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Northwestern University Posters Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 76/0/3

  • Staff Only
  • No requestable containers

Scope and Contents

The collection contains posters whose dates range roughly from 1900 to 2019 assembled by the University Archives. It is an expanding collection, with new items added as they come in.

The posters within the collection relate to events held on campus, including music and dance performances, film screenings, talks, seminars, panels, book talks, auditions, career fairs, job opportunities, research studies and course openings, among others. Some events reoccur across time. These events include Homecoming, sports game schedules, concert series held at Bienen School of Music, performances by on-campus theater groups such as Waa-mu and the Northwestern Student Theatre Coalition (StuCo), and, from 2010 onward, One Book Northwestern.

Though the majority of events take place on Evanston campus, there are also some off-campus events and organizations present in the collection. For instance, the collection includes posters posted by organizations such as Citibank (advertising credit cards) and the Red Cross (advertising blood drives), as well as events sponsored by museums, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Illinois Arts Council, and universities such as Columbia College Chicago and the University of Kansas.

Dates

  • 1900 - 2019

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on use of the materials in the department for research; all patrons must comply with federal copyright regulations. Contact repository for details on searching poster index.

Extent

81 Boxes

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Collection contains posters relating to Northwestern University activities whose dates range roughly from 1900 to 2019 assembled by the University Archives. It is an expanding collection, with new items added as they come in.

Arrangement

Within each box, posters are labelled 00-000, with box number listed before the hyphen and item number listed after.

Other Finding Aids

Files are available containing images, descriptions, and dates of all posters included in the collection for assistance in research and retrieval. The Poster Archive Master File is a spreadsheet of all posters, including date, organization affiliated, event details and box number of each item. Photographs of each poster corresponding to the poster’s item number in the Master File are also available.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection comes from posters gathered from bulletin boards and university groups across the Northwestern campus.

Title
Guide to the Northwestern University Posters Collection
Author
Claire Pak, archives staff and students, 2019-2021.
Date
10/21/2019
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
  • Poster Archive Master File

Library Details

Part of the Northwestern University Archives Repository

Contact:
Deering Library, Level 3
1970 Campus Dr.
Evanston IL 60208-2300 US
847-491-3635