Newberry Library

I came here as a tourist on the free public tour, which they hold twice a week on Thursday and Saturday mornings. I really enjoyed the tour and I liked learning about the library, its history, and how to access the resources available in it today.
Our tour guide, who actually was one of the people who works in event planning, was very welcoming and knowledgeable about the Newberry family, the library’s origins, the history of its collections, and its availability to scholars today. She showed us the board room, the main reading rooms, and gave us a glimpse into the conservation lab. I was impressed by how she seemed to know the story behind every sculpture, map, and painting on display in the public reading room and hallways.
I really liked how the tour guide emphasized the accessibility of the Newberry library, telling us how it is a private library that is still available to the public. All you need is a scholarly interest that can be explored in their archives in order to sign up for access to the library’s materials. They are then brought to you from the archives to a reading room with all the tools necessary to examine whatever material you are looking at without damaging it. I think it’s pretty incredible that anyone as long as they have a scholarly interest can view the items in their collection, which include one of Shakespeare’s First Folios.
They also had a really fascinating exhibit on the history of African-​Americans in Chicago and their role in contemporary civil rights protests. I thought the exhibit was informative and particularly relevant in the current political climate.

We had our wedding at The Newberry in May of 2015. The staff are very professional, they know how to handle weddings, and Chayla went above and beyond to make our day more incredible than I could have imagined. The communication leading up to the wedding and the handling of the big day was excellent. The lobby is an intimate space for a ceremony and Ruggles Hall is a beautiful venue for a reception that does not need a lot of decoration. Not a typical wedding or reception hall.
The price seems expensive at first but when you realize everything that you are getting, the price is reasonable for a venue so close to the Loop. There is a Newberry staff member who will be with you on-​site for the entire event. There is not much need to hire a «day-​of» coordinator. A significant number of parking spaces are included and there are also discounted rates at a parking garage a block away. A beautiful (and well-​tuned) piano included! I was so happy about the piano because I had gotten used to the idea that we would not have piano for our ceremony. We hired jazz musicians who were able to play along with the pianist. It was fantastic. The candlelight décor was amazing. The staff also let us use pedestals for our flowers for the ceremony at the bottom of the staircase.
I loved the fact that they had nice chairs for the reception. No horribly uncomfortable folding chairs. No chair covers hung over typical banquet chairs. If you had to rent chairs similar to those provided, it would be very expensive.
Chayla graciously dealt with the 15 boxes of décor and wedding items that we brought in the day before the wedding. She did not look at me like I was crazy when I sent a list (including pictures!) of how I wanted all of these items arranged. I was able to completely let go of my control issues by the time we got to our rehearsal dinner. It was lovely to see that our vendors worked together to get everything in place.
Some drawbacks…
1) No pictures in the lobby before our Saturday evening ceremony.
2) The rehearsal on Friday was uncomfortable because the staff was leaving down the stairs and walking through our rehearsal. Our officiants and family members were pushed aside at times. I felt that it could have been handled better.
3) We were told that we could use the A/​V system in Ruggles Hall. My husband went a few days in advance to test the video media in the system. On the day of the wedding, the security officer would not allow our usb drive to be inserted directly into their computer. Our lighting vendor tried to work the media through his laptop but it did not work and led to an unfortunate technical difficulty when our guests were waiting in anticipation. We could not play our video and lost something that we really wanted.
All in all, the wedding was great. The venue is worth the price and I never dreamed that I would have the gorgeous and elegant wedding that we had!

Just visiting so nothing too specific — very beautiful building. There is an exhibit that focuses on African Americans in Chicago from the Civil War to today, it is quite well done. Free and easy to visit this.

There is no better place in Chicago to do serious research in specific areas of knowledge without belonging to a university. The Newberry Library is probably THE most erudite library in the Midwest; at first glance, a semi-​private library with old school charm and traditions. Not only is it the home of the Chicago Humanities Festival, it is the prime vault for the rarest of tomes and ephemera, meeting rooms and exhibition halls, along with a great shop for purchasing a huge variety of literary and historical books. The Newberry is open to the public but with a litany of conditions: The first is, to obtain a reader card, your area of research must fall within the library’s core collections. The second is understanding that most of the collection is only available via paging from closed stacks. I am amazed at how well they’ve kept their traditions and maintain the highest standards.
PS: There’s a huge push by the Library to book events (wedding and event photos galore), but at its heart, this is a library. Your event helps fund scholarships and keeps this a free and open library for the public.

