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Willard Motley Papers Willard Motley was an African-American writer who was part of the Chicago Renaissance.
The collection of the Northern Illinois University Libraries is the most extensive collection anywhere of the diaries, manuscripts, photographs, notes, clippings, and books of the famous naturalist Chicago writer.
*Diaries dealing with story, Knock On Any Door, April 21 - June 3, 1947.
*Diary - Book XI - Horizon Chasing on a Bicycle - June/July 1930.
For more information and detailed holdings go to https://archives.lib.niu.edu/repositories/2/resources/662
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Medieval Manuscript Leaves Books during the medieval period were typically made of vellum (also called parchment), or, occasionally, paper. "The production of books was a collaborative enterprise involving co-operation between different crafts: parchment-maker, scribe, illuminator, and binder, together with, in many cases, a bookdealer who took orders from clients and oversaw the making of the final article."
Before 1200, books were generally produced in monasteries. However, as universities in cities like Paris, Bologna and Oxford began to grow, the demand for books outgrew the abilities of the monasteries to produce them, and lay people stepped in to fill the gap. By 1400, most manuscripts were not produced in monastery scriptoria, but by professional book workers.
(https://ulib.niu.edu/rarebooks/medievalleaves.html)
*Gospel Lectionaire Leaf, Italy, 1150 A.D.,
*Leaf from a Breviary, Northern France, 1400,
*Prayerbook Leaf [Hildesheim], Germany, 1524.
Items located in the Manuscripts Collection {ND3355 .C655 1150a}
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H.P. Lovecraft Collection American novelist, H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), is universally considered to be the father of modern horror. He is responsible for creating the nucleus of the "Cthulhu Mythos," a cycle of loosely-related stories that he (and other writers including Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Robert Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and Brian Lumley) conceived that concerned the "Great Old Ones," beings from outer space who took up residence on Earth to cause havoc.
(https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0522454/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm)
Letters from the H.P. Lovecraft Collection
*Autographed letter to Robert Bloch 1937 { PS3523.O833 Z48 1937a}
*Autographed letter to Clark Ashton Smith 1932 {PS3523.O833 Z543}
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Historic Scenic Collection Historic Scenic Collection contains the scenes, costumes, maquettes, and other archival material of the Chicago Civic Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The archival materials date from 1865 to 2012, but predominately features the productions of the Chicago Civic Opera for the years of 1910 to 1931.
*Blueprint of Aida Act 1 Scene 2
*Floor Plan of La Traviata Act 1 Scene 1 "old"
*Floor Plan of La Traviata Act 1 Scene 1 [revised]
For more information and detailed holdings go to https://archives.lib.niu.edu/repositories/2/resources/111
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Gender Studies Collection The Gender Studies Collections consists of a growing collection of books and other published materials pertaining to gender studies, including gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, queer, and women’s studies. Particular strengths of this collection are the publication history for the winners and nominees of the Stonewall Award and Midwest periodicals.
Items are located in the Gender Studies Collection
*Windy City Times { HQ75 .W562a}
*Positively Aware { RA644.A25 T82a}
*Chicago Free Press {HQ75 .C462a}
*The 57 Bus – 2018 Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award
*Little and Lion – 2018 Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award
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Fine Arts Collection The Fine Arts Collection encompasses works of various artists, mostly catalogues raisonnées, and other rare fine arts materials.
Items are located in the Fine Arts Collection
*Altars by Robert Mapplethorpe and Edmund White {TR654 .M33741995A}
*Renaissance Dress in Italy 1400-1500 {GT964 .H47 1981a}
*Andrew Wyeth {ND237.W93 M4}
*Clive Barker: Visions of Heaven and Hell {NX650.H67 B375 2005a}
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The Final Call "From humble beginnings in the basement of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s south Chicago home in 1979."
Located at the African American Collection {BP221.A1 F542A}
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Dime Novel Collection Albert Johannsen Collection
and Edward LeBlanc Collection
The first dime novels were initially published around the start of the American Civil War, and became wildly popular in both the United States and in England, where they were known as "penny dreadfuls." Named for their cheap prices, dime novels were distributed in numerical series at newsstands and dry goods stores for a dime or a nickel a piece. The books were simple in appearance, bound in cheap paper with a brightly illustrated cover. They were lightweight at only about 100 pages long, easy to carry, and easy to pass around.
Irwin and Erasmus Beadle and Robert Adams published the first dime novel under their publishing house, Beadle and Adams, in 1860. It was a short novel entitled "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter," written by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens.
Irwin Beadle joined up with George Munro, a bookkeeper in the publishing house, and they founded their own house, Munro. Munro began to publish its own version of dime novels, calling them "Ten Cent Novels."
Another major publishing house for dime novels was Street and Smith. Authors like Horatio Alger, Upton Sinclair, and Jack London wrote for Street and Smith under pen names to make the money that would come with their published works.
Some of the most well-known dime novel writers were Thomas C. Harbaugh, Albert W. Aiken, Edward L. Wheeler, Joseph W. Badger, Jr., and Colonel Prentiss Ingraham. Ingraham was the most successful writer of the short novels as the creator of the famous character, Buffalo Bill.
(https://www.history.org.uk/student/resource/4512/american-dime-novels-1860-1915)
Dime novels are located in the Albert Johannsen collection and Edward LeBlanc collection by series title:
*The Buffalo Bill Stories No. 1
*Ned Buntline's Own Series No. 4
*The Five Cent Wide Awake Library Vol. 1 No. 11 (September 30, 1878)
*Buffalo Bill Border Stories No. 211 by Col. Prentiss Ingraham
*Nick Carter Weekly No. 304
*Beadle's Dime Novels No. 1 "Malaeska: the Indian Wife"
*Munro's Ten Cent Novels No. 171
*Nugget Library No. 83 (March 5, 1891)
*Deadwood Dick Library No. 2
*Penny Popular Novels: "Dred; A Tale fo the Great Dismal Swamp" by Harriet Beecher Stowe
*The New Nick Carter Weekly No. 27 (July 8, 1897)
*Irwin P. Beadle's Ten Cent Novels No. 5
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Comic Book Collection The Comic Book Collection consists of approximately 1,200 titles of comic books, graphic novels and trade editions, and trade magazines and fanzines. Much of our comic book collection dates from the 1970s forward, with particular strength in the 1990s.
Titles located in the Comic Book collection
*Aliens No. 1 of 6-Art by Mark Nelson, who taught at Northern Illinois University for twenty years. {PN6728 .A443 1988a}
*The Invincible Iron Man No. 6 (October 1968) {PN6728 .I76a}
*Captain America No. 101 (May 1968) { PN6728 .C35a}
*Sandman: Brief Lives {PN6728.s26 G35 1992a}
*Love and Rockets No. 1 {PN6728.L78a}
*Fables: Legends in Exile Book 1 (2002) {PN6727.W52 F33 2002a}
*Wonder Woman No. 210 (March 1974) {PN6728 .W65a}
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Lord Byron-Childe Harold's Pilgrimage George Gordon Byron, or Lord Byron (1788-1824): English Romantic poet.
The first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage were published by John Murray in 1812, and Byron “woke to find himself famous.” The poem describes the travels and reflections of a young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands.
(https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Byron-poet)
Lord Byron Collection:
Childe Harold's pilgrimage, a romaunt: and other poems. 1812-first American edition {PR4357 .A1 1812b}
