From their website:
"The Newberry Library houses an extensive non-circulating collection of rare books, maps, music, manuscripts, and other printed material. The Newberry offers exhibits based on its outstanding collections, musical and theatrical performances, lectures and discussions with today's leading humanists, seminars, and teacher programs. Anyone who is at least 16 years old and who is conducting research on a topic covered by the collections may become a reader.
The Library was founded as a public library by a bequest of Walter Loomis Newberry, a businessman and prominent citizen, who had been an active book collector, founder of the Young Men's Library Association, and president of the Chicago Historical Society before his death in 1868. When he drew up his will, Mr. Newberry created a codicil should his daughters die without issue. Since Chicago had no public library at the time, he determined that in such an instance a public library should be established in the northern section of the city. For additional historical information see (
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The Library's holdings span the history and culture of western Europe from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century and the Americas from the time of first contact between Europeans and Native Americans. Its strengths include: European discovery, exploration, and settlement of the Americas; the American West; local history, family history, and genealogy; literature and history of the Midwest, especially the Chicago Renaissance; Native American history and literature; the Renaissance; the French Revolution; Portuguese and Brazilian history; British literature and history; the history of cartography; the history and theory of music; the history of printing; and early philology and linguistics. The collections number 1,500,000 printed titles, five million manuscript pages, and 500,000 historic maps."
The site of the current Library was previously the site of the home of Mahlon Ogden, brother of Chicago's first mayor, whose house luckily survived the Chicago fire. Here's more on that from DesignSlinger (
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"William B. Ogden was Chicago's 1st mayor, the founder of the city's 1st railroad, the 1st president of the newly organized Union Pacific Railroad, and one of the largest property owners in the city. His brother Mahlon, also a real estate mogul, as well as a probate judge, owned a house that once stood directly across the street from the current Ogden School site. Although he was a mover and shaker in his time, Mahlon's true fame and notoriety comes from a fluke of wind direction during the big Chicago fire in 1871. The M.D. Ogden mansion stood prominently on a full city block. As the fire destroyed everything around this 3-story mansard-roofed residence, a sudden shift in the wind saved the house from destruction and the home became famous as the only surviving residence within the path of the inferno. The house eventually became the headquarters of the Union Club, and by 1893, the site was occupied by the brand new Newberry Library building."
The Newberry Library is a wonderful resource for the citizens of Chicago!
Located
60 W. Walton St.
Chicago, IL 60610-7324
312–943–9090