Suzanne Karr Schmidt
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drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Suzanne Karr Schmidt
@drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
7.4K followers 4.2K following 2.9K posts
Curator of (very old) curious books, prints on fabric, functional ephemera (newberry.org), Director of a pop-up book society (movablebooksociety.org). History of art, science, decorative food, pirates. Where's your WHIMSY? Mostly Chicago. She/her
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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 25d
Bookish Holiday Fun and Games For... YOU!

Now in its sixth year, for this #NewberryLibrary Advent Calendar, we'll play around with the collection! Cards, Board Games, Puzzles, Gambling...

What's up first?
CHESS!

December 1 (1/24)

Here's last year's extra-shiny offering:
bsky.app/profile/drka...
Black and white woodcut of a man sitting at a chessboard, holding one of the black pieces as if to invite you to play. Letterpress text above and below with some red initials, underlining, and emphasis.
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Just finished the 1000 piece puzzle on the left with significant help but only after MUCH consternation, and am tempted to stick to historical puzzles under 50 pieces for the rest of the year! 🧩
Abstract, incomplete puzzle with a lot of green blobs looking like a wreath. Borrowed from the Newberry Book Fair. Most of a wooden peacock puzzle with one curling piece held out. Part of the Midwestern Manuscript collections (Blatchford Realia).
December 26, 2025 at 10:42 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
And a very Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 25d
Bookish Holiday Fun and Games For... YOU!

Now in its sixth year, for this #NewberryLibrary Advent Calendar, we'll play around with the collection! Cards, Board Games, Puzzles, Gambling...

What's up first?
CHESS!

December 1 (1/24)

Here's last year's extra-shiny offering:
bsky.app/profile/drka...
December 25, 2025 at 5:20 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Cards FOR Humanity!

My colleagues added a card to the collection that may have saved lives in WWII! Underneath the Queen Consort is part of a map of Southern Germany, which British and Canadian seamen may have used to escape a POW camp!
#NewberryLibrary #newacq
December 24 (24/24)
#AdventCalendar
Playing card with top half peeled down to reveal a map. Portrait of a woman sitting. King of hearts.
December 24, 2025 at 5:14 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Volvelles!
sebfalk.com Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · 3d
A few more from my morning at @theul.bsky.social

Some lovely volvelles in this copy of Martin Cortes' "Art of Navigation", tr. Richard Eden (1579).

I also like the pelican on the frontispiece 🪶
Volvelle demonstrating magnetic variation Volvelle demonstrating the oblique horizon Volvelle explaining how a nocturnal instrument works Frontispiece to an English translation of Martin Cortes, "The Arte of Nauigation"
December 24, 2025 at 3:08 AM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Cards AGAINST Humanity

The Newberry has a collection of base sets and expansions of CAH, a Chicago-based card game that's mainly NSFW. While a co-founder proved to be a terrible person, what did we expect from a game billed as "a party game for horrible people"?

December 23 (23/24)
#AdventCalendar
Fantasy pack version of Cards Against Humanity. Archival Boxes of Cards Against Humanity collection. Geek pack. Advertisement of the distinctive black box with "Cards Against Humanity. A party game for horrible people." written on it.
December 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Seriously. Who's @theonion.com art historian? 💯
The Onion paper edition article about Trump boys "trading in" George Washington portrait by Gilbert Stuart at GameStop.
December 22, 2025 at 11:05 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Was looking for Juan de Pareja's paintings for my undergrad thesis. One was in a Spanish museum under renovation. My boyfriend (now spouse) and I squeezed into a tiny elevator with a caretaker with a hacksaw. What's that? Maniacal laughter... Then he hacked off a padlock so I could see the painting!
appuhn.bsky.social Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 4d
I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.
December 22, 2025 at 6:17 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Games of Cats & Mice!

Triple the fun in a c. 1877 blook gamebox from McLoughlin Bros, NY!
#NewberryLibrary (Wing oversize ZP 883 .M2285)

December 22 (22/24)
#AdventCalendar
Games of Cats and Mice box. Vertical spines with game titles. Marbled page like edges to the two "books."
December 22, 2025 at 5:42 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Chip off the Old

Block Puzzle from the Bielo Materializing the Bible Collection
#NewberryLibrary (Case GV1507.B5 P37 1945)

December 21 (21/24)
#AdventCalendar #HailMary

i-share-nby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01...
Twelve piece block puzzle with two missing pieces, in a box for 10 pieces. Pink paper showing with text of the Annunciation.
December 21, 2025 at 6:04 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
NO means...

Yum? 🙄

(Tried to spell out a warning against peanut butter truffle center attrition, and yet...)
#BuckeyeBanzai?
Peanut butter truffle filling with the word NO spelled out in chocolate chips. Same oversized truffle with "NO" with a large amount removed in front ...
December 20, 2025 at 7:52 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Wrong Turn at Alquerque?

This 15th c. book hides a gameboard for a Middle Eastern game c. 1000! Many books were bound with leather-covered wooden boards, so you could bring these proto-checkers along. 🧵
#NewberryLibrary (Inc. 5029)
December 20 (20/24)
#AdventCalendar
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alquerque
Book board with a 4x4 grid inside the front cover, a collection label inconveniently stuck inside of it. Image of game starting position, with 10 black pieces at the top and bottom 10 white, with the middle row split between them with the central spot left open. Image from Wikipedia.
December 20, 2025 at 5:59 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Stone Age Wages, indeed...

Still no complete catalogue or fair wages, so I'm glad to see @christianalgar.bsky.social and his BL colleagues getting some attention...