Such an amazing library. I am truly sad that I live so far, as I would definitely frequent it otherwise. I visited as a tourist, and really enjoyed the architecture. I wish I’d been able to see all the rare books it holds as well. We visited the little gift shop inside, and it was pretty cute. They had a bunch of funny literary things, including Jane Austen-​themed temporary tattoos, and Newberry tote bags that are great for any library-​loving tourist/​enthusiast.

My husband and I had our wedding ceremony in Ruggles Hall September 2015. We couldn’t have asked for a better location. Karen and Chayla were a delight. We were sad to see Karen retire during the process, after 25+ years, but Jennifer came on board like a champ! Chayla was our main point of contact and was extremely open, professional, and accommodating! I could go on and on about Chayla… she made the process a delight! Josh & I had a short, 5-​month engagement and we didn’t feel rushed to make any decisions here. The room, as others have detailed in their reviews, speaks for itself. Add a few flowers if you so choose and you’re set! The venue throws in decorations for the bathrooms and lobby stairwell. We had two hours under our contract but it didn’t feel rushed. Chayla was there every step of the way updating me on who had/hadn’t arrived, what was going on downstairs, etc. She even came to just sit with me in the bridal suite to help remove any jitters. That kind of care can’t be made up. Forever grateful!
We rehearsed the day before for 1.5hrs and had all of our questions answered. If you’re considering this location, a few things you may want to know:
Ruggles Hall sits 208 max
There is a finely tuned baby grand piano
Ceremony-​only rentals are for 2 hours
We had the entire use of the parking lot (for an early Saturday afternoon ceremony)
The bridal suite is a huge, 2-​room study area
Lighting in the room is very romantic
Chayla is the real deal DREAM team!
We couldn’t have asked for better!

I have been to the Newberry on so many occasions. I visited on a class field trip more than once, I came on my own to study for finals… more than once, I even volunteered there. The librarians and staff were very helpful and I always enjoyed the exhibitions! I think they have an orignial postcard from Jack Kereouac when he was about to write On The Road…

Came here with my friend so he could do some genealogical research. Apparently this library is amazing for that! My friend found some really cool things about his ancestors.
I opted to do the historic tour while he was researching and really enjoyed it! We learned about the Newberry family, the preservation of documents, and about important artworks around the library.
They also have the original McNally maps here! How amazing — but you need a library card to access them :(Also, the library closes at 1pm on certain days, which is insanity.

My daughter and son-​in-​law had their wedding at the Newberry in July 2014. I was the main wedding planner for this event. The venue offered everything my daughter was looking for. The ceremony was outside in the park and we had picture perfect weather! Cocktails in the lobby provided a a unique atmosphere for our guests. The reception in Ruggles Hall was elegant. It is a beautiful room and you don’t need to go overboard with décor as it can stand on its own. We ended up with 150 guests and had a huge dance floor. We set up the room in a U shape and it was perfect. Finally I can’t say enough about Karen and Chayla from the Newberry. They promptly responded to all my questions during the planning process, offered suggestions and were on site the day of to help out as needed. I highly recommend the Newberry if you are looking for a unique and elegant venue. Thank you again Karen and Chayla

The Newberry Library was one of the first wedding venues I saw so while I loved the space and the location, I didn’t realize what a great value it was until I saw other venues around the city (Café Brauer, Nature Museum, Union Station, loft spaces, hotels etc). The Newberry is the best deal in town and comes with rich history, a beautiful space that you don’t need to do anything to, fantastic location in the city and really wonderful people to work with. They own their own tables and chairs so that is a big cost saver right there!
We could not have been happier with our wedding at the Newberry — Karen and Chayla took such great care of us — they were there to answer any questions throughout the process and were there the day of to help coordinate with our caterer and other vendors. We held our ceremony in the park in front, followed by cocktails in the lobby with that beautiful staircase and then dinner in Ruggles hall. From beginning to end, it was the perfect day. I would HIGHLY recommend getting married at the Newberry, it is such a special place and all our guests absolutely loved it as well.

