News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah
“–Why me? –That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? ...
“The noblest acquisition of mankind is speech; and the most useful art is that of rendering it visible: that distinguishes Man from the brute creation…” — Edmund Fry, Pantographia ...
“I’ve never seen her before,” thought the building, squarely studying the girl across the street who, newspaper in hand, had stopped to stare. “What is she looking at, anyway?...
“To the millions of workingmen and workingwomen of this country to who justly belongs the wealth created by them, this volume is dedicated.” — Terence V. Powderly Thirty Years of Labor T...
“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettie...
The Rare Books Department welcomes U back to school! Do you have your textbooks ready? How about your reading primers? Primers were a type of textbook that taught students how to read. Initially, they...
Search for material in the rare book collections in Usearch. Access the rare book collections by visiting the Special Collections Reference and Reading Rooms, level 4.
The Rare Books Division of Special Collections holds more than 80,000 books, maps and ephemera documenting the record of human communication from clay tablet to artists’ book. Collection strengths include illuminated manuscript facsimiles; Mesoamerican codex facsimiles; Arabic papyrus, parchment and paper fragments; Middle Eastern manuscript and print material; published works on science, travel and exploration; the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; fine press and artists’ books; and the works of twentieth century authors such as Robinson Jeffers, Ernest Hemingway, Wallace Stegner and others. Smaller but equally important collections include material on European politics, law, literature, philosophy, medicine, and performance arts; United States constitutional history and much more. The rare book collections preserve a heritage of thought, artistic endeavor, and innovation that inspires the human spirit today. By actively collecting, preserving, and digitizing material of historical and aesthetic importance, the Rare Books Division provides reference, research and educational access to local, regional and international communities – strengthening the ability of faculty to teach, students to learn, and communities to find common denominators.
– Novum Organum, 1620