News

  • 17 Jun 2014 10:36 PM | Audra V. Adomenas
    The minutes from the May 13, 2014 CAA Meeting have been approved and are available to view online here.
  • 09 Jun 2014 12:28 PM | Gretchen Neidhardt (Administrator)

    The Robert M. Meyer Archives in the Society of the Divine Word Chicago Province have started publishing their oral histories online. From their newsletter:

    The Community Histories Project publication is now titled Communities of the Word: Stories of the Chicago Province, 1895-2012. It is being published serially, one chapter each month, and distributed at the same time as the Chicago Province Newsletter. January began with the “Prelude: Milton, Pennsylvania” followed by “Techny, 1895-2012,” “Girard, 1912-1982,” “East Troy, 1921-2012,” and “Miramar, 1922-2012.” Conesus, 1924-1984 was published this June.

    The online serial installments are always available on the Robert M. Myers Archives’ holdings page, Communities of the Word. In addition, a printed version of each installment, addendum materials, photograph captions with identifications, photo credits, and articles from alumni with interesting behind the scenes information and corrections will be available in the SVD Resource Center. The SVD Resource Center is located in the Chicago Province Center next to the archives.
  • 05 Jun 2014 11:50 AM | Gretchen Neidhardt (Administrator)

    From the press release:

    The long, rectangular shape of the Japanese kimono serves as a canvas that has inspired artists and fashion designers for centuries. A new rare book exhibition at the 

    Chicago Botanic Garden explores the history of
    kimo
    no design through hand-printed books of kimono patterns. The display, Moku Hanga: the Art of Japanese Woodblock Printing, runs from May 16 through August 10, 2014, in the Lenhardt Library.

    The elegant hand-inked and hand-bound books first appeared in 1666, and served as reference works for kimono designers and makers centered in Kyoto.

    Filled with images of flowers, grasses, water, trees and wildlife, the works reflect the profound influence of the natural world on the arts of Japan. The pattern books, created by some of Japan’s most famous artists and also by complete unknowns, became an established genre closely following changing tastes. By the early 1700s, fashion called for flamboyant patterns sweeping the length of the kimono, and some incorporated symbols of the samurai.

    Featured in the Moku Hanga exhibition is a lavish sample book published in 1902 by Yaichiro Ichida for the company Ichida Shoten, a high-end kimono draper. The page opens to a gorgeous woodblock print of peonies that would have decorated the interior of a haori, a kimono jacke

    t. Also on display is the first major work of Sekka Kamisaka, considered to be one of the greatest Japanese designers of the twentieth century. The volume, Chigusa: All Kinds of Things, published in 1903, opens to “Snowy Plu

    m under the Moonlight” and “Willow and Cherry Blossoms.”

    A 1905 book by Tamahiro Shimomura contains images from the first twentieth century fashion craze in Japan, the revival of the Genroku era, the golden age of Japanese culture and the byword for elegance, glamour and sophistication. Art nouveau and art deco sensibilities also resonated with Japanese artists, who incorporated elements of the western art movement into their work. Early twentieth-century volumes by Korin Furuya,  an enormously creative and influential artist, present multiple variations of single themes. His finest,Shasei Soka MoyoPatterns of Plants and Flowers, shows a special affinity for the natural world.

    A library talk on Moku Hanga will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 29.

    Moku Hanga: the Art of Japanese Woodblock Printing is generously supported by the Harriet Kay and Harold R. Burnstein Fund for Exhibits.

    Read more about the exhibition! Also note that there will be a library talk on Moku Hanga on Sunday, June 29th at 2pm. The talk is open to the public and registration is not required.

  • 13 May 2014 9:32 PM | Audra V. Adomenas
    The minutes from the April 8, 2014 CAA Members Meeting have been approved and are available to view online here.
  • 08 Apr 2014 8:48 PM | Audra V. Adomenas
    The minutes from the February 19, 2014 CAA Members Meeting have been approved and are available to view online here.
  • 20 Mar 2014 9:53 PM | Audra V. Adomenas
    The minutes from the March 19, 2013 CAA Members Meeting have been approved and are available to view online here.
  • 22 Feb 2014 7:14 PM | Deleted user
    This new Northwestern University Archives exhibit shows how three Northwestern alumnae became early radio stars.

