The T. Kimball and Nancy N. Brooker Gallery presents the treasures of The Field Museum Library on a rotating basis. It is located on the northeast corner of the upper level mezzanine of the Museum. This space is designed to be a serene and elegant place where visitors can view fragile books and fine prints up close.
The inaugural exhibition, Highlights from the Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room, was installed in October 2007.
Exhibitions since that time have included:
April 11, 2008-July 27, 2008
September 12, 2008—January 4, 2009
February 13, 2009-June 14, 2009
August 21, 2009 - November 1, 2009
February 12, 2010 - January 3, 2011
February 12, 2011 - January 1, 2012
The Boone Collection consists of over 3,500 East Asian artifacts gathered by Commander Gilbert E. Boone and his wife Katharine Phelps Boone. The Boones acquired most of these objects in the late 1950s, during a three-year tour of duty in Japan. Consequently, the objects are predominantly Japanese (accounting for over 50% of The Field Museum's Japanese collection), but a significant number are also from China and Korea.
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For more than 1,500 years rubbings have been a vital medium for preserving China's art, culture, and history. These beautiful works are made by pressing thin sheets of wet paper into carvings or inscriptions cut in stone or other hard materials and carefully inking the surface to create a copy of the original. The resulting rubbing has white impressions where the paper was pressed into the carving surrounded by a typically black ink field.
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