Pepperoni pizza, anyone? We're not quite sure why, but this week's #MarbledMonday is making us feel a bit hungry! Whet your appetite for knowledge with Das erste Buch für Kinder, die gern bald lesen lernen wollen from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social: go.library.illinois.edu/Marbled1810

Happy first day of classes, Illini! Get back to basics with this 1552 Abcedarium Anglico-Latinum ; protyrunculis Richardo Huloeto exscriptore from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social

All caught up on your summer reading and looking for something different? Look no further than our Exhibits page! This image comes from a deep dive into our quality control metrics that help ensure our images are faithful representations of the physical objects from various special collections.

July is Read an Almanac Month, and appropriately for today's weather, the marbled endpaper from this @illinoisrbml.bsky.social one looks like it has been feeling the heat! Alla Nina lontana : almanacco per l'anno bisestile 1824: go.library.illinois.edu/AllaNina #MarbledMonday

Spot the Difference: Map Edition! Each half of this map from @illinoismaps.bsky.social was photographed with the same lighting and camera settings. The difference? The background! While we usually use black for contrast, some translucent materials require white. Which one would you choose?

Are you feeling the heat? Cool off with this recipe for Helado de Coco! This recently digitized cookbook from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social was compiled by Maria Luisa Sanchez in the 1920s. Find this recipe and more: go.library.illinois.edu/MariaLuisaSa...

Gwendolyn Brooks was born #OnThisDay in 1917. We're celebrating by looking back at her Black Scrapbook, part of the Gwendolyn Brooks Digital Collection from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social Learn more about how we digitized it: go.library.illinois.edu/DigitizingBr...

We showed our experiment with cross-polarization the other week, and now here is the final result! Glossy paper and staples can often result in specular highlights that "blow out" the image, but we were able to account for them through cross-polarization.

Close out Preservation Week by checking out our new video with Senior Digital Imaging Specialist Rachael Johns on creating facsimiles of special collections material and how to edit files for perfect printing: go.library.illinois.edu/FacsimileFil...

To continue the Preservation Week fun, take a look at some images from our recent experiment with gold leaf. An axial light source positioned in different ways with different power levels changes how the gold leaf pops and draws the eye in different directions. Which image would you choose?

We just had to take one last look at the 90 Years of Preservation exhibit for Preservation Week! Our case highlighted some of the tools and techniques we use to digitize special collections materials. Thanks to all the people that made the exhibit possible, and to all who stopped by!

April is National Deaf History Month. In 1644, John Bulwer attempted to record the vocabulary contained in hand gestures through his Chirologia, or the Naturall Language of the Hand. Though the volume is aimed toward orators for use in rhetoric, Bulwer would later advocate for d/Deaf education.

It might be National Poetry Month, but we're not quite ready to give up Women's History Month! These graphite drawings and poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, created nearly ninety years ago this month, are the best of both worlds.

"What a difference 100 years makes! #OnThisDay in 1925, the Main Library was under construction.

Begin Women's History Month with the Women Printers Digital Collection from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social! Anne Griffin, printer, and Anne Boler, bookseller, were frequent collaborators on theological works such as this 1636 Meditations and disquisitions upon the Lord's prayer.

Did you know today is Floral Design Day? We're celebrating this week's warmer weather by looking at The Florist and Pomologist, and Suburban Gardener from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social. Only 20 days until Spring! View the full volume at go.library.illinois.edu/SuburbanGard...

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first Black Pulitzer Prize winner. This scrapbook from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social contains poetry by Brooks published in the 1930s in The Chicago Defender, one of the most influential Black newspapers of the 20th century. https://go.library.illinois.edu/BrooksDefender.

Celebrate Black History Month by looking back at Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, digitized in 2016. This 1773 edition @illinoisrbml.bsky.social cemented Wheatley's legacy as the first published Black American female poet. go.library.illinois.edu/PhillisWheat...

Not feeling the Valentine's Day love? Enjoy this story of Cupid's Revenge from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social! Likely published 1675, this is possibly the ballad referred to by Armado in act. 1, scene 2, of Love's labour's lost. https://go.library.illinois.edu/CupidsRevenge

The groundhog might have seen his shadow, but there aren't any here! You might have noticed some small white objects in the edges of our images. We use bone folders in a variety of shapes and sizes to help keep the object we are photographing flat, keeping it in focus and eliminating any shadows.

Happy Lunar New Year! Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake, making this serpentine book plate from the John Starr Stewart Ex Libris Collection @illinoisrbml.bsky.social particularly fitting. Find it in the Digital Special Collections: https://go.library.illinois.edu/SnakeBookPlate

We’re officially on Bluesky! To mark the occasion, we present an appropriately cerulean #MarbledMonday from the Testamento del fu Carlo Archinto Visconti Panigarola from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social Find it in the Digital Special Collections: https://go.library.illinois.edu/Testamento1804

Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gwendolyn Brooks captured these scenes of unrest in Chicago following King’s assassination in April 1968, now part of the Gwendolyn Brooks Digital Collection from @illinoisrbml.bsky.social