Blooms and blossoms come in many shapes and sizes, and the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation is a fertile ground for exploring the wonders of nature and the beauty of flowers and gardens that weave their way through our vast and diverse holdings. A Walk in the Garden: Special Collections’ Blossoms assembles floral images from our various collections and puts them side by side the first time. Come enjoy a beautiful vision of springtime and feel the warmth and sense the fragrance of countless blooms spanning centuries.

The exhibition was on view through June 30, 2017 in Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library.

(Image: John Walton, ca. 1880-1900)

In 1861, the University of Rochester moved to a new campus. It had just one building, some houses for faculty, and ample open land – land full of dandelions.

The students began a tradition of wearing them in their lapels. In the 1890s, dandelion yellow was chosen as the official school color. Songs were written with dandelion motifs. The student newspaper reported on the athletic teams, calling them "The Dandelion Yellows." As new campus buildings were designed, the flower was used as an architectural flourish. 

This exhibition pulls images and objects from the University’s Archives and features eighteenth century botanical engravings from the department's print collection to explore the deep roots of our favorite flower.

The exhibition was on view through June 30, 2017 in Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library.

     
     Exhibition: Still Here: A New Take on Old Spirits   

Spearheaded by a single student in 1947, WRUR has grown into one of the University's oldest and largest student organizations. Where once low-power transmitters in Burton Hall and Cutler Union brought music, athletic events, lectures, and concerts to dormitory residents; now the internet allows students to engage listeners (and alumni) all over the world. Whether you sat behind the microphone or listened in, come "tune in" to the history of the "Voice of the University of Rochester" via rarely-seen documents, photographs, and clippings.

On May 21, 1927, a small crowd gathered for the ceremonial groundbreaking for the River Campus. Learn about their initial vision, and the ongoing restoration and revitalization of the original campus buildings through a display of archival photographs, blueprints, and planning materials, and discover how new academic programs and activities have transformed our landscape from twelve buildings to more than fifty.

It is exciting to realize that the technology that allows us to look into the depths of far galaxies is the same technology used to enrich milk and remove unwanted tattoos. Optics, it turns out, affects almost every aspect of modern life.

Rochester became a central hub for optical research and production starting in the late 1880s. The city's spirit of innovation led to the establishment of the Rochester Association for Advancement of Applied Optics in November 1915. Members of the Rochester Association later became instrumental in the founding of the Optical Society of America in February 1916 and the establishment of the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in 1929.

In celebration of Rochester's important contribution to the field of optics and the Optical Society's centennial, this exhibition invites viewers to learn about the achievements and milestones of the optical professions from its beginning in the early twentieth century through its height during the post-World War II era.

Before becoming nationally known as a U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, William Henry Seward started his career as a lawyer and state senator, later serving as the 12th Governor of New York from 1839-1842. After passing the bar in 1822, he moved to Auburn, New York to practice law under Judge Elijah Miller. He married Miller's daughter Frances in 1824. This exhibit showcases items from the Seward family's early years including William Henry and Frances's marriage, the experiences of their children growing up in a politically charged household, Seward's two terms as Governor of New York, and the life of Frances Seward - the politically-minded woman who shared her opinions with her husband while spending most of her time at home in Auburn.

The exhibition is on view through August 26, 2016 in the Seward Room of Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. 

For more information please call (585) 275-4477. 

In 1952, Ansel Adams was hired by the University to create a photographic portfolio of faculty, students, the River Campus, and the city of Rochester. The resulting images were used in a capital campaign that would merge the then-separate colleges for men and women, and pave the way for the graduate schools of engineering, business, and education. Why Adams undertook the project, how he saw us, and how we have changed in the subsequent decades are the focus of an extensive display of Adams’ original photographs

The exhibition was on view through November 20, 2016 in the Hilfiker Gallery of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library.

For more information please call (585) 275-4477. 

In celebration of BOA Editions' 40th anniversary, this retrospective exhibit explores BOA's evolution over the years through an extensive display of BOA volumes published between 1977 and 2015. Selected typescripts, book and cover designs, correspondence between authors and editors, and BOA publicity samples-all drawn from the archives of BOA Editions acquired by the River Campus Libraries beginning in 2005-reveal the lifecycle through which poetry and literature move from submission to published work.

The exhibition is on view through July 29, 2016 in the Friedlander Lobby of Rush Rhees Library during library hours.

For more information please call (585) 275-4477. 

