H-150. A History of the Indigenous Book in the Americas
Will Hansen Robert Warrior
Course Length: 30 hours
Course Week: 3–8 August 2025
Format: in person, Newberry Library in Chicago, IL
Fee: $1,495
In this course, we will examine the millennia-long engagement of Indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere with books and other textual arts and technologies. The course will place greater emphasis on 1500 to the present, and on North America, but will also include discussion of earlier materials and of Central and South American peoples. Specific topics will include structures of Indigenous textual artifacts; materials making up Indigenous books, including Native papers as well as engagement with materials introduced by non-Natives; questions of authorship and collective creation; publication, distribution, and circulation processes; and genres of specific interest for Indigenous creators and readers.
Our discussions will draw from and upon the rare books, manuscripts, and archival materials for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library, especially the Edward E. Ayer Collection—one of the world’s largest library collections focused on these topics, including over 150,000 volumes, over 1 million manuscript pages, more than 2,000 maps, 11,000 photographs, and 3,500 drawings and paintings. The course will include hands-on engagement with primary sources from the fifteenth through the twenty-first centuries. We will also engage with issues of particular interest for work with the material culture of Indigenous history in institutional settings, such as policies for culturally sensitive materials and respectful consultation with tribal nations. No prerequisites or specific previous coursework are required. Students of Indigenous Studies and American history interested in histories of the book and material culture, and vice versa; practitioners in both tribal and non-tribal libraries and archives; Indigenous writers, artists, and bookmakers; collectors; and members of the rare book trade will all be welcome and bring valuable perspectives to this course.
Course History
Faculty
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Will Hansen
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Robert Warrior
Will Hansen
Will Hansen is the Roger and Julie Baskes Vice President for Collections and Library Services, and Curator of Americana at the Newberry Library. He holds a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He began his career in libraries at the Newberry in 2003 as a Circulation Assistant. From 2007 to May 2014, he was Assistant Curator of Collections at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and returned to the Newberry in June 2014 as Director of Reader Services and Curator of Americana. He has collected for and curated the Newberry’s Indigenous Studies collections since 2014. He has written published articles on improving access to Indigenous Studies collections, Herman Melville, active learning with primary source materials, archives of “born-digital” materials, and other topics. His curated exhibitions at the Newberry include Hamilton: The History Behind the Musical in 2017; Melville: Finding America at Sea in 2019; ¡Viva la Libertad! Latin America and the Age of Revolutions in 2021; and Indigenous Portraits Unbound in 2023–24.
Full Bio »Robert Warrior
Robert Warrior is Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Kansas and a member/citizen of the Osage Nation. He is the author of Tribal Secrets: Recovering American Indian Intellectual Traditions (University of Minnesota Press, 1995) and The People and the Word: Reading Native Nonfiction (University of Minnesota Press, 2006), and coauthor of Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (New Press, 1996), American Indian Literary Nationalism (University of New Mexico Press, 2008), and Reasoning Together: The Native Critics Collective (University of Oklahoma Press, 2009). He is Past President of the American Studies Association and was Founding President of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (2009–10). He was Founding Co-Editor of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAISA’s journal) and edits the Indigenous Americas series at the University of Minnesota Press. Before moving to the University of Kansas, he taught at Stanford, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Illinois. In 2018, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Full Bio »