Beyond the Reading Room

The Special Collections Research Center is excited to announce Special Collections After Hours, a new open house series. Each month we’ll bring out a new group of themed highlights from the many books, documents, and artifacts in our collections.

Visit us on the sixth floor of the Hatcher Library to see this exciting exhibit! It consists of a selection of historical bookbinding models from the personal collection of conservator and scholar, Julia Miller. In 2015 and 2016, Julia bequeathed her extensive model collection to the Special Collections Research Center. Now named as The Julia Miller Collection of Bookbinding Models, it includes binding replicas of ancient and medieval manuscripts in various materials and formats, including a variety of Graeco-Roman tablet models, Coptic codices from the 3rd to the 10th century AD, and medieval European, Near Eastern, and Islamic binding models from the 12th to the 17th century.

The Labadie Collection’s Franklin and Penelope Rosemont Papers document their commitment to living out their surrealist ideals through notebooks, exhibition notes, photographs, unpublished manuscripts, and three extensive series of correspondence that include texts and original artwork from many individuals and groups.

We are very excited to announce that the Labadie Collection has acquired the Thompson Family Papers, a collection that offers a window into the lives and political activities of Detroit’s black professionals from the mid 1920s to the late 1960s.

A new exhibit drawing on materials from the Alan and Joyce Rudolph Papers is now on view in the Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery (Room 100).

During the winter term we held five pop-up special collections meet and greets with our rare materials in Weiser Hall. Here's a sampling!

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a new exhibit, Quaker Oats Makes a Movie: A Scrumdiddlyumptious Wonka Adventure. This exhibit, curated by students in Matthew Solomon's SAC 335 class, explores the production of the film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, and Quaker Oats's unexpected involvement in the film industry.

This weekend, Ann Arbor Civic Theatre presents Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Melissa Freilich, April 19-22, 2018, at the University of Michigan’s Arthur Miller Theatre, 1226 Murfin Ave, 48109. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Come early to the performance (or catch us during intermission) on Saturday, April 21 for a Rare Book Meet & Greet with the Special Collections Research Center, displaying early 19th century books on landscape architecture, mathematics, dancing, and poetry.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce the opening of Seven Fantasy Classics for Children, a new exhibit in the Audubon Room, curated by Lisa Makman's English 313 course, Children's Literature and the Invention of Modern Childhood. Join us for an informal opening today on Tuesday, April 10th, 1:00-2:30pm in the Hatcher Gallery. Light refreshments will be served.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a new online exhibit: The Life and Times of Lizzy Bennet. This exhibit features a selection of materials from the physical exhibit commemorating the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, which was on display in the Audubon Room of Hatcher Graduate Library, November 20, 2017 - March 30, 2018.