For almost its entire history, the University has been under the watchful eye of its first president, Martin Brewer Anderson: first during his 35-year tenure, and then in the form of his towering statue on the Wilson Quadrangle. In life, Anderson was a true Renaissance man: he was an administrator, mentor, professor, civic leader, and devoted husband to his beloved wife, Elizabeth. 

Rarely seen letters, speeches, tributes, and photographs will explore the story of the titan who guarded the fledgling school through war and economic depressions, and guided it to a respected position among the nation's institutions of higher education.

The exhibition is on view through May 31, 2016 in the Great Hall of Rush Rhees Library during library hours.

For more information please call (585) 275-4477. 

Claude Bragdon (1866-1946) was an extraordinary man whose circle of family and friends included many extraordinary women. Throughout his varied career as artist, architect, theatre designer and writer, Bragdon travelled in many different social and artistic spheres. His path into and through these worlds was lit by the women who nurtured him personally and professionally. This exhibition of artwork, books, manuscripts and photographs will celebrate some of these women and their influence.

The exhibition is on view through August 6, 2016 in Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. 

For more information please call (585) 275-4477. 

For writer, teacher, and pioneering researcher in pharmacology Dr. Louis Caesar Lasagna (1923-2003), the study and practice of medicine extended beyond the walls of laboratories and hospitals into public policy, media, social justice, education, and the arts. Culled from the former University of Rochester professor’s personal and professional papers, this exhibit offers a glimpse into the accomplished career of a humanist public intellectual working amidst sweeping changes in twentieth-century medicine and society.

Curated by Abigail Glogower, PhD Candidate, Visual and Cultural Studies.

The exhibition is on view through May 16, 2016 in the Q/i area of Rush Rhees Library during library hours.

For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

 In this exhibit you will find a special showing of books, maps, photographs, and more providing insight into how Rare Books and Special Collections is growing. With an eye to supporting both traditional and new avenues of research and teaching at the University, our most recent acquisitions strengthen our outstanding holdings in women’s history, social justice, and 20th-century literature, while also exploring new areas of collecting in the fields of photography and science fiction.

 All of the items on view, with few exceptions, were collected over the past year between 2014 and 2015.

 On view in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

Last year, 250 patents were filed by inventors from all corners of the University, but our history of entrepreneurial faculty and alumni stretches back to our earliest years—from the 19th-century player piano (Merritt Gaily, UR 1863), to the Hib vaccine to prevent childhood meningitis (Dr. David H. Smith, '58M); from Professor Henry Ward and his scientific supply company, to the "Rochester cloak" developed in 2014 by physics professor John Howell and doctoral student Joseph Choi.

This exhibition showcases some of our best (and least) known entrepreneurs, and how a desire to "learn, discover, heal, and create" led them to make the world ever better. 

This exhibition is on view through February 29, 2016 in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation in Rush Rhees Library. For library hours and more information, click here or call (585) 275-4477.

President Johnson said, “Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.”

In honor of Banned Books Week (September 28-October 3, 2015), a selection of banned books—from Machiavelli’sThe Prince, to Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen—will be on display in the Q&i area of Rush Rhees Library. The exhibition will accompany a River Campus Libraries’ Read Out event on September 29 from 3-5 p.m.

The exhibition was on view through Sunday, October 4, 2015.

For library hours and more information, click here or call (585) 275-4477.

Around the World in Four Collections: Travel Journals, Letters, and Photographs, 1870-1940s continues the spirit of Armand De Potter’s lifetime philosophy, “To Travel Is To Live.” 

Presented are selections from the Sibley Family, Lewis Henry Morgan, Leo Hart Printing Co., and Joan V. Bondurant Papers, that give expression to a passion for travel as vital to a well-lived life. 

The exhibit was on view through September 19, 2015 in the William Henry Seward Room.

In conjunction with the publication of Janice Bullard Pieterse’s newly-published book, Our Work Is But Begun: A History of the University of Rochester, 1850-2005, this exhibition is intended to provide an overview of some of the major (and a few minor) events in the University’s long history.

The book’s title comes from the 1854 inauguration speech of our first President, Martin Brewer Anderson:

Our University is new. It is untrammelled by precedents. It holds itself ready to adopt every improvement which the activity of the future shall unfold. It has grown up from the spontaneous impulse of generous and intelligent founders. Their honored names inscribed in our archives represent every condition and calling. In the hearts of these men we have found the springs of our life. They have laid our foundations deep and strong. … But the breadth of its foundations, and the vigor which has hitherto marked the administration of its affairs, impose the necessity of a continued expansion and growth in the future. Not to become strong and able with such a beginning is to fail. Our work is but begun.

