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Henry Ives Cobb’s rendering of his design for the Newberry building, ca. 1890.
How did the simple idea expressed in the 1868 bequest of Walter Loomis Newberry—a “FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, to be located in that portion of the City of Chicago now known as the North Division”—develop into the complex Newberry idea of today? This exhibition explores the 125-year evolution of the Newberry from its 1887 opening as a “Library of Reference” to its 2012 presence as a unique and renowned research institution and “center for the humanities” that remains free and open to the public on the city’s near north side.
Publication date
2014