Spotlight on Special Collections

  • “Cries of London” in the Thordarson Collection

    Posted on August 14, 2017

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

  • The Russian Revolution of 1917

    Posted on July 26, 2017

    We are pleased today to host participants in “Ten months that shook the world: Russia’s revolutions in a global perspective. A workshop […]

  • “Walden” on July 12, 2017: Henry David Thoreau’s 200th Birthday

    Posted on July 12, 2017

    The UW-Madison Libraries recently acquired a true first edition of Thoreau’s Walden, Or Life in the Woods published in 1854 by the […]

  • To Celebrate Thoreau’s 200th Birthday

    Posted on July 12, 2017

    To celebrate Henry David Thoreau’s 200th birthday, we offer a preview of a new acquisition, the first edition of Walden, or, Life in […]

  • Happy 4th of July from the Peter Pauper Press

    Posted on July 4, 2017

    Our good friend Jim Dast just brought us two volumes to add to our very large Peter Pauper Press Collection. Both were […]

  • Independence Day, 1917

    Posted on June 30, 2017

    With Andrea Rolich of the Preservation Department, we were recently looking at the UW-Madison Libraries’ copies of the periodical Every Week, including […]

  • Electrifying Displays

    Posted on June 11, 2017

    Our current exhibit, “Natural History :: Natural Philosophy,” includes much about that quintessential topic of 18th-century natural philosophy, electricity. On display are […]

  • Sea Monk

    Posted on May 15, 2017

    An image of the “sea monk” or “monkish fish” in an announcement for this week’s Great Lakes Great Libraries conference in Madison caught […]

  • Artist’s and Curator’s Talks on Natural History Exhibits

    Posted on April 30, 2017

    Please join us as Martha Glowacki reprises her lecture about the Chazen Museum exhibition “Martha Glowacki’s Natural History, Observations and Reflections” and […]

  • Earth Day

    Posted on April 22, 2017

    In celebration of Earth Day, we look back to a memorable acquisition — the 1,000,000th volume in the University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries, […]

  • April’s Sowing

    Posted on April 16, 2017

    Splashes of spring green on the cover, frontispiece, and title page of the novel April’s sowing seem apt after a balmy April […]

  • Go, Badgers!

    Posted on March 24, 2017

    John James Audubon (best known for his double-elephant folio Birds of America) drew a sharp distinction between the North American badger and […]