#harold washington library

[copperbadge]

[ID: An architectural model standing on a wooden plinth; the model has cut-away walls and funky windows, and shows four floors of a large public building with tables, shelves, chests of drawers, stairs and escalators, etc. including tiny models of people going up the stairs.]

The Harold Washington Library Center or HWLC as we call it (I always say "HWLC!" like I'm a viking about to recite an epic poem) is a massive nine-storey library in downtown Chicago, and it's also my local library. I've been going there lately some evenings to write without being harassed by cats. The Royals And The Ramblers really should be dedicated to the Harold Washington Library.

ANYWAY, on the eighth floor they have an exhibit off in a corner of models of rejected designs for the library. Above you can see one of them, but if something looks a little off, it did to me too. It turns out that the glue holding the ceiling tiles of the model in place has begun to fail, and a terrible structural collapse has struck.

OH THE HUMANITY! Someone rescue that poor woman! That dude on the right nearly got his head taken off! THERE ARE CHILDREN ON THE STAIRS! SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!

[ID: The second image is a close-up of the main stairs of the model, which shows a number of ceiling tiles have fallen to the ground. Some have knocked over a woman who lies among them; others block peoples' way, or lean precariously over them while balanced on railings. It looks actually very convincingly like the model of a real disaster.]

#chicago #harold washington library #hwlc #library #models

[phyllisasinyanbi]

Harold Washington Library: Resource for kids' summer fun

Free fun for kids and teens this summer!

There are fun activities from July 14 – July 21, for children at Harold Washington Library, in downtown Chicago. If you live in the city, you can use the bus or “el” train to avoid the cost of parking. The Thomas Hughes Children’s Library located on the 2nd floor is a whole vibe. It was renovated in 2017, is kid friendly, and features programs for infants to teens. Here’s what’s coming up . .…

View On WordPress

#Chicago #Downtown #Harold Washington Library #Summer Fun #Thomas Hughes Library

[tarer-offs]

In a Chicago School at the Harold Washington Library

#Harold Washington Library

[chaeopteryx]

#harold washington library #chicago

[rabbitcruiser]

Bibliomania Day

Stephen Blumberg loved books. It has been written that “it was his habit to read constantly through the night, cat-napping, walking, reading, dozing, waking, reading again, never fully sleeping.” Stephen Blumberg didn’t just love books, he was a bibliomaniac. Bibliomania is when someone has a strong love of books, where they collect them to the point of hoarding, and social relations and health may suffer. Symptoms may include acquiring more books than would be useful for any reason or getting many copies of the same book. The term was coined by John Ferriar, who published a poem in 1809 with the word as its title, for his friend Richard Heber, who had the condition. The term became used to describe obsessive book collectors. That same year, Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin published Bibliomania; or Book Madness. Bibliomania is different from bibliophilia, which is a healthy form of love for books.

On March 20, 1990, Stephen Blumberg’s bibliomania caught up with him. He was arrested for stealing more than 23,600 books (weighing 19 tons) from 268 libraries, universities, and museums. It had taken him over 20 years to steal them, and he got them from 45 states, Washington D.C., and Canada. After originally being thought to be valued at around $20 million, the value of the books was estimated at $5.3 million. He is known as the number one book thief in American history and became known as the Book Bandit. The books he stole, which included a first edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin among other rare books, became known as the “Blumberg Collection.”

An acquaintance of Blumberg, Kenneth J. Rhodes, turned him in for a $56,000 reward. During Blumberg’s trial, a psychiatric doctor let it be known that Blumberg had gone through psychiatric treatment as an adolescent. The defense claimed that Blumberg had stolen the books because of psychiatric issues beyond his control. According to the defense, Blumberg had thought he was saving the books from destruction by stealing them. He thought that the government was trying to keep them so that everyday people wouldn’t have them, and he thought he was acting as custodian of the books and doing something good. Because he was well-intentioned, he said he would have never sold any of the books for a profit, and hoped they would go to another person who would take good care of them after he was gone. Nonetheless, he was sentenced to 71 months in prison and given a $200,000 fine, and insanity or psychology wasn’t factored into the decision. He was released on December 29, 1995, and has since been arrested for burglary multiple times.

On Bibliomania Day, we remember Stephen Blumberg and his remarkable feat of stealing over 23,600 books. Could you buy, steal, or gather together that many books? Probably not, but you aren’t the world’s most famous bibliomaniac. Perhaps on Bibliomania Day, you could at least try.

How to Observe

Celebrate the day by getting as many books as possible. It’s probably best not to steal them as Stephen Blumberg did, but that’s a decision you will have to make for yourself. You could start by getting some books about bibliomaniacs, such as A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books or The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession. After that your options are limitless. As bibliomaniacs tend to collect any and all books, regardless of their value, you could just start trying to gather up any books you can find. But maybe it’s best to start by getting some of the best fiction or non-fiction books of all time.

