Past Library Exhibit

Join the Special Collections Library for fascinating talks this semester led by librarians, archivists, and curators. Topics this fall will range from cookbook collections to the 1969 Moon Walk. The talks take place monthly in the Special Collections Reading Room on the second floor of the Central & Divinity Libraries… Read More

Halloween is a holiday traditionally celebrated each year on October 31.  The tradition dates to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.   The Celtic new year began on November 1st, and October 31st was viewed as the dividing line between the end of the harvest season and the onset of winter. … Read More

This exhibition will be curated by a cohort of Buchanan Library Fellows and their librarian mentors. This semester, students examined journals, codes of conduct, admissions logs and letters in the Special Collections Library and placed them in context with the university’s and the nation’s history. Fellows curated an exhibition about their… Read More

August 9-October 12, 2019, Central Library (Fourth Floor Lobby) Vanderbilt’s History of Medicine Collections is home to thousands of cookbooks, receipt books, and collections of home remedies. This exhibit, featuring rare and not-so-rare selections from our collections, explores the development of cookbooks across the centuries, with emphasis on the… Read More

Nikki Giovanni: Black Feeling, Black Talk Central Library Lobby August 2019 Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) is one of America’s most respected African American poets.  A poet, essayist, activist and educator, she graduated with honors from Fisk University with a B.A. in history in 1967.  She was the… Read More

April 2019 Central Library Lobby The first Vanderbilt University Commencement took place in the chapel of the Main building, now known as Kirkland Hall, on June 20, 1877.  The fledgling university granted 10 degrees in the Arts & Sciences and 52 in Medicine.  The week of Commencement… Read More

March-July 2019, Central Library (Fourth Floor Lobby) Half of this exhibit, The Iconoclastic Marshall Chapman, features letters, photographs, posters, song lyrics, tour memorabilia, and other artifacts highlighting Marshall Chapman’s life and career as a working musician, songwriter, author, and more. The rest of this exhibit focuses on Vanderbilt University… Read More

March 27, 2019-October 31, 2019, Central Library (Second Floor Gallery) This exhibition will be curated by a cohort of Buchanan Library Fellows and their librarian mentors. University life in the 19th century was quite different from today’s modern campus. Every aspect of students’ lives was highly regimented in order to… Read More

March-July 2019 Have you ever wondered why the iris is featured on Vanderbilt’s graduation mace or heard Nashville called “Iris City”? The iris is our official state flower, but at Vanderbilt and Peabody, the iris carries a deeper connection: it was grown and hybridized by many historic figures, from… Read More

November 14, 2018-March 15, 2019 Throughout the 20th century, African American writers consistently gave voice to their experiences through powerful poetry and prose. From the bold voices that came out of the Harlem Renaissance, the courageous words from the Civil Rights movement, to the unapologetic stories of everyday strife,… Read More