Spotlight on Special Collections

  • Special Collections Closed for Winter Break

    Posted on December 21, 2018

    Special Collections will be closed for Winter Break (December 24, 2018 through January 1, 2019). We will reopen with normal hours (9 […]

  • Tracing Snowflakes

    Posted on December 19, 2018

    Unseasonably warm temperatures here in Madison have recently melted what little snow we have received this season. By way of what we’re missing, […]

  • Thanksgiving & the Peter Pauper Press

    Posted on November 20, 2018

    As we prepare for a brief Thanksgiving break (please see a calendar of the Libraries’ hours for the holiday weekend and beyond), we […]

  • Women and the Great War: Titles in the Cairns Collection of American Women Writers

    Posted on November 12, 2018

    Among the strengths of the Cairns Collection of American Women Writers are titles about women’s roles in World War I. In this, […]

  • Commemorating the Armistice

    Posted on November 11, 2018

    One hundred years ago, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, fighting in the war to end […]

  • Owls for Halloween

    Posted on October 30, 2018

    Though our abundant holdings of illustrated ornithological works feature many an owl, this Halloween we turn instead to Hootie Toots of Hollow Tree […]

  • Mandrake in Dodoens’ New Herbal (1578)

    Posted on October 12, 2018

    In honor of this weekend’s symposium “On Human Nature: Machiavelli’s Mandrake at 500,” we offer a look at the account and depiction of the […]

  • “Stupendous and Marvelous Secrets”: Secret No More (Part II)

    Posted on October 3, 2018

    We continue our exploration of so-called books of secrets (secreti italiani) in the Duveen Collection, recently digitized as part of the subcollection […]

  • “Stupendous and Marvelous Secrets”: Secret No More (Part I)

    Posted on September 9, 2018

    Some of the smallest treasures of the Duveen Collection of Alchemy and Early Chemistry, cataloged under the collective title of “Miscellaneous pamphlets […]

  • Draining Land, 18th-Century Style

    Posted on September 3, 2018

    As Madison and Dane County cope with widespread flooding, we turn to earlier examples of water control – an 18th-century illustration of […]

  • New Online Request System for Special Collections

    Posted on August 12, 2018

    A new online request system, shared with University Archives, Mills Music Library, and Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, and linked closely with the […]

  • Alchemy and Other Curiosities

    Posted on July 6, 2018

    This year’s Madison Early Music Festival, with its theme “A Cabinet of Curiosities: Journey to Lübeck,” offers us the opportunity to showcase […]