A little back-​story is in order first. We spent three weeks looking at 11 different wedding venues — from loft spaces to ballrooms, north side to West Loop — and while we had found a few that we liked, the costs were simply prohibitive for the wedding we were looking to have. The Newberry is one that we glossed over initially due to what seemed like a very high price tag. I was frantically browsing wedding website forums for inspiration, and saw multiple people talking about the Newberry as an affordable option. What we didn’t realize is that the Newberry gives a choice of caterers, all of which are BYOB for liquor. When we added up the costs that would be associated with throwing a wedding, the Newberry came out in our price range.
Karen, who runs the Newberry, was simply a joy to work with. From the beginning, she was extremely responsive in communicating back and forth with us whenever we had questions, and worked well with all of our vendors who needed to interface with her leading up to the wedding. She also let us store a lot of our decorations and ceremonial materials in her office the week before the wedding, which gave us one less thing to worry about during the wedding weekend.
As a venue itself, the Newberry is stunning. We held our ceremony in the lobby, with the two of us entering down the beautiful marble staircase. The Newberry has a grand piano, which we were able to use to provide music during the ceremony, and it really added to the ambiance of the environment. Following the ceremony, we took a group photo outside to enable the staff to flip the room over to the cocktail hour setup before moving over to the reception hall. Karen let us use an old library card catalog as a display piece for our place-​card table, which looked great and fit very well with our card catalog-​style place-​cards! The hall barely needs any additional decoration, with its dark wood paneling and unique chandeliers providing a wonderful atmosphere themselves. The Newberry also provided us with two very sturdy chairs that had handles, as we were lifted on them during the Hora. Having been to many other weddings where the chairs used for the Hora did not have handles, let me say that we were very glad to have something to hold on to! Karen was present the entire night, and really helped ensure that our wedding was everything we had hoped it would be. We highly recommend the Newberry as a wedding venue!

This is a review for the event space at the Newberry Library.
I held my December 2013 wedding at the Newberry and had an amazing experience. From the beginning, the staff was professional, courteous & quick to respond to any questions. I had a hard time deciding where to host our reception so I brought multiple friends/​family members to look at the space and was courteously accommodated each time. Also, this was a BYOB event space (not sure of its status currently as I heard this might be changing) which was the tipping point for us. We easily saved ourselves thousands of dollars by not being forced into an overpriced liquor package (I’m talking about you Café Brauer).
The space is beautiful and cozy — the staff puts lights in all of the windows, lining the hallway between the lobby to Ruggles and in Ruggles hall. All of their work decorating is included in the cost of the rental fee, which is in line with its competition. The chandeliers in the lobby & Ruggles hall are metal with old-​time lightbulbs (exposed filaments). It gives the entire space the feeling of being somewhat vintage but still classy & elegant. We took our family formal photos on the marble staircase in the lobby — I cannot wait to see how they turn out.
We had about 150 guests, which was comfortable but we definitely could’ve fit more. I believe the space holds just over 200. The dance floor was situated between the pillars and was definitely big enough to hold all of my guests. Bonus for having hard wood floors, which meant we didn’t have to pay to put in a dance floor.
I also cannot say enough good things about the staff of the Newberry. Although many of my guests showed up 30 minutes early to my reception, they were greeted politely and allowed to hang out in the lobby/​cocktail area while final preparations were made. After the votive candles from the florist started small fires on my tables, the Newberry jumped into action and replaced hundreds of votives with their own stock. I cannot thank Adam & Karen (the event coordinators) enough for everything they did to make our day a huge success.
Overall, an amazing experience with professional, kind & helpful staff. Would absolutely recommend to anyone.

Since I checked in at the Newberry a few weeks ago, Unilocal has been prodding me to review this famous Chicago Library.
The Newberry is a humanities and social sciences research library. Its manuscript and rare books collections are amazing. The Ayer collection is one of the largest collections of Filipiniana in the United States, which is the number one attraction for me. The Newberry is also famous for its native american collections, and has one of the largest collections of early-​modern maps in the world.
For those of you who are not researchers, or likely to spend time in the rare books reading room, you might still be interested the what’s on in the Newberry’s exhibition space. The current exhibition «Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North,» displays 100 items that reveal the experience of the Civil War beyond the battlefield.
And the Newberry also has a fantastic bookstore, open during the Library’s opening hours.
Last, but not least, the building that houses the Newberry Library is a beautiful late nineteenth century Romanesque-​Revival style building. From the Chicago Architecture Foundation: «The façade, centered on a triple-​arched entrance, was inspired by the twelfth-​century church of Saint-​Gilles-​du-​Gard. The interior was conceived by the Newberry’s first librarian, William F. Poole. An addition was made in 1981, by Harry Weese & Assocs.»

I finally made a visit to their yearly July book fair and it was fantastic! Well organized, packed full of books, and great prices. It’s like all the good parts of the Printer’s Row Book Fair and none of the bad (like expensive new books, way too many people, and the outdoors). What is was, was 5 rooms of organized books lined up and divided into categories, all priced, and a smooth check out process. Definitely worth a trip!

