While our Thordarson Collection is perhaps best known for its holdings of science and natural history on the one hand and Iceland […]

Though we enjoyed summer-like weather this October weekend, the leaves are beginning to pile up around Madison, calling attention to differential patterns […]

In the current exhibit in Special Collections, Preserving the Word: World Religions in our Libraries, our colleagues Thomas Durkin, Todd Michelson-Ambelang, and Lisa Wettleson […]

As Madison and Dane County cope with widespread flooding, we turn to earlier examples of water control – an 18th-century illustration of […]

One hundred years ago, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, fighting in the war to end […]

Unseasonably warm temperatures here in Madison have recently melted what little snow we have received this season. By way of what we’re missing, […]

In observance of International Women’s Day, we call your attention to works on natural history by women authors included within our Cairns […]

The calendar says May, which has made us think about maypoles and mayflies, though the weather here has been falling somewhat short […]

Today, which marks the summer solstice, would be a good day to experiment with what’s called a solar microscope – in fact, […]

The Department of Special Collections will continue Library By Appointment for its reading room with appointments available Monday-Friday, 1-4 PM, beginning this, […]

Please note our reading room hours for Special Collections during December 2021 and January 2022: Fall Semester (through December 23) – open […]

The Department of Special Collections reading room and exhibit area will be open 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM on August 23, 2023. […]

We were deeply saddened by the news of the death on October 5, 2023, of John Tedeschi, Curator Emeritus of Special Collections […]

The Department of Special Collections reading room and exhibit area will be closed November 22-24, 2023. We will resume our normal hours of Monday-Friday, 9 […]

Please join us at an event sponsored by the Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries: Printing Audubon’s The Birds of America Presentation by Emily […]