Source

#Brumback Library #Van Wert #Rose Main Reading Room #Midtown Manhattan #New York City #Stephen A. Schwarzman Building #Library of Parliament #USA #Ottawa #Old Colorado City Branch Carnegie Library #Colorado Springs #Boston Public Library #McKim Building #Adams County Public Library #Gettysburg #Harold Washington Library Center #Chicago #Canada #Vancouver Public Library #Bibliomania Day #20 March #BibliomaniaDay #architecture #cityscape #original photography

[ukdamo]

Today's Flickr photo with the most hits: the Winter Garden of the Harold Washington Library, Chicago.

#chicago #Harold Washington #library #winter garden

[dlyarchitecture]

#Harold Washington Library Center #Chicago

[copperbadge]

Prowly thinks this book is an instruction manual and he is interested in learning.

[ID: Prowly the Halloween Owl is sitting on a shelf at the Harold Washington Library Center; he is seated in amongst volumes on publishing and bookbinding. Directly behind him are three copies of The Map Thief, a book about a rare map dealer who made a fortune selling stolen goods.]

#owl on the prowl #prowly #harold washington library center #we in it and photobombing it

[clonefandomevents]

Haunted Clone Week Prompts!

Here are the prompts for the Haunted Clone Week! There were so many good options and ideas, that we decided to give a total of nine prompts a day! As well as two Free Days, and a little surprise Bonus as well! Can't wait to see what they inspire!

Day 1- October 23rd

-Folklore, Mysteries and Regional Gothic of South America; Haunted Kamino

-Ghost Ships

-Time Loops

-Space Bermuda Triangle

-Dark Between the Stars

NSFW Prompt- Battlefield Sex

-"You said I killed you- haunt me then!" from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Day 2-October 24th

-Folklore, Mysteries and Regional Gothic of Africa; Haunted Christophsis

-Force Ghosts

-Left Behind

-Not Quite Human

-Bloody Hands

-NSFW Prompt- Blood Kink

-"Ghosts are guilt, ghosts are secrets, ghosts are regrets and failings. But most times, most times a ghost is a wish." (The Haunting of Hill House)

Day 3- October 25th

-Folklore, Mysteries and Regional Gothic of Europe; Haunted Umbara

-They Don't Know They're Dead

-Marching Far Away (But Still Beside Me)

-Body Horror -Please Not Again

-NSFW Prompt-Ghost Sex

-“I’m scared to close my eyes, I’m scared to open them. We’re gonna die out here.” — Heather Donahue, “The Blair Witch Project”

Day 4- October 26th

-Folklore, Mysteries and Regional Gothic of Australia; Haunted Felucia

-Ghost Stories

-Trapped and Not Alone

-Eldritch Horror

-Moonlight

-NSFW Prompt-Knife Play

-"Dozens of eyes looked out from the trees"

Day 5- October 27th

-Folklore, Mysteries and Regional Gothic of North America; Haunted Dothomir

-Mistaking a Ghost for a Living Person

-Marching Back (Dead Clones Coming Back)

-The Witching Hour

-Accidentally Cursed

-NSFW Prompt-Ritual Sex

-"Soldier keep on marching on/Head down till the work is done" - "Soldier" by Fleurie

Day 6- October 28th

-Folklore, Mysteries and Regional Gothic of Asia; Haunted Coruscant

-Haunted Space Ships

-Their Armor Holds Thier Souls

-Glowing Eyes in the Dark

-Fog

-NSFW Prompt-Possession

-"It seems to me that the dead only return for love or for revenge. Who did you come back for?" from White is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Days 7 &8- October 29th-30th

Free Days! Have a prompt you liked, but wasn't included? Have a spooky idea that doesn't quite fit one of the other days? These are the days designed specifically for you!

BONUS!- October 31st

So, I apparently am not good at counting. Which gave us an extra day to the week on accident! So, we decided to do something a little different for the accidental bonus day.

Twist An Episode Day!

-Basically, it's take any episode of Clone Wars, Bad Batch, anything the clones are in and twist it so the CLONES are the ones coming out on top. Do something to an episode so that it's the soldiers fighting, not the corrupt leadership, who benefit. Preferably something a little out there, a lil spooky, but it can be whatever you want. Use the extra day so that for once, it's the clones winning.

-Links to Photo Prompts origins below

#haunted clone week #clone wars events #clone wars week #clone centric #clone troopers #spooky season #prompts

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Born in 1923, and after a career as a textbook publisher and graphic designer, Chicago-based printer Muriel Underwood came late to book making and letterpress printing in 1990. In 1995, she printed this little book, A Little Bit About Punctuation and Other Funny Marks, in Chicago under her Miscellaneous Graphics imprint in a limited edition of 90 copies signed by the printer.

