Newsfeed:

November “Old Gold” column from University Archivist David McCartney, “What Chicago, UI looked like 108 years ago”: https://now.uiowa.edu/2016/11/old-gold-108-years-ago
Featuring UI Libraries staff Rob Shepard: Daily Iowa article: Keeping an Eye on Segregation in the Nation: https://goo.gl/EcmXhI
Featuring photo from UI Archives: Iowa Now article: Celebrating points of pride, UI reflects on milestones in creating a welcoming environment for LGBTQ community https://goo.gl/6D51Dg

Tom Brokaw Donation News Coverage:

“Iowa Now” Press Release: https://now.uiowa.edu/2016/11/brokaw-donates-papers-to-ui-libraries
UI Special Collections blog: https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/speccoll/2016/11/10/tom-brokaw-donates-his-papers-and-artifacts-to-ui-libraries/
Press Citizen article: https://goo.gl/dvHc0x
KWWL coverage: https://goo.gl/nawW8I
KWQC coverage: http://kwqc.com/2016/11/10/tom-brokaw-donates-papers-and-artifacts-to-the-university-of-iowa/

New Acquisitions:

Chautauqua Printer’s Blocks Update from Margaret Gamm

Special Collections recently received several small but hefty boxes of printers’ blocks from the Smith-Zimmermann Heritage Museum in Madison, South Dakota. Printers used these heavy metal and wood blocks in the late 19th and early 20^th centuries to create promotional flyers and forms for Lake Madison Chautauqua events. One box contained several blocks related to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

South Dakota had just become a state four years prior, so many people saw the World’s Fair as a prime place to promote the state. Several groups formed to raise funds for a display, and the state legislature eventually approved funding as well. By the time of the Fair, South Dakota had put together a building’s worth of exhibits. More information on South Dakota’s involvement in the fair is available through the University of South Dakota Archives and Special Collections Blog here: https://archivesandspecialcollections.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/south-dakota-and-the-worlds-columbian-exposition-of-1893/

The Lake Madison Chautauqua Association would have been a natural fit for an exhibitor. Chautauqua organizations sponsored community education programs that usually included lecturers in special topics like religion, astronomy, and history. Many presenters travelled around the country, allowing headliners to grow in fame.

The blocks in the images here were created with a variety of techniques and were meant to be used with different types of ink according to different methods. One of the newest types was photogravure, which allowed mass printing of photographic images.

Upcoming Events:

Arthur Bonfield, “The Why, How, What, and Result of 60 Years of Rare Book Collecting”

In December the Iowa Bibliophiles’ guest speaker will be Arthur Bonfield who will speak about his 60 years of rare book collecting.

Arthur Bonfield is a Professor at the Iowa Law School and has been collecting books published between 1490 and 1800 for 60 years. He has collected about 1,000 books printed during that period and focuses his collecting on voyages, travels, and geography; English and European history; encyclopedias and dictionaries of the arts and sciences; political philosophy; and herbals.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 7PM in the Special Collections Reading Room, 3rd Floor Main Library

Details on the UI Events Calendar: https://goo.gl/XJpGWK

Staff Publications:

Next Generation PhD

Amy Chen occasionally posts in the blog for the Newly Composed PhD: Writing Across Careers. This blog supports the efforts of the Next Generation PhD, a planning grant the University of Iowa received from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support inquiry to better understand challenges to doctoral education. Her most recent piece is called “PhDs in the Library.”