Bookshop Exclusives

This remarkable cultural history celebrates the great Midwestern city of Chicago for its centrality to the modernist movement. Author Liesl Olson traces Chicago's cultural development from the 1893 World's Fair through mid-century, illuminating how Chicago writers revolutionized literary forms during the first half of the twentieth century, a period of sweeping aesthetic transformations all over the world. From Harriet Monroe, Carl Sandburg, and Ernest Hemingway to Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olson's enthralling study bridges the gap between two distinct and equally vital Chicago-based artistic "renaissance" moments: the primarily white renaissance of the early teens, and the creative ferment of Bronzeville. Stories of the famous and iconoclastic are interwoven with accounts of lesser-known yet influential figures in Chicago, many of whom were women. Olson argues for the importance of Chicago's editors, bookstore owners, tastemakers, and ordinary citizens who helped nurture Chicago's unique culture of artistic experimentation.

Cover art by Lincoln Schatz

Nerfect Artistic Novelties designed this special-edition Pug to commemorate the reopening of our new-and-improved bookshop in 2018. Wearing a historically accurate costume drawn from the Renaissance-era graphic of a printshop featured on the our bookshop’s wall, this super-cute little guy holds an ink dauber that has left several ink stains on his clothes. Exclusively available at the Newberry, this small-sized version is the perfect size to keep you company--but not too much. Comes in large size as well.

“SNACKS FOR ALL!” cries our Pughouse Square plush pug! Wearing garments appropriate to a soapbox debater, our pug keeps a dill pickle snuggled away in its pocket, referencing the legendary Dil Pickle Bohemian Club, a haven for Chicagoan free thinkers and an inspiration for the Bughouse Square Debates we host every summer. Commemorate the debates (and instigate a debate of your own if you want—why not?) with our custom-made, Bughouse-themed pug.  

Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North reveals this side of the war as it happened, comprehensively examining the visual culture of the Northern home front. Through contributions from leading scholars from across the humanities, we discover how the war influenced household economies and the cotton economy; how the absence of young men from the home changed daily life; how war relief work linked home fronts and battle fronts; why Indians on the frontier were pushed out of the riven nation's consciousness during the war years; and how wartime landscape paintings illuminated the nation's past, present, and future.

A companion volume to a collaborative exhibition organized by the Newberry Library and the Terra Foundation for American Art, Home Front is the first book to expose the visual culture of a world far removed from the horror of war yet intimately bound to it.

The first full-length study of the impact of the discovery of the Americas on Italian Renaissance art and culture, Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence demonstrates that the Medici grand dukes of Florence were not only great patrons of artists but also early conservators of American culture.

In collecting New World objects such as featherwork, codices, turquoise, and live plants and animals, the Medici grand dukes undertook a "vicarious conquest" of the Americas. As a result of their efforts, Renaissance Florence boasted one of the largest collections of objects from the New World as well as representations of the Americas in a variety of media. Through a close examination of archival sources, including inventories and Medici letters, Lia Markey uncovers the provenance, history, and meaning of goods from and images of the Americas in Medici collections, and she shows how these novelties were incorporated into the culture of the Florentine court.

More than just a study of the discoveries themselves, this volume is a vivid exploration of the New World as it existed in the minds of the Medici and their contemporaries. Scholars of Italian and American art history will especially welcome and benefit from Markey's insight.

Traditionally, broadsides were used like posters to announce events or proclamations. This contemporary broadside was used to promote our exhibition Melville: Finding America at Sea. It features text of Melville’s poem “Tom Deadlight” drawn from the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of Melville's Published Poems (the definitive textual edition of Melville's works).

Arranged in the shape of a whale's tail, the beautifully printed text diminishes in size as it descends the page and is accompanied by ornaments representing corpse lights treated with glow-in-the-dark ink.

A colophon at bottom left displays the number of the print and commemorates the exhibition, which was held at the Newberry Library in 2019 (the bicentennial of Melville’s birth).

This gorgeous print was produced for the Newberry by the Chicago print company the Starshaped Press in a limited edition of just 200 copies. 11 by 14", classic small poster size.

11 oz. of Newberry collections history! Enjoy a beverage from a mug showing a collage of bookplates featuring various Newberry's collections. (And that gentleman in the frame? None other than our founder, Walter Loomis Newberry.)

Let's face it: the Newberry collection is pretty neat!

Featuring a double-cordiform (heart-shaped) map based on a Mercator map of the world from 1550, this face mask has three layers, a filter pocket, and adjustable ear loops.

As eco-fabulous as it is easy on the eyes, this wonderful addition to the Newberry's accessory family was made in collaboration with Enviro, a US company that creates totes from recycled material. Measuring 14" by 14", with a 3" gusset and an 11" drop, this new tote is both sturdy and roomy, with handles that allow you to fit it easily over your shoulder. It features a design that utilizes our logo and references our extensive collection of historical typefaces.

Our 1.5 oz mini mason shot glass guaurantees you won't imbibe enough to keep you from your studies!

Our sweet miniature features our Newberry logo on front and back, rendered in blue.

Get your day off to the right start—and show your support of the Newberry while you’re at it—with this sturdy, Newberry-themed mug.

16 Oz of Get Up and Go for your academic (or other) pursuits.

Daniel Greene traces the emergence of the idea of cultural pluralism to the lived experiences of a group of Jewish college students and public intellectuals, including the philosopher Horace M. Kallen. These young Jews faced particular challenges as they sought to integrate themselves into the American academy and literary world of the early 20th century. At Harvard University, they founded an influential student organization known as the Menorah Association in 1906 and later the Menorah Journal, which became a leading voice of Jewish public opinion in the 1920s. In response to the idea that the American melting pot would erase all cultural differences, the Menorah Association advocated a pluralist America that would accommodate a thriving Jewish culture while bringing Jewishness into mainstream American life.