She began research on punctuation in 1979 at the Newberry Library and continued intermittently there and in Special Collections at the Chicago Public Library, now the Harold Washington Library. Printing for this book began in the Type Shop of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which she had attended after her discharge from the Marines in 1946, and finished in a friend's basement, using a Chandler & Price treadle press at each place. The typeface is 10 pt. Centaur with illustrations in "large metal type adn cuts made from art from numerous sources."

Our copy is a donation from the estate of our late friend, printer and collector Dennis Bayuzick.

Now this is a joyful printer!!

View other books from the collection of Dennis Bayuzick.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

#Typography Tuesday #typetuesday #punctuation #Muriel Underwood #A Little Bit About Punctuation and Other Funny Marks #Miscellaneous Graphics #Centaur type #Dennis Bayuzick

[prettybindings]

Sunshine at the Altar for the Unbanned, Harold Washington Library, Chicago, April 2024

#women and books #banned books #theaster gates #banned #unbanned #granville hicks #sunshine

[nordleuchten]

did georges have any friends in america, i know he was trying to stay undercover but since he stayed with the hamiltons a bit he had philip who was in close age, and other kids in the hamilton house that georges could’ve talked to. i’m very interested in georges but I can’t seem to really find anything about his stay in america besides the letters with washington and hamilton♥️

Dear Anon,

thank you for the question. I really like to see all the interest that Georges received lately on this blog!

While it is true that Georges (born December 24, 1779) was quite close in age to Philip Hamilton (born January 22, 1782) I do not believe that were that close. I have never seen any source, letters for example, that suggested that the two were close. Georges stayed only a short time with the Hamilton’s and his and Philip’s friendship therefor would have to develop quickly. I am not an expert on the Hamilton’s, so somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that Philip was during this time quite busy with his studies and he and his younger brother Alexander Hamilton jr. only spend the weekends with their family. If I am correct, Georges would have little interaction with the two oldest boys. He himself was busy continuing his studies and was overall in a dark state of mind. Georges, still almost a child, had gone through a series of life-changing events and did not seem to be in the mood to socialize or to find new friends. Even if he forged meaningful connections with the Hamilton children, they did not make him feel better. Hamilton wrote on December 24, 1795 to George Washington:

Young La Fayette appears melancholy and has grown thin. A letter lately received from his mother which speaks of something which she wishes him to mention to you (as I learn from his preceptor) has quickened his sensibility and increased his regret. If I am satisfied that the present state of things is likely to occasion a durable gloom, endangering the health & in some sort the mind of the young man (…).

“From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 24 December 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 19, July 1795 – December 1795, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1973, pp. 514–515.] (06/28/2023)

When Georges came to live with his godfather George Washington, he seemed to have formed a close bond with Elizabeth “Eliza” Parke Custis Law and Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis Lewis. The two sisters were the children of John Parke Custis, Martha Washingtons only surviving son and George Washingtons adopted son. The relationship with Nelly appears to have been especially close.

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis wrote on January 26, 1825, to her friend Elizabeth Bordley Gibson:

Georges has had a beautiful engraving of his father, a proof copy of the fine painting, framed for me. I shall bring it home soon – only two were sent from France, the Genl had presented one to Commodore [illegible], & this, George was resolved no one but me should have, & that no one but himself should present it. You may judge how precious it will be to me [paper torn] I know of his family, [paper torn] more attached I feel to them all. [paper torn] [illegible] love George dearly, indeed no one could see him, & listen to him, as we do here, & not love, esteem & respect him. The world are unacquainted with half his excellence & estimable qualities of heart & head – Did I tell you that I had received charming letters from his wife & sisters (…)

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, Woodlawn, to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, Philadelphia, 1825 January 26, A-569.110, Box: 4, Folder: 1825.1.26. Elizabeth Bordley Gibson collection, A-569. Special Collections at The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Accessed June 28, 2023.

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis wrote on December 25, 1838, to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson:

I am sorry, I have not received the memoirs of Lafayette. I have nor heard for a long time from my dear Brother George.

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, Woodlawn, to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, Spruce Street Philadelphia, 1838 December 25, A-569.161, Box: 5, Folder: 1838.12.25. Elizabeth Bordley Gibson collection, A-569. Special Collections at The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Accessed June 28, 2023.

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, wrote on August 4, 1851 to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson:

I regret your disappointment in regard to your letter from Miss Below [?] but I have sustained a greater loss – Oscar Lafayette wrote to me immediately after the death of his father, my faithful friend & brother, giving me all the particulay of that event.

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1824 October, A-569.104, Box: 3, Folder: 1824.10.00. Elizabeth Bordley Gibson collection, A-569. Special Collections at The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Accessed June 28, 2023.

