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 81 - 90 of 354 items
man dressed in a blue shirt and loose yellow pants will yellow hat, crouched over a lathe turning a piece of wood with cabinets in the background
  • Shannon Zachary
The university fire marshal was polite but firm. We really could not continue to store highly flammable film in the Special Collections stacks. What to do? In 2019 we had a solution to these problems that wasn’t available in 1988, when the collection came to us: digitization! Hear more at our virtual After Hours event tomorrow, Tuesday 14 September 4-5 pm.
  • Evyn Kropf
We are excited to continue our online After Hours open houses this semester! Join us on the second Tuesday of each month 4-5 pm for a virtual encounter with our collections.
  • Philip A Hallman
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in conjunction with HBO Max will present Dogfight (1991), directed by Nancy Savoca, as part of its annual film festival this month. Savoca, whose papers were donated to the University of Michigan, is part of the library's Screen Arts Maverick & Makers collection.
page of text in Arabic script
  • Evyn Kropf
Join us next Tuesday (13 April) at 4 pm EDT for our last After Hours virtual open house of the term. This month we'll explore a selection of iconic Arabic texts from the holdings of the Islamic Manuscripts Collection as part of the campus celebration of Arab Heritage Month
Image of a Native American man printed in black ink on a page from Simon Pokagon's birch bark booklet, The Red Man's Rebuke.
  • Marieka Kaye
Join the Special Collections Research Center on March 9, at 4:00pm, for the third of our Winter 2021 After Hours events: "Birch Bark and the Writings of Simon Pokagon." Please register at the link provided in this blog post!
  • Pablo Alvarez
We are very pleased to invite you all to the fourth session of the Virtual Encounters on Book History, a series organized by Pablo Alvarez (University of Michigan) and Benito Rial Costas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Our fourth webinar is a celebration of two landmark publications based on the extensive collection of Greek manuscripts at the University of Michigan Library: Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Vol. 1. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2021; and Julia Miller, Tradition and Individuality: Bindings from the University of Michigan Greek Manuscript Collection. Ann Arbor, MI: The Legacy Press, 2021. Our speakers will focus on various aspects of this important collection of manuscripts, presenting case studies that illustrate their historical, textual, and artistic relevance.
Detail of graphic describing a parade formation of a battalion consisting of four companies, from Articles of War for Francesco I (1708-1765) Holy Roman Emperor, Grand Duke of Tuscany (Florence, 1739)
  • Pablo Alvarez
On behalf of the University of Michigan Library, we would like to express our gratitude to Samuel L. Chappell (B.S. 1969) and Roberta J. Chappell (B.S. 1967) for their generous gift that allowed us to acquire a manuscript and an early printed book for our military history collection. Since their graduation from the U-M, Sam and Bobbie have kept in touch with the Library in various ways, including generous donations to advance our academic mission.
  • Anne Cong-Huyen
On Friday, February 12th, the U-M Library hosted its third annual Douglass Day celebration in honor of Frederick Douglass, 19th century American abolitionist, author, and orator. This year the event highlighted the life, legacy and work of Mary Church Terrell with a lecture from Dr. Shelley Haley followed by transcription, digital art-making, and socializing over baked goods!
Left: a broadside with the text of Harold G. Lawrece's poem, "Black Madonna" below a sepia-toned depiction of a Black woman as the Virgin Mary gazing lovingly at a Black infant. Right: A broadside with the text of Naomi Long Madgett's "A Mandate for Remembrance" laid over a watermark illustration of a stylized human figure sitting cross-legged and lifting their arms. A fire or sunburst appears in their left hand.
  • Juli McLoone
Join the Special Collections Research Center on February 9, at 4:00pm, for the second of our Winter 2021 After Hours events: "Broadside and Lotus: Black-Owned Presses in Detroit." Please register at the link provided in the blog post below.
Folio 16r from Mich. Ms. 160. Horace (65-8 BC). Ars Poetica & Epistulae. Parchment. Italy. 15th c. Examples of additions and corrections, very probably added  by the scribe who copied this manuscript
  • Pablo Alvarez
We are very pleased to invite you all to the third session of a series of virtual encounters on various aspects of book history. On this occasion,
our webinar is devoted to textual editing and criticism. Our speakers will discuss innovative approaches to digital technology and scholarship in the edition of literary texts, ranging from Chaucer to James Joyce.