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Friedlander Lobby, Rush Rhees Library, through May 31, 2015.

“All the School’s a Stage” documents and celebrates the history of theater at the University of Rochester. 

The University’s earliest forms of student theater were variety shows and ad hoc productions staged by informal groups or organized by class year. As the University entered the early 20th century, students became increasingly involved in extracurricular theatre groups like Kaleidoscope, Quilting Club, and Co-Kast. In 1990, a formal program in which students earned academic credit—known today as the International Theatre Program—was added to the theatrical activity on campus. It is hoped that the materials on display will spark fond memories for viewers who were active in theater at the University or who remember classmates and colleagues devoted to it. 

This exhibition is also a part of the International Theatre Program’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebration. In an ever-increasing virtual age, the tradition of live theater on campus remains strong and continues to be an important facet of this University.  The research and writing for this exhibit were the work of its student curator David Bates (UR 2014, Take 5); special thanks are due to Russell A. Peck and Nigel Maister for their advice and historical insights. 

The exhibit was on view in the Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor, through August 31, 2015.

Exhibition: "To Travel Is To Live": Joanna Scott's DePotter's Grand Tour

In collaboration with Joanna Scott, the Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English at the University of Rochester, the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation created an exhibition that interweaves passages from Scott's new novel, DePotter's Grand Tour, with a selection of items that served as the novel’s inspiration. 

The novel originates from Scott's research and imaginative thinking around recently discovered family papers: a steamer trunk full of documents, diaries, photographs and artifacts stored in her mother’s basement. DePotter's Grand Tour focuses on Armand de Potter [Scott’s great-grandfather], an 1870s young Belgian immigrant of modest means and no specialized education, but with a large vision of himself as a world tour leader and collector of antiquities. While working as a French instructor at the Albany Academy for Girls, Armand draws into his vision student Amy Beckwith, the 19-year-old daughter of a prosperous farm family in Dutchess County. Their 1879 wedding trip to Europe becomes a test run for what would soon be the first “De Potter Old World Tour.” The novel moves back and forth in time from their first years together to the early 20th century, and alternates between the perspectives of Armand and Amy (Aimée) de Potter. The account of Armand’s sudden and shocking disappearance at sea after almost 25 years of marriage and of De Potter [World] Tours becomes a focal point of the narrative. 

Enveloped in elements of mystery, the novel is an exploration of the development and interplay of the de Potters as real players in the business of 19th century tourism – all impelled by very human qualities of ambition, deception, love, and love of learning. 

The exhibit has been extended through June 30, 2015, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

In conjunction with the 2015 Hopeman Memorial Carillon Summer Recital Series, this exhibit explores the evolution of the Hopeman Carillon, from a 17 bell chime to a 50 bell carillon. The free outdoor concerts will be held each Monday in July at 7 p.m. on the Eastman Quadrangle on the University of Rochester's River Campus. The concerts are open to the public. For more information, click here.

Doris Aman, carillon faculty at the Eastman Community Music School, explained how the instrument is played during a live interview on Fox Rochester on July 1. Watch a clip here.

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Rush Rhees Library, Q&i. July 1 - August 2, 2015

News of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 released a wave of patriotic energy in Rochester. Almost overnight, American flags and banners sold out at local shops, businessmen pledged thousands of dollars to soldiers’ families, and restless crowds descended on City Hall to decry the rebellion. Just three weeks later, 30,000 Rochesterians gathered downtown as the city’s first recruits boarded southbound trains—without rifles or proper uniforms—embarking on what would become a long and arduous journey for the city. 

Between 1861 and 1865, more than 10,000 soldiers from Rochester fought to preserve the Union. “Rochester boys” were instrumental to several major campaigns, including Gettysburg and Antietam, and endured the indignities of disease-ridden camps and dehumanizing prisons. Hundreds of miles removed from hostilities, Rochester became central to the Union war effort. Army-contracted factories and hospitals grew rapidly to meet demand, and civil society, including the city’s notable abolitionists, rallied to aid soldiers and their families. The city avoided certain struggles faced by other Northern communities, including draft riots and economic depression. Nevertheless, the war was a tragic pause in a century of rapid growth, marked by the deaths of 650 soldiers and the devastation of downtown by a historic flood. 

