Many UChicago students are aware of the fantastic resources available on campus, but not many recognize the wealth of knowledge residing outside of Hyde Park. This Chicago Studies Conversation was inspired by a podcast recorded with Hannah Edgar (AB 2018), who made use of primary documents in the Newberry's collection to shed light on the life and work of Claudia Cassidy. The episode featuring Hannah will be released on Monday, November 9th and will serve as a backdrop to the conversation. The sessions will consist of a short presentation from Nora Titone (The Court Theatre) and Will Hansen (Newberry Library).
Nora has worked as a historical researcher for a range of academics, writers and artists involved in projects about nineteenth-century America, drawing heavily on archival materials in writing her first book, My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to An American Tragedy. Will manages the Department of Reader Services at Newberry Library, which serves researchers at the reference desks, in the reading rooms, and outside the Newberry’s walls via email and other communications, in addition to collecting current monographs, antiquarian books, and manuscript Americana for the Newberry. He has curated or co-curated exhibitions on Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, the Bloomsbury Group, female writers of the Victorian era, Alexander Hamilton, and other topics, and is currently working on the Newberry exhibition ¡Viva la libertad! Latin America and the Age of Revolutions, to open in April 2021.
We recommend this conversation especially to students interested in the use of primary sources and the use of such resources in writing academic work.
Session recorded live on Friday, 11/13, 12:30-1:30 PM CDT. View the film on YouTube, above or at this URL.
After listening, we hope you'll:
- Learn more about the Newberry Library and its collection
- Check out our Chicago Studies Annuals for a plethora of Chicago-based research using these very sources
- Watch our conversation with Media Burn Archive to discover a great new archive of primary source material