    "Tune in Again: How Three Northwestern University Alumnae Created One of Radio's First Soap Operas" tells the story of the "Clara, Lu 'n' Em" radio show. The show ran from 1930-46 and was written and performed by three alumnae of Northwestern's School of Speech (now School of Communication). "Clara, Lu 'n' Em" was the first radio show written by women. Its midmorning timeslot and sponsorship by a manufacturer of dishwashing detergent made it the first "soap opera."

    “Tune in Again” features scripts, news clippings, posters, photographs, audio, and artifacts from the show, received as a donation to the University Archives from “Em’s” family. While documenting the life of the program and its creators, the exhibit also illustrates how radio stations publicized their programs and how sponsors pushed their products. Audio wands give visitors the opportunity to listen in and laugh along with original broadcasts of Clara, Lu ‘n’ Em programs.

    The exhibit runs through 21 March 2014 at Northwestern University’s Deering Library in Evanston. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Special tours can also be arranged by contacting archives@northwestern.edu.

    Additional information and hours are available at http://www.library.northwestern.edu/news-legacy/2014/february/meet-clara-lu-n-em.
  • 19 Feb 2014 9:20 PM | Audra V. Adomenas
    The minutes from the January 14 CAA Steering Committee Meeting have been approved and are available to view online here.
  • 12 Feb 2014 10:30 PM | Deleted user
    The Park Forest Historical Society will present "Along the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Rail Line" by author Cynthia Ogorek on Sunday, 23 February 2014. Ogorek will be selling and signing her books at the event.

    Ogorek is a public historian and author based in Calumet City, Illinois. Specializing in Calumet Region history, she has produced a series of three books on the region’s transportation history. Her latest, Along the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Rail Line, has won awards from the Illinois State Historical Society, the Illinois Women’s Press Association, and the National Federation of Press Women.

    The author says the secret subtitle for the book is “The non-rail fan's guide to the South Shore--a history of the railroad for ‘the rest of us.’” Once a treasure in the Sam Insull utilities empire, today it is the only functioning electric interurban in the United States.

    Ogorek will give an overview of the history of the company as well as describe how an electric interurban line works and the historic sites you can see from the windows of the South Shore train as it travels the ninety miles between downtown Chicago and the South Bend airport. From a world-class city through the rolling agricultural acres, from steel mills through a national lakeshore, some 200 vintage photographs illustrate the unique view of the Calumet region that South Shore passengers have experienced since it started in 1901 as a three-mile-long trolley line in East Chicago, Indiana.

    Date: 23 February at 2:30 PM
    Location: Park Forest Village Hall, 350 Victory Drive in Park Forest.

    For more information about the event, contact Jane Nicoll of the Park Forest Historical Society at 708-481-4252. Learn more about the Historical Society at www.parkforesthistory.org.

    Photos: Beverly Shores South Shore Railroad Station, Broadway Avenue & North side of U.S. Highway 12, Beverly Shores, Porter County, Indiana. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS, Reproduction Numbers: HABS IND,64-BEVSH,12--2 and HABS IND,64-BEVSH,12--4.
  • 12 Feb 2014 9:34 PM | Deleted user
    The Park Forest House Museum is decorated in February with vintage valentines and decorations in the "Step Back Into a 1950s Valentines Day" exhibit. The classroom, representing Park Forest's first school, is decorated for a 1950s Valentines Day party with crepe paper candy baskets, and construction paper heart-shaped valentine “mailboxes” on each desk. Red honeycomb, puffy hearts, and vintage valentines are on display throughout the house.

    Location: 141 Forest Blvd in Park Forest, Illinois
    Hours: Wednesday and Saturday,10:30 to 3:30; and by appointment on other days.
    Donation: Adults $5: 12 & under free with adult.

    For more information, visit www.parkforesthistory.org.

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