What’s with all the buzz about Burnham? One hundred years ago, Daniel H. Burnham and Edward Bennett compiled the most influential city planning documents in U.S. history, the 1909 Plan of Chicago (SpC. 720.9 C734p 1909). Their visions and architecture defined many of the familiar features of Chicago today. A first edition copy of the Plan along with other works from this time period that highlight the history and development of Chicago are currently on exhibit in Special Collections and Archives­—Room 314.

Commissioned by the Commercial Club of Chicago, an elite group of Chicago businessmen, the Plan of Chicago was an attempt to re-shape Chicago to address some of the problems caused by its rapid growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Burnham, well-known for his architectural and city planning work including the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, was already a member of the club. Edward Bennett, his associate in his architectural firm, was responsible for much of the design work on elements of the Plan that were put into place in the decades after its publication. Some of Bennett’s best known work includes Buckingham Fountain and the Michigan Avenue Bridge. 

Over the next 20 or so years, many elements of the Plan came to fruition in one way or another. While many of results do not exactly match the visionary illustrations in the Plan of Chicago, one can clearly see the intention of the Plan in much of what we have today in Chicago, especially in the areas of the lakefront, Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, and Burnham Harbor and the Museum Campus.  

Exhibit runs through Dec. 18. Free to the public.

Please join us on Nov. 4 at 5:00 when Dr. Joe Schwieterman of the Chaddick Institute will read and sign copies of his book, Beyond Burnham: An Illustrated History of Planning for the Chicago Region. A reception will follow.

In the seventeenth century, Barbary pirates were at the height of their plundering power. Whether loosely organized or state-directed by the sultan or other pashas, North African pirates engaged in raiding the Mediterranean and its neighboring seas for goods and for captives that could be sold into slavery or ransomed.

Among those negotiating the release of the captives was Pierre Dan, a French priest of the Order of the Holy Trinity and Redemption of Captives. In 1634, Dan visited North Africa where he described the despair of the slave auctions and estimated that 25,000 Christian slaves were held in Algiers alone. Wearing the cross of the Redemptionist order, Rev. Dan is featured on the frontispiece of his book, Histoire de Barbarie (1649) conversing with a turbaned Turk or Berber and pointing to the ransom coins while ragged captives are brought out in chains.

So why is a book on Barbary pirates part of the St Vincent de Paul Reading List titles being collected by Rev. Edward Udovic, C.M.? Legend has it that from 1605 to 1607 when St Vincent de Paul was a young priest he was captured by Algerian corsairs and sold to different masters before making a daring escape with one of his captors, a French renegade who wished to be reconciled with the Church. Although the account of Vincent’s captivity came from letters he wrote at the time to explain his two year disappearance, most historians today doubt the veracity of the account and speculate that the young Vincent had dropped out of sight because of his heavy debts, and the failure of his attempts to gain an ecclesiastical benefice. Nonetheless, the Vincentian (Lazarist) order also had missions in Algiers and Tunis to bring relief or freedom to captured Christians.

Fast fact: Between 1575 and 1869, there were 82 redemption missions where friars bought the freedom of an estimated 15,500 captives.

Dan, Pierre. Histoire de Barbarie, et de ses corsairs... 2nd ed. Paris : Chez Pierre Rocolet, 1649. SPC 961.023D167h1649

The entire St Vincent de Paul Reading List of books contemporary with St Vincent can be found at: http://library.depaul.edu/Collections/spcaPDF/vdp_readingList.pdf

For more information contact Special Collections & Archives, Room 314, or archives@depaul.edu

Like many of the notable women being celebrated this March during Women's History Month, Amina Wadud has also caused a sensation or two. After authoring the first gender-inclusive critical interpretation of the Qur’an, Wadud continues to publish books, deliver papers, and speak at conferences across the United States and around the world. It was her appearance at DePaul’s 1995 “Islam in America Conference” and DePaul’s subsequent creation of the Islam in America Collection that led her to deposit her papers into the DPU Archives.
 