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...
Headline from the Standard reading "The worst of tiles: Trouble at the British Library". Photo of strikers below the British Library sign includes Christian Algar with a fantastic beard and a sign with cavemen saying "Stone Age Wages." Description of Christian Algar, who as worked there for 20 years as saying he makes less now than he did at the Evening Standard in the early 2000s.
December 20, 2025 at 4:52 AM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Reposting this for no reason whatsoever
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · Nov 5
The Emperor's New Clothes?

An early reader of this 1553 book of Lutheran sermons ripped out this G initial... But he missed a spot! The uncensored ruler reappears in all his unclothed glory at the very end!

#NewberryLibrary (Case folio C 43 .528) i-share-nby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01...
Letterpress page in 16th c. German with an uneven oval of orange paste paper covering up a hole where the contents of the G initial (starting the word Gnad, or Grace) used to be. Another (or the same?) helpful reader has written a large G above in ink to explain what's missing. Letterpress page from the end of the book for the 27th Sunday sermon. The G initial starts the word Gleich (the same) here. The letter G is in reddish. The figure of a crowned ruler sits nudely (but not violently) on a throne. His crown is colored yellow with the floral decorated backdrop. The ground is green, but the throne and figure are flesh colored. The figure is clearly an adult male from the seemingly objectionable frontal view.
December 20, 2025 at 1:06 AM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
"Our Souls Need Bird Poop and Old Books!"

@lizhebbard.bsky.social invokes @bibliowingate.bsky.social's wonderful recent birdgate posts to introduce Chris Fletcher's fabulous new open access book on Public Humanities in the European Middle Ages!

Read it here!: www.arc-humanities.org/978180270096...
Screen shot of Liz Hebbard explaining the value of the public humanities via Alex Wingate's recent bluesky query about Renaissance bird poop!
December 19, 2025 at 6:15 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Trivial Pursuit?

Don't try to best me at this German card game from the 1920s! #NewberryLibrary (Case GV1485 .G394 1920z) It features all my Renaissance rockstar heroes, like Albrecht Dürer...

December 19 (19/24)
#AdventCalendar
Art deco German box for card game with cards spread out nearby.
December 19, 2025 at 4:25 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Tag Yourselves!

I'm definitely one of Their WICKED CURATORS! 😈
bucksarchives.bsky.social Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 7d
slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums
That Tom Gauld meme of the two opposing nations perfectly mirrored, but edited to be between archives and museums.
December 19, 2025 at 4:12 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Be Prepared!

To play this 1912 Parker Brothers card game...
#NewberryLibrary (Case GV1299.B6 P37 1912)

December 17 (17/24)
#AdventCalendar
Parker Brothers colorful box top of "The Game of Boy Scouts." Graphic shows a scout in uniform looking over a hill.
December 18, 2025 at 1:50 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
I Missed a Day?!

This year on Bluesky I wrote 598 posts and 1,174 replies. I received 23,771 likes, with 331 from my most popular post, and apparently I love saying "book," 😁, and 🤔! And #NewberryLibrary. (They're on here now, btw!) www.madebyolof.com/bluesky-wrap...
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social's Bluesky Wrapped 2025
Check out drkarrschmidt.bsky.social's year on Bluesky!
www.madebyolof.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:29 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Renaissance TWISTER!

Lucas Cranach II helped a wrestling master to immortal fame in 1539 by showing 85 different ways to subdue his opponent! In a game at the end, one player has to keep his foot in a hole to win... #NewberryLibrary (Wing folio ZP 547 .L96)

December 17 (17/24)
#AdventCalendar
Two wrestlers, one with his foot in a hole. Reacharound? Another grab, codpiece on full display.
December 17, 2025 at 1:48 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Ten Teeney-TINY Commandments!

This micro calligraphy, handwritten by the limb-deficient artist Matthias Buchinger in 1717, was the first item by him bought by the late, great Ricky Jay. We're so lucky to have it at #NewberryLibrary (VAULT folio Wing MS 381)!

December 16 (16/24)
#AdventCalendar
Parchment drawing of the Ten Commandments in an ornate frame, all very tiny.
December 16, 2025 at 1:42 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Myriopticon!

Movable Lithographic Civil War panorama by Milton Bradley & Co., before 1890.
December 15 (15/25)
#AdventCalendar

#NewberryLibrary (VAULT Case E468.7 .M96 1890)
i-share-nby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01...
December 15, 2025 at 3:22 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Going HOME Puzzle

On my way back to Chicago, will explain where these #NewberryLibrary pieces are from as soon as I arrive! Any guesses?

December 14 (14/24)
#AdventCalendar
Back of shaped puzzle pieces of a blimp, airplane and swan.
December 14, 2025 at 4:23 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
Thinking of Brown University as I start flying home from Turin.
My alma mater and my husband's, my father's physics PhD advisor there saved him from the Vietnam draft, insisting he take another year to finish. A student died tragically in a car accident my freshman year; yesterday was also too much.
December 14, 2025 at 1:39 PM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
POP-UP Pinocchio!

This book was treasured by its owner for nearly 90 years before coming to #NewberryLibrary! He played with it so much he had to replace one of this famous Italian toy character's heads!
December 13 (13/24)
#AdventCalendar

#LittleWoodenBoy #AndMeLegsAreSticks
#PuppetPulledItOff
December 13, 2025 at 10:03 AM
drkarrschmidt.bsky.social
GAME OF THE GOOSE!

When your goose is cooked, it's REALLY cooked. (Psst, don't land on the geese if you want to live!) 18th c. (?) impression of this famous Italian game.... #NewberryLibrary (Case Wing oversize ZC 1 .638)

December 12 (12/24)
#AdventCalendar
Board game with a woodcut spiral full of treacherous geese.
December 12, 2025 at 12:02 PM