Virgil Burnett Collection (HC)

The collection contains a number of ephemeral materials associated with Virgil Burnett exhibits, including exhibit booklets, pamphlets, and flyers. The items contain images of Burnett's work as well as some background information and document his work as an artist in the public eye.

• Drawings: Fantastic, Gothic, Grotesque: A flyer for an exhibit of fantastical drawings of Burnett and his contemporaries. Cover illustration is drawing by Burnett of a woman with a grotesque staff covering half her face. Exhibit included artists Regula Zeller, John Wilde, Charles Reynolds, Bruce Preo, Kerig Pope, Jan Gregg, and John Glidden. Binder 2

• The Fine Arts Program 1962-63, University of Chicago: Program of arts events sponsored by Chicago's cultural institutions. Includes a drawing by Burnett on the cover. Binder 1

• The Folio Society Prospectus for 1973: Folio society booklet containing a complete list of titles published in previous years, including Beowulf, translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland and illustrated by Virgil Burnett and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Edward Fitzgerald and illustrated by Virgil Burnett. The cover of the booklet contains an illustration by Burnett, a two-color lithograph from Beowulf.  Binder 1

• Robert Shuenke Gallery Flyer: Flyer for a gallery showing of 40 drawings by Virgil Burnett. Includes a small replica of a drawing to Bluebeard's Wife, a poem by Daryl Hine. Binder 2

• Seventy Years of Growth: A brochure describing the history of adult education at The University of Chicago, focusing on the role of the its first president, William Rainey Harper. The text is accompanied by small illustrations by Virgil Burnett of studious, antiquarian figures. Binder 1

• Virgil Burnett Drawings: Trifold brochure on an exhibit displaying 26 Virgil Burnett drawings in Chicago, year unknown. Brochure contains an illustration of a bearded man looking out at the viewer from underneath feathered cap which hangs over one eye. This illustration is repeated on four sides of the brochure and the pamphlet includes a list of the 26 items on display. Binder 1

Included here are essays or chapters that Virgil Burnett has embellished with his drawings, with the exception of "Poland's Embattled Painters", which was written by Burnett.

• Becker, Carl, "A Different Kind of Academic Freedom". Binder 2

• Burnett, Virgil, "Poland's Embattled Painters". Binder 1

• Booth, Wayne C., "Boring from Within: The Art of the Freshman Essay". Binder 2

• Ekman, Ernst, "Gothic Patriotism". Binder 1

• Willoughby, Harold R., "Dionysian Excesses and Orphic Reform". Binder 1

• "Chicago Artist Exhibits Poetic Fantasy Drawings". Binder 1

• "Group at Banfer" in Manhatten East. Binder 1

• Robert Schuenke Gallery flyer.  Flyer for a gallery showing of 40 drawings by Virgil Burnett. Includes a small replica of a drawing to Bluebeard's Wife, a poem by Daryl Hine. Binder 2

• Drawings: Fantastic, Gothic, Grotesque.  A flyer for an exhibit of fantastical drawings of Burnett and his contemporaries. Cover illustration is drawing by Burnett of a woman with a grotesque staff covering half her face. Exhibit included artists Regula Zeller, John Wilde, Charles Reynolds, Bruce Preo, Kerig Pope, Jan Gregg, and John Glidden. Binder 2

• "The Glass Menagerie" Flyer. Virgil Burnett drawing on front, letter to parents on the back. Binder 2

• Carl Sternheim's "The Underpants: A Bourgeois Comedy in Four Acts". Small poster advertising a play, drawn by Burnett. Binder 2

• The Play of Herod/Quadrangle Club. Flyers for events at University of Chicago, a play and an invitation to the Quadrangle club. Includes illustration by Burnett of a man brandishing a sword. Binder 1

• Christmas Card, Binder 2

• The Character of the Nazi SS. 6 clippings of propaganda work done during Burnett's service working for a propaganda company in the Korean War. Binder 1

• A Glance Backward. 4 page pamphlet. Drawings by Virgil Burnett, calligraphy by Kenneth Johnson. 3 excerpts on the elements with drawings. "Earth" by Washington Irving, "Water" by Herman Melville, and "Fire" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Binder 2

• Drawing from Triumphs of Petrarch. Black-and-white drawing of three figures, two male and one female, in what appears to be a funeral procession. The figures are dressed in billowing mythical garb and stand solemnly in the same foreground panel. Binder 1

• Drawing from The Damnation of Byron. Black-and-white original drawing of the image of the Byronic hero to appear in the frontispiece of A.D. Hope's The Damnation of Byron. Binder 1