Born Mary Teasley, Wadud converted to Islam early in her life, changed her name to reflect her chosen religious affiliation, became fluent in Arabic, and earned her master’s and PhD degrees in Near Eastern Studies and Philosophy. Her activism and scholarship for women of the Muslim faith, however, extends beyond these academic boundaries. On two separate occasions Wadud created an international stir by leading prayers and ritual services within a mosque. The depths of resistance in the Islamic tradition to allowing women express their faith in such a way were quickly revealed. Numerous threats also followed the March 18, 2005 midday Muslim prayer, salat-al-jumu’ah, that she led in New York City. As a result Wadud was required to teach her courses at Virginia Commonwealth University by video link for security reasons. Articles relating to this event are located in Box 1, Biographical, Press 2005-2008 of the Amina Wadud Collection.
 
Along with Wadud’s papers, her collection includes copies of all of her publications, including the work she carries out with the international group, Sisters of Islam.
 

To view the finding aid for the Amina Wadud Collection:

http://library.depaul.edu/Collections/spcaPDF/WadudAminaFA.pdf
 

For more information contact Special Collections & Archives, Room 314 or archives@depaul.edu.

One hundred years later and they are still not out of the closet. Far Rockaway pieces together a story contained in a bundle of early twentieth century love letters that the editor Maureen Cummins found at a flea market. Despite her painstaking research to reconstruct the identities and places, the story ends in anonymity for a second time when permission to identify one of the men for the book’s publication was denied by the executor of his estate. Pseudonyms now fill in for the names and places that were once clues. Conspicuous black marks attempt to erase these same identifiers on the facsimile copies of their selected correspondence. It is a powerful reminder that despite our changing times, aspects of our culture are as yet unwilling to accept open homosexuality.

Far Rockaway, is a fine press edition, (or artist book), that beautifully captures the unrequited love story between these two men from 1906-1908. Evoking memory and the sense of longing, the hand bound book covers are soft watercolor gradations of sky: day for the front cover and night for the back. The deluxe limited edition contains selected letters that are precisely duplicated down to their original size and shape. In the book’s introduction, Cummins notes that all too often letters and diaries describing homosexual relationships were destroyed by the owner, or his or her family and as a result, much scholarship on gay sexual history has relied on police records for information. The reproduction of these letters, however, opens a primary source window into the universal aspects of love and loss felt by all.

For more information contact Special Collections & Archives, Room 314.

Far Rockaway: A Romantic Correspondence / edited & with an introduction by Maureen Cummins. SpC 306.76620973 C971f2005

Do you have Great Expectations?
We do.
In fact, we now have the first incarnation of this Charles Dickens classic as serialized in the weekly journal, All the Year Round, which was also “conducted” or edited by Dickens himself. It is now possible to read about Pip and the gang in the highly anticipated weekly installments that characterized popular story-telling in the 1860’s. Equally engaging are the other stories, articles, and social gossip such as “Cheating at Cards,” “Election Time America,” Chinamen’s Dinners,” and “The Queen of the Blue Stockings” that sandwich each new chapter. And as with Miss Havisham and her wedding dress, this version of Great Expectations will spend the rest of its life in Special Collections Room 314 along with the rest of our premier Dickens collection.

SPCD 805 A416d vols. 4 & 5, 1860-1861

With titles like Thought Bombs, who wouldn’t be tempted to take a peek and turn a few pages? For those of you interested in taking a walk on the wild side, the Anthony Rayson Zine Collection serves up a bit of contemporary anarchy, a healthy political rant or two, and an impressive collection of writings and artwork created by incarcerated persons from all over the United States. All of these zines are published and distributed by Rayson through his South Chicago ABC Zine Distro. By one of those fabulous twists of fate, the most radical materials in this library now reside side-by-side with all of those very serious rare old books in the Special Collections and Archives, Room 314.

Thought Bombs, Rayson’s personal zine, blends a generous dose of rebellion into articles on every conceivable topic from the Iraq War to racism to the prison system to the safety of toll booth operators (Rayson’s day job) with covers illustrated by his children. Best of all, he is married to a librarian. His devotion to free speech and education drives his mission to distribute materials to prisoners and to support their creative efforts through publication.

As an active collection, we here in the Special Collections department are always surprised by the content and format of materials we continue to receive in this collection. Rayson, well-known for his crop circle protests against the Peotone Airport expansion, immediately took a copy of the finding aid we created for his collection and turned it into a zine. How’s that for a marketing initiative?

To view the Anthony Rayson Collection finding aid: http://library.depaul.edu/Collections/spcaPDF/RaysonAnthonyFA.pdf