There are several letters from Nelly, Eliza and Georges in the special collections at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Most of them are from the time of La Fayette’s American Tour of 1824/25 or from later years. But there are also two farewell letters from the time that Georges and his mentor Felix Frestel left the Washingtons. While Eleanor’s letters in particular are mostly digitalized, Georges letters are only published with short summaries or keywords. I therefor mainly focused on Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis’ descriptions of her and Georges’ relationship but all that we have suggests that Georges felt the same.

While he was not a friend Georges made in America, we should not forget Felix Frestel, the man who accompanied Georges to America. Employed as Georges’ tutor prior to the French Revolution, the young man soon surpassed himself in the fulfillment of his duties. What he did for Georges, and indeed the whole family, carried a great personal risk. Once in America, he was Georges’ father, and mother, teacher, mentor, advocate, protector and friend. Georges and his family never forgot what Frestel had done, and the two families remained very close. Georges would later refer to Frestels younger son in a letter to Monsieur Guittére dated April 12, 1832:

(…) a young friend of mine, whom I love as I would love a younger brother.

Archives départementales de Sein-et-Marne - La Fayette, une figure politique et agricole (05/16/2022).

Washington commented in a letter to La Fayette from October 8, 1797:

Mr Frestal has been a true Mentor to George. No Parent could have been more attentive to a favourite Son; and he richly merits all that can be said of his virtues—of his good sense—and of his prudence. Both your son and him carry with them the vows, and regrets of this family, and of all who know them.

“From George Washington to Lafayette, 8 October 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 1, 4 March 1797 – 30 December 1797, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 390–391.] (06/28/2023)

I hope that helped and I hope you have/had a lovely day!

P.S.: You mentioned that you find it hard to come across information about Georges’ stay in America. A week or so ago I had an ask about some general resources concerning Georges – maybe that was you or maybe you have seen it. If not, you might find this post useful. :-)

#ask me anything #anon #marquis de lafayette #la fayette #french history #american history #history #french revolution #letter #georges de la fayette #founders online #alexander hamilton #philip hamilton #martha washington #george washington #felix frestel #1779 #1782 #1795 #1825 #1838 #1851 #oscar de la fayette #john parke custis #elizabeth parke custis law #eleanor oarke custis lewis #elizabeth bordley gibson #handwriting

[imadeoutwithmikeywayonwarpedtour]

i ❤️ harold washington library

[rabbitcruiser]

Clouds (No. 788)

Chicago

#Idee di Pietra (Ideas of Stone) by Giuseppe Penone #Museum Campus #travel #Grant Park #Chicago #architecture #cityscape #landmark #tourist attraction #summer 2016 #original photography #skyline #skyscraper #Midwestern USA #Great Lakes Region #Harold Washington Library Center #Marina Towers #American Furniture Mart #Carbide & Carbon Building #USA #Illinois

[ashtrayfloors]

the time period that’s heaviest on my mind is the final four months of 2003, August-December. it has been coming to me in flashes - Weakerthans songs, but just snippets of them, like I’ve found them briefly thru the radio static and then lost the channel. gray midwestern skies as seen thru the window of the Metra train. orange-red-yellow leaves glowing almost electric thru the gray. and when you’re standin on the fourteenth floor / you can always feel a building swayin. the cobalt-blue walls of my sometimes-bedroom. the couches and floors I often slept on. the various branches of the Chicago Public Library where I worked on my novel, did my schoolwork, wrote emails to my far-away loves; usually Merlo or Harold Washington. the cafes and bars I sat in, scribbling in my journal, writing paper letters, reading novels, reading zines written by friends. the cigarettes welded to my lips. how I was so lonesome, so sad, so free—in love with so many people but beholden to none of them, the whole world made me ache, my heart broke every day and I cried all the time but it was also one of the most intensely creative periods of my life. and of course, love. the girls and boys who made me cry, especially that unholy trinity—A., B., CT; Chicago, Cincinnati, Montreal.

[September 6, 2017]

#ashtrayfloors #my writing #journal entry #excerpt #nostalgia embedded within nostalgia #memory #way down here on canal street #fucking christ #2017 #2003

[burritosandpeppermint]

Everyone can calm down, I finally got my library card.

And a map to the main library.

And I took pictures of the ninth floor, as one should.

The Harold Washington Library is fucking awesome. Still noted by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest public library in the world, it was actually constructed during most of your lifetimes and completed in 1991, and since it's in Chicago IT'S THE MOST LIBRARY:

Like, in a city known for skyscrapers and amazing buildings, it doesn't tower over the skyline, but it's automatically recognizable as a huge, immoveable, block-dominating civic building, just brash and in-your-face, which is appropriate for Chicago.

Our library is huge. Don't like it? Well, keep walking east and there's a lake you can jump into.