I mainly go here for their annual sale, which is ridiculously huge in multiple rooms. They always have some interesting art or Chicago history books for a decent price, and yes I am one of those people that likes to read books. A generic paperback version of a popular novel, however, looked like it was $ 2.50 but imagine my shock when I found out it was $ 250 because the author had signed it… ridiculous! All those strange smelling old books in one place is intoxicating, and I love the old book grease you get on your hands (dust, soot, geriatric lotions?).
Apart from the sale I have been here for Unilocal fashion show (where I first met the people who would later play roles as great friends). The outside square is famous for political stump speeches. It is a historic Chicago building that is 125 years old at the time of this review, with a history best explored on their website, really encompassing the history of US libraries in the 20^th century.

I’ll just say a few words about the Newberry Library. We went to a cousin’s wedding there on a Saturday night. The location is magnificent. Apparently, this was an old home that was converted into a library. But, there rooms on the main floor are glorious. The location was really beautiful and a great choice for a wedding.
I didn’t get to see the library, but was told by others that there is a fully complete library on the upper floors. I’ll have to return there sometime to see it for myself.

Apparently this is not a «public» library. I went in here with a buddy of mine to check out this beautiful historical landmark and the front desk (blocking off the main stairwell) said you must be on a tour to see the interior beyond the bookstore, washrooms and art exhibit. Tours of every corner of the building are offered Thursdays at 3:00 pm and Saturdays at 10:30 am. Otherwise, you need «special» permission to enter upstairs. Boo!
A side fact: Some say that Washington Square Park which faces the Newberry Library is where the term «get off your/​my soapbox» comes from. Public speakers would stand on an actual soapbox to say an impromptu speech that is usually political nature. Currently there is a fountain surrounded by flowers and a fence.

This review pertains to the classes offered by the Newberry. I took my first class this winter and was extremely impressed. It was a 10-​week course on James Joyce’s Ulysses. We met once a week from 6 – 7:30 pm and the course cost only 210 dollars, which I thought was a great deal. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect seeing as how this was my first class since college, but I was not disappointed. The teacher was a former professor and was excellent. The other students ranged in age from about early 20s to 70s, which made for interesting discussion. My only complaint is that the class probably could have been longer – either in number of sessions or length of class time – just because there was so much to discuss.
The classrooms themselves are nothing fancy, but the library does provide AV equipment and such so that instructors can play videos, DVDs, music, or anything else they might need. I purchased my books for the class online, but you can buy books for classes at the Newberry bookstore. The library does close at 8, I believe, so if a teacher wants to run a class a little late, there’s some wiggle room, but not much.
All in all, I really enjoyed this class and am looking forward to taking another one.
Side note: the annual book sale at the Newberry in July is great. I always come away with something. It’s best to get there early, however.

I had my wedding here on 9÷26÷10 — Sarah L. was one of the guests — thanks for the kind words! :-)
Overall I really enjoyed my experience at the Newberry. The venue is really nice (I like the cocktail area better than the reception room) and the staircase is pretty awesome. For the most part they are willing to work with you to accommodate special requests, which is nice.
Karen A. is the special events contact there and she is great — very kind and very easy to work with — 2 thumbs up for her. On the day of our wedding, she met me and my husband at the back entrance and escorted us through some back hallways/​basement to sneak us into the cocktail hour — it was really fun to make our surprise entrance!
The Newberry hosts A LOT of weddings, so they know the drill — I would recommend this to anyone looking to have a classy wedding in downtown. :-)

So I’ve never actually been to the library section of Newberry Library, but while checking out their ballroom today I realized that it’s about time I check it out! Unfortunately, the library section was closed today (closed on Mondays) but I’ll be back!
But on to the Newberry Library as an event venue, which many Unilocalers seem to be a fan of (based on the other reviews). And there’s a reason there are so many fans– this room is absolutely GORGEOUS! The room just screams elegance without being too stuff and it’s the type of room that would really work with any type of flowers or other decoration.
A member of the staff (a very helpful man by the name of Lonnie) gave me a folder with pricing… and it was much more reasonable than I expected. It seems like it’s about $ 5000 to rent the room and then you can use any caterer you want (very nice since many of these venues seem to place restrictions on caterers). Based on my own wedding venue search in South Florida this place seems like a deal… and best of all it’s in a prime downtown Chicago location!
As far as space I believe the large ballroom can hold 200 for a seated reception and 300 for a cocktail reception.
One of my fiancé’s friends is getting married here in just a few weeks so I’m super excited now to see how beautiful the room is when it’s all done up. Stay tuned for more on Newberry Library after that wedding… and then even more when I finally make it to the actual library!
Edit 11÷17÷07:
Attended a wedding here last night and it was so gorgeous! They had the ceremony in the very historic looking lobby so the bride walked down the stairs… loved it! And Ruggles Hall was even prettier all decorated!