In 1776, ideas traveled not by screen or signal, but by ink and paper. Pamphlets, newspapers, and broadsides carried revolutionary thought from print shops into the public sphere, sparking debate, dissent, and, ultimately, the fight for independence. Nearly 250 years later, Utah is inviting residents...
Dear Rare Reader, Another year is officially in the books! 2025 was full of collaboration, growth, and impact, all of which was possible because of you — our wonderful, bookish community. Take a look at what we’ve accomplished this year, together. Cheers for now, The University of Utah’s...
“The literary and private press worlds are small and intertwined wherever they are, and the Rocky Mountain West is no exception.” — Richard L. Hardesty Dear Rare Reader, We hope the year has begun kindly for you. Here in the Salt Lake Valley, we’re still waiting for an...
“But well or poorly designed and printed, in a collector’s album or on billions of Christmas greetings each year, each stamp has a message of its own, best expressed in the words of the original good tidings of great joy!” - Belmont Faries Dear Rare Reader, We hope...
“One of the supreme pleasures available to man is knowledge, discipline, intelligence guiding the hand to create beautiful and intellectually desirable objects.” - Lewis Allen Dear Rare Reader, This blog post is the second in a three-part series. To read the preceding post, click here. — As we learned last week,...
“For if the present generation find them merely “old-fashioned,” in a few decades, they would appear “quaint” and “curious,” and finally be considered very interesting ephemerae of a very interesting period in English art production.” - Gleeson White on the subject of holiday cards Dear Rare Reader, As always,...
The Rare Books Department invites you to view its most recent virtual lecture: Books to Die for. This October has been a frighteningly busy month for the University of Utah’s Rare Books Department as we prepared for our spookiest event of the year, “BOO!ks to Die For,”...
"I think about food the way I think about art and literature. I think of them all as these really simple, effective links. They all kind of create their own systems of communication." - Sandra Trujillo Wednesday, October 15, marked the final day of Hispanic Heritage Month. The...
This October, in collaboration with Bookish SLC, the Rare Books Department invites you to step beyond the library’s familiar daylight glow and into the dark and twisted corners of book history. The veil between this world and the next will lift at precisely 6:00 p.m. on...
"On leaf of pam, on sedge-wrought roll, On plastic clay and leathern scroll, Man wrote his thoughts; the ages passed, And to! the Press was found at last!" - John Greenleaf Whitter, The Library What are Palm Leaf Manuscripts? Before the introduction of paper, palm leaf manuscripts were the most popular writing...