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 61 - 70 of 358 items
A full page illuminaton showing the Heavenly Ladder, representing monks, aided by angels, ascending the ladder towards Christ in Heaven. John Klimax (John Scholastikos), Scala Paradisi (The Heavenly Ladder). John Klimax (John Scholastikos), Liber ad Pastorem (To the Shepherd). Constantinople, the Hodegon Monastery, May 15, 1371 Parchment, 243 fols; 283-287 x 210-212 mm; Fol. 13v.
  • Pablo Alvarez
We are very pleased to announce a new digital exhibit highlighting some extraordinary Greek manuscripts from our collections: Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan Library: A Celebration. This virtual exhibition accompanies, and expands, the physical exhibit of the same name shown at the Audubon Room (Hatcher Library North) from March 26 to June 28, 2022. The online exhibit is also available inside the Audubon Room: visitors are welcomed to further explore, and zoom-in on, other fascinating features of the manuscripts on display.
Photographs show before (left) and after (right) treatment. The matching adhesive stains can be seen on the back of the map and the back cover of the scrapbook. The “after treatment” photo shows the final step of treatment which involves placing each page into a Mylar “L” sleeve, protecting the object while keeping it accessible.
  • Brooke Murphy
Conservation Technician, Brooke Adams, describes the complex treatment of an International Good Roads Tour Scrapbook, part of SCRC's Transportation History Collection. The scrapbook was compiled by William Sydnor Gilbreath Sr., a businessman and strong supporter of the Good Roads Movement (GRM). The scrapbook was created during Gilbreath’s participation in the 1920 International Good Roads Tour through Michigan and southeastern Ontario.
 The Jewish cemetery of Salonica, Greece.
  • Gabriel Mordoch
A historical postcard depicting the Jewish cemetery of Salonica, Greece --- newly cataloged for the Jewish Salonica Postcard Collection.
The Hobo Philospher or the Modern Diogenes by Roger Payne, B.A., L.L.B., 1930.
  • Julie Herrada
Before punks, hippies, and beatniks there were hobohemians. Born in reaction to an increasingly urban and industrial American society, these radicals combined a working class consciousness with a rejection of rampant materialism to create a bulwark against a rising tide of greed and exploitation. The Hobohemia Collection gives a glimpse into this subculture through the writings and artifacts of two prominent hobohemians, Jack Sheridan (1905-1967) and Slim Brundage (1903-1990).
spines of three bound books stacked on top of each other
  • Marieka Kaye
Join the Special Collections Research Center next Tuesday (12 April) at 4 pm EDT for our final After Hours virtual open house of the term featuring the collection of William Morris’s Kelmscott Press books held at the Special Collections Research Center
  • Gabriel Mordoch
A new item added to the Jewish Salonica Postcard Collection: Le Quartier israëlite détruit.
Mich. Ms. 30. The Four Gospels. <Northern Greece>, dated by colophon May 31, 1430 Paper, 424 fols; 197-198 x 140 mm.Fol. 306v; full-page miniature depicting the evangelist John; note the wide frame elaborately ornamented with a vegetal design; the background is bright blue with the inscription, 'Ο ἅγ(ιος) Ιω(άννης) ὁ Θεολόγος (St. John the Theologian).
  • Pablo Alvarez
Splendors of the religious and artistic endeavors of Byzantine manuscript makers are on display from the Greek manuscript collection at the University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center). We warmly invite you to explore these extraordinary treasures at the Audubon Room, North Hatcher Library, March 26-June 28, 2022.
Interior of synagogue
  • Gabriel Mordoch
A new item added to the Jewish Salonica Postcard Collection: The Italian Synagogue.
Woman in traditional dress, inscription in French
  • Gabriel Mordoch
A new item added to the Jewish Salonica Postcard Collection.
image of an open pop-up book with view of koala bear leaping into pond surrounded by cattails and frogs
  • Amy Crist
Third in a series of guest posts from Shaoyi Qian, summer 2021 Baker Fellow at the U-M Library's conservation lab, describing her work on several pop-up and moveable books.