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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 387 items
Detail of Estienne's pronter
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  • Pablo Alvarez
New Exhibit: Brothers and Uncles, Kings and Typecutters: Five generations of Estienne printing in Michigan Collections (1512-1625)
We are excited to announce the opening of a new exhibit at the Special Collections Research Center: Brothers and Uncles, Kings and Typecutters: Five generations of Estienne printing in Michigan Collections (1512-1625). Curated by SI student Sara Brooks, this extraordinary exhibit explores the evolution of the printed page through the prism of the Estienne dynasty, a remarkable family of scholar-printers who were active in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Book cover of Miss Parloa's Young House Keeper (left) and title page of The American Cottage Cookery-Book (right), with the latter illustrated by a handsome goose
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  • Juli McLoone
Next Week | Fried Apples and Apple Fritters: Print Your Own 19th Century Recipe Cards
Join the Book Arts Studio and the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive for a pop-up printing event in the Shapiro Gallery on Tuesday, Oct. 28th, from 4-5pm.
undyed canvas straitjacket on a half body mannequin
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  • Katie Marie Jones
Rare BOOđź‘»ks and other Spooky Selections from Special Collections
Join us this Thursday, October 16th, between 4-6p for our next Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester!
Black book cover with the title The Drinking Man's Diet Cookbook in yellow and red
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  • Juli McLoone
Recipe of the Month: Avocado Toast (1967)
The Drinking Man’s Diet Cookbook by photographer Robert Cameron, offered a high-protein & hight-fat fad diet, essentially premised on the idea that eating dense calories offered satiation, while allowing space for carbohydrates in wine or cocktails. In the chapter on bread, Cameron suggests this recipe for Avocado Toast.
floral vegetal designs in bold layered colors arranged in geometric borders
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  • Jamie Lausch Vander Broek
Spectacular Stencils: Gorgeous Examples from our Pochoir Collection
Join us this Thursday, September 18th, between 4-6p for our first Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester!
A collection of historical models made by Anna Embre.
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  • Pablo Alvarez
New Exhibit: Suave Mechanicals: A Celebration of Nine Volumes on the Art and History of Bookbinding (2013–2025)
We are delighted to announce the upcoming opening of a new exhibit highlighting a selection of rare books from the University of Michigan's collections, each of which illustrates binding topics featured in "Suave Mechanicals," the acclaimed nine-volume series dedicated to the study of the art and history of bookbinding.
A greenish beverage garnished with mint, sits on a table next to a vase of flowers
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  • Juli McLoone
Recipe of the Month: Canada Dry Mint Julep (1926)
Popular culture depictions of the “roaring twenties” often focus on speakeasies and illicit cocktail consumption. However, as prohibition (1920-1933) pushed alcoholic beverages into shadowy corners, soft drinks took center stage in cookbooks for home cooks and party hostesses. This month’s recipe comes from Add-a-Leaf Hostess Book (1926) by Betty Beldon, in collaboration with Ida Bailey Allen.
Title page of John Baskerville's Virgil (1757)
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  • Martha O'Hara Conway
John Baskerville’s Virgil (1757) and the Development of the Earliest Western-Made Wove Papers
In this video, Dr. Cathleen A. Baker (U-M Conservation Librarian Emerita) takes us through her years-long research into the earliest Western-made wove paper, including papermaking experiments to replicate the paper that first appeared in John Baskerville’s Virgil, published in Birmingham, England, in 1757.
array of blocks of colored fabric with caption between in french
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  • Jamie Lausch Vander Broek
Colorful Neighbors: the Science of Simultaneous Contrasts
Read a bit about curator Jamie Vander Broek's journey toward developing the exhibit Behind the Curve: Rainbows and the Science and Culture of Color, on view through 4 September in the Hatcher Gallery Exhibit Room!
Title page of Doctor Iohanns Reuchlins' Missiue (1505)
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  • Gabriel Mordoch
Twelve books from the Bibliothek der JĂĽdische Gemeinde Berlin
Curated by Helmut Puff and Pablo Alvarez in 2017, the exhibit "Reforming the Word: Martin Luther in Context" prompted an intriguing discovery: the presence in our collection of twelve books that once belonged to the Jewish Community Library of Berlin. This blog post delves into the circumstances that brought these books to our library.