#Harold Washington

[ukdamo]

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

[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.]

[newyorkthegoldenage]

People gathered beneath the Washington Square Arch, September, 1956. 35 mm color slide.

Photo: Harold Mayer via the Univ. of Wisconsin

[sdpubliclibrary]

Temporary Services

The Library Project

[pandora-books]

Altar for the Unbanned, Harold Washington Library, Chicago. Model: Sunshine

[theinternetisaweboflies]

My favorite place in Chicago is probably the Winter Garden at the top of the Harold Washington Library.

[ask-chubby-hamilton]

I remember this :3

//Went to the DuSable Black History Museum a few hours ago, and it was awesome, but traumatizing.

I feel really bad for my ancestors but i got cool pictures!

Theres more pictures, I'll repost this to show you all of them

[kodachrome-net]

Let the Light In. Harold Washington Library, April 2024

[stillsmybeatingheart]

[seattlefactsijustmadeup]

Seattle Fact #ΣΘΦ:

That one frat house with like 86 jillion shoes hanging from the powerline is where an entire generation of pledges got raptured in 2011.

[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

[blorboresidue]

our library system also has the first volume of よつばと！ yet another big W for the chicago public library system 👍👍👍

[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.]

[curfewplugs]

The Harold Washington Library–State/Van Buren station in Chicago should be a meme

[arcadecastle]

Today is the last day of 2024.

I have completed my associate's degree at Harold Washing College this month. Finally! I wanted to share this accomplishment with Tumblr because when I first started at HWC I would be on this site every day. Matter of fact, on the last day of my first semester of college I posted a selfie on here. I was so happy that I had completed my first semester of college. I understand community college is not all the same as a university, but I am happy to be a ccc grad. So many memories at Harold, I wish I could relive them all over again.

Ed, I am happy for you. I wish you all the best in 20205.

Don't give up, make little Edward proud.

[theinternetisaweboflies]

Art Institute Lion visits other Chicago landmarks