Past Library Exhibit

Gilded treasures belonging to university founder Cornelius Vanderbilt, a shipping and railroad magnate and one of the wealthiest Americans of the 19th century, are among the items featured in All That Glitters: Silver and Gold at Vanderbilt, currently on display at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives. Read More

An exhibit currently on display at Vanderbilt’s Central Library explores the lesser-known history of some of the university’s earliest students. Cherokee and Chickasaw Students at Vanderbilt, 1885–1899 is the result of research led by Daniel Sharfstein, Dick and Martha Lansden Professor of Law, professor… Read More

In 2022, as Vanderbilt’s 150th anniversary approached, recent graduates Allen Zeng, BA’23, and Richard Zhang, BA’23, set out to capture the essence of the university by photographing its community members. Collaborating with Professor of Art Vesna Pavlović and librarian Yvonne Boyer, the two developed the “Vanderbilt Self-Portrait” project, which is… Read More

Please join us Tuesday, February 14, Noon–1:00 p.m. in the libraries’ Special Collections for a reception catered by Hattie B’s for the exhibition, The Reinvented Life of Belle da Costa Greene. One of the most well-known American librarians and experts in illuminated manuscripts in the early-mid twentieth century, Belle… Read More

New Exhibition in Special Collections: Miniature Books from the Vanderbilt Libraries by Molly Dohrmann A new exhibition, opening this fall in Special Collections, highlights some of the smallest books in our collections. For centuries miniature books have captured the imagination of readers around the world. Miniature books require specific skills… Read More

Don’t miss seeing From Golden Type to Double Gilt: Fine Press Books at Vanderbilt Libraries, which runs through August 28, 2022, in Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives Library on the second floor of Central. The libraries’ collection of fine binding was formed from a gift in memory of Nettie… Read More

2012-2022: A Decade of Library Fellows Online Exhibition In spring 2012 Dean Connie Dowell established the first library fellowship, with a little bit of extra funding and a lot of hope.  Since then, over 230 students have completed library fellowships, now known as the Buchanan Library Fellowship Program, named… Read More

[Optic Disc Edema], Susan H. Wilkes, 1932. Susan H. Wilkes Collection. Vanderbilt University History of Medicine CollectionsThe History of Medicine Collections has collaborated with Dr. Karla Johns and the Vanderbilt Eye Institute on a new exhibit on the evolution of the ophthalmoscope and of ophthalmology pioneers in Nashville. Along with… Read More

What’s old is new again. In 2020, a group of retrocomputing enthusiasts published Nox Archaist, a new role-playing adventure game for the 1983 Apple IIe computer. Why would anyone write 8-bit games for an obsolete platform released nearly forty years ago? In this exhibit, located in the Stevenson Science and… Read More

Octavia Butler: Grand Dame of Science Fiction Central Library Lobby May-July 2022 Octavia Butler (1947-2006) was an American science fiction author.  In her early publishing career, she was one of the few Black women authors in a field dominated by white men.   Extremely shy as a child, she… Read More