Thanks for Sharing Our Special Collections Journey

As the semester winds down... 

We are wrapping up our blog review of Illinois State University's Special Collections at Milner Library. We've enjoyed learning about and experiencing what Milner has to offer and hope you have gotten something worthwhile from our posts.

This will be our last post, but if you are interested in experiencing Milner Library's Special Collections for yourself or wondering how you can contribute to their collections, check out their homepage and feel free to reach out to their staff to touch base.

You can access any of our reviews under "Pages" or click on the links below by title.

To end, we would like to share with you what Maureen Brunsdale, the head of Milner's Special Collections, had to say when we asked her about how the department was started and what people should know about it.


"It began with Eleanor Weir Welsh, Milner Library’s Director.  She started three special collections – Children’s Literature, Rare & Fine Books and the Circus & Allied Arts Collection.  (The Lincoln Collection came to us from Harold K. Sage in the mid-1970s.)  As to our passion for the place:  It’s the materials entrusted to us and the people – like you – who we get to interact with, that bring us enthusiasm.  We work hard to integrate the materials under our care into the curricular offerings at ISU and are delighted when they do get used!!  
 It’s the coolest place on campus – because it is here where all the fabulous items in all four collections reside!  These things belong to yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s students, faculty, and staff."

Thank you!

Donnie and Rakesh

Spooky Halloween Stories

 

Jesse Fell's Civil War

 

Life of Luisita Leers

 

Lois Lenski-The Jungle Book-Winnie The Pooh

 

Art Concello and Clyde Beatty

 

Harold Sinclair's Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Special Collections Stories

Recently, we have published three pages telling stories documented within Illinois State University's Special Collections at Milner Library. Please check them out and let us know what you think!

Harold Sinclair, Author

Art Concello and Clyde Beatty, Circus Masters

Lois Lenski-The Jungle Book-Winnie The Pooh, Classic Children's Literature

Luisita Leers - The Power Woman's Struggle

Luisita Leers - Strong is the new pretty

An Extraordinary Place in a Town Called Normal

Thanks for checking out our blog! We are Donnie and Rakesh, two students in the MBA program at Illinois State University. We have set up this site with the goal of sharing our journey in exploring a unique resource on our campus. Recently, we were introduced to Milner Library's Special Collections (website)

(Milner Library, in the throes of construction on the nearby Bone Student Center)

 The Extraordinary Special Collections of Illinois State University

Special Collections, on the 6^th floor of Milner, contains a wealth of extraordinary items focused around four particular collections related to Rare and Fine Books, Abraham Lincoln, Children's Literature and Historical Textbooks, and (of particular pride to the department) Circus and Allied Arts. You can find out a little more about Special Collections by checking out this interview (link) with  Maureen Brunsdale, the head of Special Collections at Milner.

(The entrance to ISU's Special Collections)

Milner's Special Collections is open to the public and to Illinois State's faculty, students, and alumni. Scholars from all over the world come to Milner to review the treasures of Special Collections. Therefore, if you are looking for things to do in Bloomington-Normal area, here is a fun-n-fine place to visit. To protect the materials, you need to be buzzed into and out of the collections area. Hands must be washed first, only pencils are to be used to prevent accidental damage from permanent pen, and bags must be checked at the front counter.

An Introduction to ISU's Unique Collections at Milner Library 

There are over 35,000 items in Special Collections, according to the Milner Library online search function. The process of narrowing down what to review for our blog, has been little overwhelming and definitely thought-provoking journey so far. There is so much to see and to write about! What we want to do is really highlight just some of the unique offerings of Special Collections and share our experiences in reviewing them, to hopefully give you as reader some inspiration into what types of special collections journeys you could take. Also, we hope that you will find our posts educational and give you greater understanding and deeper context about the topics we'll cover. We can't pretend to be experts in the materials we'll review, but our blog is the only place where you will find detailed insights into Milner's Special Collections without physically visiting the premise.


Our other pages

• Harold Sinclair's Life
• Circus & Allied Arts -Art Concello and Clyde Beatty
• Children's Historical Literature - Lois Lenski - The Jungle Book - Winnie The Pooh