Beyond the Reading Room

Nestled in the nearly 800 boxes that comprise the Robert Altman Archive here at the University of Michigan’s Special Collections Library is a treasure trove of materials from his 1980 film Popeye, which featured Robin Williams as the mumbling, spinach eating sailor. Over the last two months since the unexpected passing of Williams, numerous magazines, websites and blogs have paid tribute to the departed comic genius. Chief among them is Eric Spitnagel’s piece for Vanity Fair’s Hollywood entitled Popeye is the Best Movie Robin Williams Ever Made. While many may gasp at Spitnagel’s judgment, his witty and humorous remarks demonstrate the loyalty certain Williams fans feel towards a film that is often maligned rather than rejoiced.

Don't miss the Hispanic Heritage Month digital exhibit on display, October 5 through October 12, in Bert's Study Lounge in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library showcasing images from materials found in the Special Collections Library.

For anyone interested in marginalized communities and the progress of social movements, the Special Collections Library has a wealth of primary and secondary resources. Examples of institutionalized racism, in particular, can be found throughout the Special Collections Library, and are a reminder that even objects we tend to revere such as rare books cannot escape their historical context.

A new exhibit, "The Life and Death of Gourmet — The Magazine of Good Living," is on display through December first in Special Collections' 7th floor exhibit space

This Wednesday's watermarks feature: hand / glove motifs in papers of manuscripts from the Islamic Manuscripts Collection.

Since we are now “celebrating” Banned Books Week, I thought that readers of our blog would be delighted to know that the Special Collections Library holds an important selection of early-printed editions of the justly infamous Index librorum prohibitorum (List of Forbidden Books).

Many finding aids for our archives and manuscript materials are online, but some are not (yet). When a Special Collections catalog record says “Unpublished finding aid available in repository,” these are what we’re talking about.

We are elated to announce that the Tom Hayden Papers are now part of the Special Collections Library's Joseph A. Labadie Collection.

Although it is not widely known today, the Margarita Philosophica helped shape the world view of Renaissance Europe's movers and shakers. Educated men learned that science and mathematics were inextricably tied to the world as a creation of God; philosophy in Reisch's text has as much to do with the Christian Bible as the works of Aristotle.

A singular bird’s last breath is not often met with sadness, nor does it necessarily signify the emphatic end of an era. However, on September 1, 1914, the last living passenger pigeon, Martha, passed away at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. In the course of a century, the passenger pigeon went from being the most abundant land bird in North America to an extinct species. As September 1st, 2014 marks the centennial of Martha’s passing, the University of Michigan’s Special Collections Library and Museum of Natural History remember this native bird.