a single tall floor. The fourth floor, which has eight arcaded windows, though each window is smaller than the windows on the lower floors.
Figure 8 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: Cobb borrowed the entrance for The Newberry Library, as seen on Sunday, July 14, 2019, from the Romanesque-style church of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Gilles-du-Gard.[7]
Figure 9 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is how the front doors looked on June 5, 2010. A notice identifies The Newberry Library as “AN INDEPENDENT LIBRARY FOR RESEARCH AND REFERENCE IN THE HUMANITIES.” It also has the “NL” logo wreathed in the words “THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO.”
Figure 10 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is how the front doors looked on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 11 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a plaque outside the main entrance of The Newberry Library, as seen on Sunday, July 14, 2019. Founded through a bequest of Walter Loomis Newberry (1804-1868), a real estate investor, banker, railroad founder, and philanthropist, The Newberry Library is an independent research library.
Figure 12 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: In 1929, the General Henry Dearborn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution had a memorial plaque affixed to an exterior wall of The Newberry Library, as seen on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 13 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This decorative panel is near the entrance to The Newberry Library, as seen on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 14 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This planter is near the entrance to The Newberry Library, as seen on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 15 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is Umanità (2009) by Virginio Ferrari, as seen on June 5, 2010. It is a stainless steel sculpture on a granite base. The Newberry Library Award is a tiny replica.
Figure 16 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: From the legend on the granite base, one would think this is Umanità (1987) by Virginio Ferrari, but in reality this is Umanità (2009) as seen on June 5, 2010. Ferrari made the larger replica in 2009 because someone stole the original in 2008.
Figure 17 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a digital kiosk outside the south elevation of The Newberry Library, as seen on Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Figure 18 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This digital kiosk features The Newberry Library’s new lower-case “n” logo and as “The Newberry” while on the side of the kiosk it reads “The Newberry Library.”[8]
Figure 19 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This digital kiosk, which features the new lower-case “n” logo, is displaying The Newberry Library Reading Room hours. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, it is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. On Wednesdays, it is open from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Figure 20 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This digital kiosk, which features the new lower-case “n” logo, is displaying The Newberry Library Exhibition Gallery hours. They are closed on Sundays. On Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays, they are open from 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, they are open from 8:15 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Figure 21 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: Bibliophiles who like miniature books such as those seen in this picture at the digital kiosk outside The Newberry Library may enjoy seeing the books in the Thorne Rooms at The Art Institute of Chicago and the Library of Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry. Harvest Bible Chapel’s Chicago Cathedral on Dearborn Street can be seen in the background.
Figure 22 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a look down Walton Street on June 5, 2010 with Washington Square Park on the left and The Newberry Library on the right.
Figure 23 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the southeast corner of The Newberry Library at the intersection of Walton Street and Dearborn Street, as seen on June 5, 2010. Views like this one highlight the contrast between the rusticated stone at the base and the smoother stone of the higher stories.
Figure 24 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This plaque on the rusticated stone of the base of the building that identifies The Newberry Library is on the east elevation of the building, which faces Dearborn Street at Walton Street, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 25 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This the eastern elevation of The Newberry Library, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 26 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: The part of Walton Street in front of The Newberry Library, as seen on June 5, 2010, is Honorary Ben Hecht Way. Ben Hecht (1893-1964) became a journalist in Chicago and went on to become a novelist, short story-writer, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
Figure 27 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: The architect of the small red brick building behind the southeast corner of Cobb’s original building made no attempt to make the addition blend in with the original library structure, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 28 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: The small red brick building behind the southeast corner of Cobb’s original building, as seen on June 5, 2010, is one of three buildings that stands behind the original library structure.
Figure 29 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the eastern elevation of Cobb’s original library building and the small red brick building behind its southeast corner, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 30 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a view looking back at The Newberry Library from a point farther north on Dearborn Street, as seen on June 5, 2010
Figure 31 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the parking lot at the northeast corner of the block, the small red brick building behind the southeast corner of Cobb’s original building, and the back of Cobb’s building, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 32 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the parking lot at the northeast corner of the block and the small red brick building behind the southeast corner of Cobb’s original building, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 33 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the back of Cobb’s original building and the small red brick building behind its southeast corner, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 34 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the parking lot at the northeast corner of the block, the back of Cobb’s original building, and the small red brick building behind its southeast corner, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 35 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the parking lot at the northeast corner of the block, behind The Newberry Library, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 36 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a view from Dearborn Street of The Newberry Library’s parking lot, eastern elevations of three additions (one of which is obscured by trees), part of the back of the original building, and the northern elevation of one of the additions, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 37 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is a view of the parking lot and the northern elevation of two of the three additions, screened by trees that line the parking lot, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 38 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is ivy on one of The Newberry Library’s additions, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 39 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is part of the southern elevation (back end) of the original Newberry Library building, a large part of one of the additions, and a small part of another addition, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 40 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the northern elevation of one of the additions of The Newberry Library, as seen on June 5, 2010. Notice the loading dock.
