The History of the French In The Americas

This is a vast, vast collection at the Newberry. Most of the items come from the Edward E. Ayer Collection. The collection includes:

• Jesuit missionary correspondence
• Accounts of travel and fur trade between the 16th and 20th centuries
• Primary source materials documenting colonization and interaction with American natives
• History of French Louisiana as well as the Caribbean
• Science and anthropological studies
• Genealogy
• Maps
  

Historical Linguistics

Historical Linguistics at the Newberry are composed of two major collections: the Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte Collection and the Edward E. Ayer Indian Linguistics Collection. The Newberry obtain the Bonaparte collection in 1901, which includes 18,000 different works (mostly dictionaries and grammar books for different languages). Strong representations of languages in this collection include:

• Albanian
• Basque
• Frisian
• Lithuanian
• Celtic
• Sardinian

The Edward E. Ayer Collection includes native languages:

• North American
• Hawaiian
• Philippine

Latin American History

Latin American historical materials can be found both in the Ayer and Greenlee collections of the Newberry Library. One can find information covering the discovery and colonization of different countries in the Americas and many different areas of Latin American history. The collection also dates back to Mayan and Mexican archaeology. One particular movement that is strongly documented in this collection is the spread of Catholicism in Middle and South America between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Music

The music collection at the Newberry began with the acquisition of the collection of Count Pio Resse of Florence. Strengths in this collection exist in the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods, and is composed of 60,000 books, 80,000 scores, and 100,000 pieces of sheet music. In addition, the music collection has several strengths:

• Music theory
• Music history
• Manuscripts
• Scores (opera)
• Hymns, Psalms and liturgies
• Early American music
• History of Chicago music
• Periodicals

Portuguese and Brazilian History: The William B. Greenlee Collection

William B. Greenlee was a trustee at the Newberry Library and a scholar of Portuguese and Brazilian history. He donated his collection, which today numbers over 10,000 volumes, to the Newberry in 1937. Some of the special items in the collection include periodicals and other collections of documents, biographies, travel pamphlets, and historical accounts of both local and national perspectives of Portugal and Brazil.

Making An Appointment

There are some steps involved in beginning one's genealogical or special collection research at the Newberry Library. First and foremost, one must obtain a reading card. A current photo identification and proof of address, as well as research topics are required. The librarians at the library can be contacted in different ways (at the library, phone, or through written correspondence) and help one in his or her research as well.

The Newberry Library
60 W. Walton St.Chicago, IL - 60610

Reading Room Hours:
Tuesday - Thursday: 10 am - 6 pm
Friday - Saturday: 9 am -5 pm

Reference Section:
Fax: (312) 255-3513 - ATTN: Reference Section
Email: reference@newberry.org

Website:
http://www.newberry.org

Research for this blog was conducted using the official website of the Newberry Library, as seen above.

The Newberry Library. 2007. The Newberry Library. 15 Jan 2007.
<http://www.newberry.org>