Newberry Library
The Newberry Library , also: Newberry Research Library , is a humanities research library in the city of Chicago in the US state of Illinois in the USA .
It was founded in 1887 and is named after Walter Loomis Newberry (1804–1868), who provided in his will half (2.1 million dollars) of his fortune for the establishment of a library, if his two daughters remained without descendants. This case actually occurred after both daughters died childless in the 1870s.
The building was designed by Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931). The library has been located at 60 West Walton Street, across from Washington Square Park , since 1893 .
The Newberry Library is a reference library and is open to the public with free admission. It is one of the world's leading independent research libraries, with a focus on the humanities, especially American and European cultural history and literature.
The library contains more than 500,000 historical maps, 1.5 million books, and 5 million manuscript pages , including Shakespeare's folio and an original manuscript of the Popol Vuh , the Mayan sacred book .
Web links
- Official website (English). Retrieved July 7, 2008.