Figure 41 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the eastern elevation of the additions of The Newberry Library at the northwest corner of the site, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 42 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is part of the northern elevation (back end) of the original Newberry Library building, the three additions (one of which is almost wholly obscured by a large tree), the parking lot, and trees that lined the parking lot, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 43 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This ivy-covered, tower-like structure, as seen on June 5, 2010, is at the northwest corner of the addition that stands behind the northwest corner of Cobb’s original library building.
Figure 44 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the addition of The Newberry Library at the northwest corner of the site, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 45 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the western elevation of an addition to The Newberry Library, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 46 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the back of Cobb’s original building at the northwest corner of the structure, and part of an addition, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 47 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the west elevation of Cobb’s original building and part of one of the additions, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 48 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the west elevation of Cobb’s original building and one of the additions, as seen on June 5, 2010.
Figure 49 Credit: Seán M. O’Connor Caption: This is the west elevation of Cobb’s original building, as seen on June 5, 2010.
ENDNOTES
[1] The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary founded Mundelein College after George Cardinal Mundelein, Archbishop of Chicago, asked the B.V.M. Sisters to establish a women’s college in Chicago. Its campus, which featured a famous Arc Deco skyscraper, was south of, and adjacent to, the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola University Chicago, a co-educational Jesuit school. It was the last Roman Catholic women’s college in Illinois when, in 1991, Mundelein College became a college of Loyola University.
[2] The Newberry Library completed the installation of a new compact shelving system on the lowest three floors of its ten-floor Stacks Building, a project undertaken between July 21, 2011 and January 1, 2012. Compact shelving is very common in new or renovated archival repositories and libraries. The new system holds twice as many books as the old system. Over the previous decade, the Book Stacks Building had reached capacity.
[3] Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte was an aristocrat, scholar, and politician who was the nephew of Emperor Napoleon I (lived 1769-1821, reigned 1804-1814, 1815) and the first cousin of Emperor Napoleon III (lived 1808-1873, reigned 1852-1870).
[4] David Spadafora earned a Ph.D. in history from Yale University, and served as a history professor at Lake Forest College for fifteen years. Yale University Press published his book The Idea of Progress in 18th Century Britain in 1990. Spadafora served as Dean of Faculty (1990-1993) and twelfth President of Lake Forest College (1993-2001). In the fall of 2001, he received a one-year-long teaching and research fellowship at The Newberry Library from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (A.C.M.), during which he directed the A.C.M. Newberry humanities seminar, instructing visiting students from A.C.M. colleges.
[5] Compact shelving is very common in new or renovated archival repositories and libraries.
[6] D. Bradford Hunt is the co-author, with Jon B. DeVries, of Planning Chicago (published by American Planning Association Planners Press in 2013), which examines urban planning in Chicago since the 1950s. He was the author of a history book on the Chicago Housing Authority (C.H.A.), Blueprint for Disaster: The unraveling of Chicago Public Housing (published by The University of Chicago Press in 2009). It won the Lewis Mumford Prize from the Society of American City and Regional Planning History, of which he is now president (2018-2019). Previously, he was Dean at Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he was also a professor of social science and history. He earned his B.A. at Williams College and his Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Berkeley.
[7] The 7th Century Greek-born hermit-priest St. Giles (circa 650-710 A.D.) founded the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Gilles-du-Gard. The church crypt contains his tomb. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
[8] Earlier in this decade, I noted in an Examiner.com Chicago article that The Newberry Library seemed to be re-branding itself by dropping the word “library” from its name. On the Website and in press releases, it referred to itself simply as “The Newberry.” Back then, I stated, “I will, however, continue to refer to it as the Newberry Library.” I notice today it refers to itself by its full name in some places and as The Newberry in others places.
In the Garden City 
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