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Beyond the Reading Room

Anecdotes and other notes from the U-M Special Collections Research Center.
Detailed illustration from Audubon's Birds of North America of a nest in a tree with birds sitting around it.

Posts in Beyond the Reading Room

Showing 1 - 10 of 417 items
Detail of illumination showing monks climbing, and falling from, the Heavenly Ladder
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  • Pablo Alvarez
The Greek Manuscripts of the University of Michigan: A Celebration of the Collection and Its Catalogue
Join us at the Special Collections Research Center on Friday, October 23, to celebrate the culmination of a fifteen-year project to catalog the University of Michigan Library’s extraordinary collection of Greek manuscripts.
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  • Juli McLoone
Longone Lecture on 10/22: Making Sense of the American South through Baking
Join us on Thursday, October 22nd from 4:00-5:30pm in the Hatcher Gallery Event Space for the first Longone Lecture, a biennial lecture series exploring the history of food and drink in the United States. We are delighted to welcome our first speaker, Rebecca Sharpless, Professor of History at Texas Christian University. Dr. Sharpless writes on the intersections of food, women, and work in the American South. This event is hybrid and a zoom link is also available.
molded fantastical figure with lots of teeth
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  • Katie Marie Jones
Magic and Monsters in Special Collections
Join us this Thursday, October 15th, between 4-6p for our next Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester!
A woman in a sleeveless gown serves drinks and snacks from a fridge to three guests in evening wear (men in suits; another woman in a sleeveless gown)
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  • Juli McLoone
Coffee with the Curator: American Home Cooking in the 1920s
Join Curator Juli McLoone on Tuesday, Oct. 13th from 2:00-3:00pm for coffee and conversation on about the exhibit Faster and More Fun: American Home Cooking in the 1920s. Learn more about the books and artifacts featured in the exhibit, the titles that didn’t quite fit into the exhibit cases, and the story of how this exhibit’s narrative took shape. Coffee and tea will be served.
A woman in a sleeveless gown serves drinks and snacks from a fridge to three guests in evening wear (men in suits; another woman in a sleeveless gown)
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  • Juli McLoone
New Exhibit | Faster and More Fun: American Home Cooking in the 1920s
The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a new exhibit opening next week on Monday, September 21st -- "Faster and More Fun: American Home Cooking in the 1920's." Join us at 4pm that day for an opening panel discussion featuring three scholars of food history.
colorful pop-up book opening with text and story scene of characters Pooh Bear, Rabbit, and Christopher Robin
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  • Jo Angela Oehrli
One Hundred Years in the One Hundred Acre Wood: Winnie-the-Pooh Has a Birthday
Join us this Thursday, September 17th, between 4-6p for our first Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester!
Bluish green book cover with book title in outlined font and a black silhouette illustration of a woman in heels, knee-length dress, and apron with a big bow tasting a spoon above a small table holding a mixing bowl
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  • Juli McLoone
Recipe of the Month: Cocoa Sticks (1929)
Get a sneak peak at SCRC's upcoming Fall exhibit through our August “Recipe of the Month.” Drawn from Meals for Small Families by Jean Mowat, “Cocoa Sticks” epitomizes one of the key themes of the 1920s: an unapologetic use of commercially made and packaged foodstuffs in support of simple & speedy meal preparation.
Blue book cover reading "Fun in the Kitchen" with line drawings of anthropomorphized cutlery
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  • Juli McLoone
Recipe of the month: Chocolate Blanc Mange (1927)
This month’s recipe offers a preview of Special Collections’ Fall exhibit: Faster and More Fun: American Home Cooking in the 1920s, with Chocolate Blanc Mange from Fun in the Kitchen (1927).
A mound of orange sorbet in a clear glass bowl on a green table
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  • Juli McLoone
Recipe of the Month: Sicilian Sorbet (1920)
Summer calls for cool drinks and cool eats. This month’s recipe comes from Fannie Farmer’s The Boston Cooking School Cook Book (1920), third edition, third printing.
Cover of "Tradition and Individuality: Bindings from the University of Michigan Greek Manuscript Collection" by Julia Miller
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  • Martha O'Hara Conway
Magnificent: Seven Bindings from Our Collection of Greek Manuscripts
On Tuesday 9 June 2026, at 5:30 pm in the Special Collections Research Center, Julia Miller, author of the widely acclaimed "Books Will Speak Plain: A Handbook for Identifying and Describing Historical Bindings," will show us us what “magnificent” can mean with regard to the binding and repair of some of our oldest books. Julia's presentation will be accompanied by a display of seven exemplars from the U-M Library’s collection of Greek manuscripts. Refreshments will be provided.