Past Library Exhibit

May-November 2017 In anticipation of the August 2017 solar eclipse, Vanderbilt University Libraries will host an exhibition curated by four astronomy students on the work of American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard (1857-1923). Best known for his discovery of Amalthea, the fifth moon of Jupiter, Barnard was a photographer and… Read More

The J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana at Vanderbilt University, is an exceptionally rich repository for students, scholars, and others, interested in the study of nineteenth and early-twentieth century Colombia. The many invaluable pamphlets in the collection provide an incomparable overview about fundamental topics in Colombian history. Library Fellow Jorge… Read More

This exhibition is part of research at Vanderbilt exploring the rich and far-reaching role of Syriac culture in world history. Vanderbilt host to Syriaca.org , a first-of-its-kind online reference hub for the study of Syriac history, literature, and culture. We invite you to browse the exhibit and to explore Syriaca.org . By… Read More

June 2016-March 2017 Illuminated manuscript (literally “hand written”) books are arguably the most characteristic objects of the European middle ages. They preserved a culture’s visions, adventures, religious rituals, and hard-won knowledge in books that were entirely handmade simply because there was no alternative. In one sense, the printing press… Read More

The compelling letters, rare broadsides, and audio and video recordings in this exhibition serve as witnesses to powerful moments in America’s history. While many of the individuals who donated these collections are gone, their records survive to tell critical stories that inform our lives. Played out in the courtroom… Read More

The J. León Helguera Collection at Vanderbilt University houses over a thousand broadsides from nineteenth and early twentieth-century Colombia. Dean’s Fellow, Emma Banks, has selected 150 of these documents for digitization. In nineteenth-century Colombia, people used broadsides to announce events, proclaim political decrees, spread important news, and report on local… Read More

May 2015-June 2016 From explorers measuring a pre-industrial world to virtual worlds built with code, technological advances and human ingenuity have heightened our senses, expanding perceptions of the universe and our place in it. Eden Phillpotts, inspired by the magnifying glass, remarked, “The universe is full of magical things… Read More

Few books have had more impact on modern literature than Charles Baudelaire’s compendium of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal. Exploring humanity’s many contradictions, Les Fleurs du Mal’s melancholic and erotic verse ensconce the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the spleen and the ideal. With the poems’ rich symbolism… Read More

The J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana at the Vanderbilt University Library includes many pamphlets from 19th-century Colombia. Through the Vanderbilt Libraries’ Dean’s Fellow program a selection of three hundred pamphlets have been digitized from the over two thousand that form part of the collection. This online exhibit by Dean’s… Read More

Baudelaire’s Poe: Selections from the W.T. Bandy Collection features digital images of rare books and materials from W.T. Bandy’s unparalleled collection at the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University. This online exhibition reveals fascinating interconnections between the lives and works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867),… Read More