University of Illinois

The University of Illinois Rare Books and Manuscript Library will use funds to stabilize, clean, selectively repair, and digitize the Gwendolyn Brooks Papers. The collection consists of more than 500 boxes filled with manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, scrapbooks, clippings, recordings, photographs, awards, artifacts, notebooks full of personal notes and lists, and several homemade chapbooks of handwritten early poetry. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) was a poet and teacher who is widely recognized as one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century. Even as her own fame and accolades grew, Brooks remained committed to supporting young writers in her community and was a leader in the Black Arts movement in Chicago in the 1960s and beyond. The project will be matched with $117,952 in non-federal share.