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Collection Essays

In-depth explorations of humanities topics accompanied by primary source sets and discussion questions

19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare in the Nineteenth-Century United States

Jill Gage, Newberry Library
January 29, 2021

20th Century, Collection Essays

Leisure and Entertainment in the Early Twentieth Century

Color photograph of "The Bobs" ride sign. "Bobs" is written in white in all capitals, which an oranage line curving up and down between each letter. The letters and line have lightbulbs in them to illuminate them at night.

Jo Ellen McKillop Dickie, Newberry Library
January 27, 2021

13th Century, 14th Century, 15th Century, Collection Essays

Politics, Poetry, and Religious Life in Late-Medieval England after the Black Death

Woodcut image of three skeletons dancing with one another above a fourth, who is rising out of the grave to join them. On the far left of the image a fifth skeleton plays a pipe.

Dr. Sarah Wilson, Newberry Library
January 6, 2021

20th Century, Collection Essays

Decision 1920

Dr. Paul Durica
December 2, 2020

19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Riots and Protest: Chicago’s Legacy of Conflict

Dr. Rachel Boyle, Omnia History
December 2, 2020

18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Romantic Orientalism

Matthew Clarke, Newberry Library
July 31, 2020

15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

Renaissance Invention: Stradanus’s Nova Reperta

Lia Markey, Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Stephanie Reitzig
June 3, 2020

15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Collection Essays

The Making of the Bible, 400-1700

Dr. Christopher Fletcher, Newberry Library
May 27, 2020

19th Century, Collection Essays

Chicago after the Great Fire

Ginger Frere, MLIS, MBA
February 5, 2020

20th Century, Collection Essays

Women in the Workforce in the United States

Two-page spread entitled "Her Day Begins with a Frantic Race Against the Clock." Photos of Filling at a lunch counter, in a office with a man, walking on the sidewalk, in her bedroom, and reading in the bathroom (clockwise from top right).

Lisa Schoblasky, Newberry Library
October 18, 2019

19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Migration and the Midwest

Rachel Boyle, PhD
June 25, 2019

18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Race, Respectability, and Resilience: African Americans in the Midwest

Cathleen Martin, 2018-19 Mellon Foundation-Newberry Teacher Fellow
May 31, 2019