News:
Daniel Burnham at Northwestern: An exhibit to mark the 100th anniversary of architect Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago is now appearing in the Deering Library Corridor. This mastermind of big-city planning became a resident of suburban Evanston in 1887 and designed over twenty buildings in the area. Although Northwestern can claim just one Burnham building — Fisk Hall (1898) — Burnham's connection with Northwestern dates to 1895, when he received an honorary degree, and continued to 1905, when he submitted several potential "Plans of Northwestern" to the Board of Trustees. This exhibit, co-sponsored by the University Library and the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, and featuring materials from the University Archives, includes documents and photographs, blueprints from the construction of Fisk Hall, and sketches of Burnham's proposals for a redesigned Evanston campus — which make for an interesting comparison with the Plan of Chicago he produced a few years later. The exhibit runs through December.
Featured Collection:
Project Survival: The start of the 1970s seemed a dire time for the planet. As scientists warned that pollution and over-population would lead imminently to the end of life as we knew it, students on college campuses across the nation began organizing outreach programs to spread awareness of these dangers and offer solutions. The first official Earth Day was scheduled for April of 1970, but in the preceding months, a handful of schools held events to begin pushing the issues at stake into the public consciousness. The first of these was Project Survival, held that January at Northwestern. An overnight series of lectures, discussions, films, and folk music, it was host to notable scientists and Illinois political figures. By leading the way in what would be a lasting movement, it garnered the nickname "The First Earth Day." Visit out Project Survival site for pictures, documents, and news clippings on the event.
This Month's Highlights:
Opera Workshop: In 1946, Ruth Heiser founded the Northwestern Opera Workshop "to give vocal students the opportunity to learn and perform roles in the standard repertoire." Directed from 1954-57 by Eugene Dressler and from 1958-83 by Robert Gay, the workshop sought both to provide students with performance experience and to advance a more popularly accessible version of the art form. The Workshop mounted operas into the 1980s, including premiers and performances for television, and counted many notable alumni in its ranks. Read more about the history of the program on our blog.
Melvin Pingree Album: An impressive majority of Northwestern's students — 64 percent — answered President Abraham Lincoln's call to arms to fight in the Civil War in 1861. The era of the mid-1860s is documented in a recently-catalogued photograph album belonging to Melvin Pingree, a short-lived member of the class of 1865. The album, now online, illuminates Northwestern's early days and its participation in the Civil War.
Tip of the Month:
Resource Guides: Resource Guides make it easier to determine what research sources the University Archives holds relating to particular topics. The sources may include faculty papers, departmental records, University publications (such as the student newspaper or administrative reports), clippings, and subject files. Among the topics for which the Archives has created guides are: Women at Northwestern, Northwestern and WWI, and Northwestern Architectural Drawings. Visit our resources page for more subjects.
The University Archives:
The Archives has nearly 1000 processed collections and thousands of linear feet of material. Browsing our website can help inspire choices of topics for research or general-interest purposes. Check our Finding Aids site for information about processed collections; our History and Traditions pages and Exhibits sites provide some great ideas; and browse through past entries in our This Day in NU History for items that pique your interest. As most of our holdings are not listed in the library catalogue, we encourage inquiries by those looking for primary source documents.
A few of the topics that Archives visitors investigated this month included:
- European-American educational exchanges
- Development of administrative procedures
- Fraternity and sorority history at N.U.
