D'Arcy McNickle Center

The D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies was founded in 1972 as a research center within the Newberry Library. Its goals are to encourage the use of the Newberry collections on American Indian history; expand the range of what is written about American Indians; educate teachers about American Indian culture, history, and literature; assist American Indian tribal historians in their research; and provide a meeting ground where scholars, teachers, tribal historians, and others interested in American Indian studies can discuss their work with each other.

The Center’s main focus within the Newberry Library’s collections is the extensive materials acquired by Edward Ayer, including the commissioned portraits by Elbridge Ayer Burbank. The Center coordinates annual seminars, workshops and conferences, and provides fellowships for continuing research.

The Center’s inception was guided by an advisory council composed of prominent scholars and intellectual leaders from across the country, with a majority American Indian membership. They chose D’Arcy McNickle (a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and prominent scholar and literary author) to serve as the first director and help formulate the Center’s mission and goals. Currently, the center is directed by Dr. Patricia Marroquin Norby. Born in Chicago, Illinois she is of Purépecha/Nde and Chicana heritage. An award-winning artist and scholar of American Indian art and visual culture, Dr. Norby earned her PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For four decades, the McNickle Center’s staff, fellows, and affiliated research projects have played a major role in shaping modern scholarship in American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Scholars on various fellowships have produced nearly fifty books and dozens of scholarly articles. The Center’s current activities include academic seminars in American Indian Studies, fellowships for scholars and public programs. The McNickle Center organizes the Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies (NCAIS) and its related programs, which changed its name from the Committee for Institutional Cooperation/Newberry Library American Indian Studies Consortium in 2009.

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