Come one, come all for a peek into the ISU Circus & Allied Arts Collection

Milner Library at Illinois State University and the CARLI Archives Committee invite CARLI members to an Open House on April 16 from 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. that showcases Milner Library's Archival Circus & Allied Arts Collections. Attendees will get an up-close glimpse of Special Collections at Milner Library, including the Circus & Allied Arts Collection, which is one of the three largest of its kind in the United States.

Come experience the spectacle of an archival collection that documents over a century of the circus in America. This collection contains over a million items, including manuscripts, correspondence, business records, posters, ephemera, books, photographs, advertisements, costumes, and more. With complex collections comes a range of issues relating to arrangement and description, access, outreach, and care.

This event will touch on managing diverse materials and will provide plenty of information applicable to archives of all subjects and sizes.

Space is limited, so register soon!

Open House Agenda:

Location:

Milner Library - Floor 6, Special Collections Reading Room
Illinois State University
201 N. School Street, Normal IL 61761

Once in the Library, use the central stairwell or elevator to access Floor 6. The Special Collections Reading Room is located to the left.

Directions and Parking:

Directions to Campus

Milner Library on the Illinois State University campus is next to the Bone Student Center.

The Visitor Parking lot at the Bone Student Center is located adjacent to Milner Library. Parking is currently free in this lot; if this changes prior to the Open House, CARLI will notify those registered. The ISU Campus Parking Map shows additional metered parking locations around campus.

If you park in the Visitor Parking lot at the Bone Student Center, use the stairs or ramp to access the upper plaza. Milner Library is the building on the left side of the plaza.

Presenters:

Rebecca Fitzsimmons is a Special Collections Librarian at Illinois State University. She provides instruction, reference, and collection development services, curates and designs digital and physical exhibits, and engages in a variety of digital scholarship projects and initiatives in the library, with an eye to centering special collections and archival materials in this work.

Ellie Harman is Milner Library’s Digitization Technician. She has a bachelor’s degree in photography and graphic design from Olivet Nazarene University and a master’s in library and information science from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Mark Schmitt is a Special Collections Specialist at Milner Library and an expert in circus history. He is the co-author of the book, The Bloomington-Normal Circus Legacy, and works closely with patrons researching the Circus & Allied Arts holdings at Illinois State University.

Becky Koch is the Conservator and Preservation Specialist at Milner Library at Illinois State University. In this role she works with a variety of archival and special collections materials, including rare books, textiles, and works on paper. Her role ranges from designing and creating custom housings for a diversity of materials to repairing works on paper ranging from newsprint to oversized circus posters.

Registration: To Register for this open house, please click the "Register" Tab above.

Registration Deadline: April 9, 2026 (or until full).

A box lunch will be provided. When you register, you may select either a vegetarian or non-vegetarian option. Our caterer is working in a commercial kitchen where a wide variety of other foods are being prepared, often using some frozen and/or processed products that may have unknown trace ingredients. As a result, we are unable to guarantee that the food is kosher, vegan, gluten free, and/or peanut free. Attendees with strict, specific dietary restrictions should plan to provide their own food.