Newberry Library. Special Collections Section.

From 1945 until her retirement in 1969, Amy Wood Nyholm served as cataloguer and research librarian for the Newberry's Modern Manuscripts, later Midwest Manuscripts Collection.

Nyholm was hired in 1945 to catalogue manuscript collections newly acquired for the Library by Lloyd Lewis as a result of Librarian Stanley Pargellis' decision to collect personal papers and archives complementing the Library's research strengths (particularly those relating to Chicago and the Midwest). Quickly, Nyholm enlarged her position to include donor relations, reader assistance, and other administrative duties related to the collections.

Prior to the establishment of the Rare Book Room, Mary L. Watson, who was in charge of the Library's first floor Museum of rare materials, was also responsible, along with Pierce Butler, for checking in and out vary rare items kept in a safe in the Librarian's office. During the 1920's, many items originally stored in the Museum were transferred to the safe. In 1962, a vault was constructed in the Library basement. This vault was used until 1982, when a vault in the Library's new bookstack building opened.

In 1911, Newberry Library Trustee Edward E. Ayer presented to the Library his collection of books, manuscripts, maps, and artifacts about the exploration and settlement of the Americas, the American West, American Indians, the Philippines, and the Hawaiian Islands. Ayer also provided a substantial endowment for the Collections's maintenance and growth.

From 1911 until 1963, the Ayer Collection functioned as an independent department and the Ayer Custodians (Clara A. Smith, 1911-1931; Ruth Lapham Butler, 1931-1962) and Curator (Colton Storm, 1962-1963) were responsible for collection administration and acquisitions. In 1963, the Ayer Collection became part the of the Special Collections Department, headed by Colton Storm. When Storm retired in 1966, the responsibility for Ayer acquisitions was transferred to bibliographers Frederick Hall and Richard Colles Johnson.

In conjunction with the founding of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography in 1971, the Library hired its first staff member concerned solely with the Library's map collections, Map Cataloguer (later Curator of Maps) Robert W. Karrow.

Beginning in 1976, Karrow headed the Maps Section of the Reader Services Department. In 1988, the Maps Section was absorbed into the Special Collections Section.

Begun in 1956, the Graff catalogue project was finally completed in 1968 with the publication of "A Catalogue of the Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Americana."

In 1956 Colton Storm was invited to Chicago by Everett D. Graff and Stanley Pargellis (Newberry Librarian, 1942-1962) to catalogue the entire Graff Collection. After viewing the materials, Storm argued for a full published catalogue and soon started working on descriptions for each of the approximately 10,0000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, manuscripts, and maps comprising the collection. To shorten the lengthy manuscript for publication, most secondary sources were eliminated and descriptions were shortened considerably. In 1968, the Catalogue was published for the Newberry by the University of Chicago Press.

Reference correspondence has been answered within the Rare Book Room and Special Collections Department and Section since the 1930's.

Under Librarians Poole, Cheney, Carlton, and Utley, rare book reference inquiries were routed to the Librarian for reply, although initial research was often conducted by staff members. In the 1930's, when Gertrude Loop Woodward became head of the Rare Book Room, reference letters and requests were also handled within the Department. Since the Special Collections Department was established in 1963, correspondence has been fielded by department and section staff members.

An administrative head of Special Collections has existed since a Special Collections Department was created in 1963. Before that date, there were separate administrators, reading rooms, and vaults for rare books and for the endowed special collections (Ayer, Wing).

For thirty-two years (1931-1962), Gertrude Loop Woodward administered the Rare Book Room. Heads of Special Collections (titles vary) since 1963 have included Colton Storm, 1963-1966, Matt. P. Lowman, 1966-1971, John Tedeschi, 1970-1981, Jean Donaldson, 1982-1986, Carolyn Sheehy, 1986-1988, and Robert W. Karrow, 1989- .

Western Americana collection of approximately 10,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, manuscripts, and maps donated to the Newberry Library by Trustee President (1952-1964) Everett D. Graff.

On November 8, 1956, Graff announced his intention of giving his collection to the Newberry and donated the first of his books. Before Graff died in 1964, he had given the Library 501 items; the bulk of the collection came in 1964 as a bequest, along with an endowment for continuing acquisitions. In May, 1966, in accordance with Graff's wishes, duplicates to Newberry titles among the Graff Collection were sold at auction by Parke-Bernat Galleries.

Until 1963, the Newberry Library had no special collections department as it is now constituted (rare books, manuscripts, maps, endowed collections).

During the Library's early years, rare or special collections were maintained in a Museum (founded 1897) and in a Department of Collections (founded 1907). From 1916 to 1930, all rare materials not in Wing or Ayer were accessed through the Main Reading Room. Beginning in 1930, special items were handled through the Rare Book Room, a part of the Public Services Division, opened that year under G. L. Woodward. A year after Woodward's retirement (1963), rare books, manuscripts, and the endowed collections were consolidated in a new Special Collections Department, reporting to the Librarian (later Associate Librarian). The Wing Foundation, though serviced by the Special Collections Reading Room, remained administratively separate from the Department. Since 1976, Special Collections has been a section of the Readers Services Department; however it continued to report to the Associate Librarian until 1987, when a Reader Services Librarian was appointed. In 1988, the Map Section joined Special Collections.