"The Glory of Old Monroe: Rochester in the Civil War" commemorates the experiences of Rochester’s soldiers and citizens, from national heroes to unsung drummer boys, prisoners of war, and local activists. Letters, photos, and equipment illustrate everyday life in the army and navy, while publications and other cultural artifacts give a glimpse of life on the home front. The exhibition was curated by Eitan Freedenberg, a Ph.D. candidate in visual and cultural studies. Freedenberg is also an Andrew W. Mellon Digital Humanities Fellow. 

The project was inspired by the groundbreaking research of Edward L. Ayers, Ph.D., the 2015 Distinguished Visiting Humanist. Ayers’ research considers the Civil War from the rarely told perspective of individual communities, rather than the familiar perspective of generals and politicians. 

Funding for this exhibition was provided by the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering. The curator would like to thank the Rochester Historical Society and the Rochester Museum and Science Center for opening their collections to the University, and Bob Marcotte, author of Where They Fell: Rochester-Area Soldiers in the Civil War, who advised and contributed additional research. 

The exhibition is on view from March 14 – April 19, 2015 throughout the Rush Rhees Library: 

William Henry Seward Room
Q&i
Digital Humanities Center

For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

Once the frontrunner for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, William Henry Seward experienced an unexpected loss to the then virtually unknown Abraham Lincoln. Although he never became president, Seward did become Secretary of State and one of Lincoln’s most trusted advisors.

This exhibition focuses on William Henry Seward’s career in Lincoln’s cabinet, as highlighted in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s award-winning book, Team of Rivals. 

Additional items on display include materials belonging to Seward’s family members that illustrate their roles in some of the most pressing political issues of the time. 

The exhibit is open through November 30, 2014, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

The Play’s The Thing & Gilbert and Sullivan: One Hundred Years of Posters, Gift of Hal Kanthor. 

This fall, with selections from a recent gift of Gilbert and Sullivan posters making their debut in The Hilfiker Gallery and in The William Henry Seward Room, we shine a spotlight in our main exhibit area on an overview of theatrical holdings from the River Campus Libraries Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation. 

In it you will find items from our scene-stealing collections: Claude Bragdon, John Gardner, Anthony Giardina, Arthur Pinero, and Clement Scott. But we also here share some perhaps lesser-known material – from versions of the Greek myth of Amphitryon and Alcmene to an unpublished Colloquy on Shakespeare written by Frederick W. Seward, son of William Henry Seward. 

Our exhibit tells a myriad of stories about theatrical performance and performers of the nineteenth century British and American stage. Through a rich selection of printed and manuscript librettos and play texts, etchings and original set and costume designs, manuscript correspondence and printed playbills, we illustrate over four hundred years of theatre history, from Shakespeare’s era to Rochester’s own vaudeville years to a Lincoln Center Theatre production in summer 2014. 

The exhibit is open through December 22, 2014, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

This temporary exhibition highlights recently acquired letters from Susan B. Anthony to Rachel Foster Avery; recent acquisitions of Frederick Douglass materials; and rare and special collections related to Anthony, Douglass, and their Rochester connections. 

Adding items such items to our collections offers researchers the opportunity to pursue new avenues of scholarship. For instance, an autograph sentiment signed by Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton conveys the turmoil in both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements after the Civil War, as the meaning of citizenship was being redefined. 

Understanding both the public and private lives of historical figures is a critical part of understanding their contributions to history. Through letters exchanged between Susan B. Anthony and Rachel Foster Avery, scholars can read not only about Anthony’s immense influence on the women’s rights movement, but also about her personal life. In one letter, she writes about her excitement over getting a telephone installed in her home on Madison Street.

The exhibit is open through November 30, 2014, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

This exhibition features materials used by University of Rochester English professor Stephen Schottenfeld as he conducted research for his new novel, Bluff City Pawn. 

An investigation of class, law, betrayal, and blood, the book follows a Memphis pawn dealer and the interworking of his city, business, and family. 

The exhibit is open through November 30, 2014, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. For more information please call (585) 275-4477.

Throughout the past 2,000 years, the character of Salomé has evolved in popular culture from a minor biblical figure to a wrathful seductress to a tragic character. She inspired artists in the Middles Ages and the Renaissance, playwright Oscar Wilde, composer Richard Strauss, and even comic book artist Craig Russell.

As part of a symposium entitled “The Veils of Salomé” this exhibition of books from the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation will remain on view until October 25 at Q&i in Rush Rhees Library during library hours.

“Race Riots Rock Rochester: Curfew Imposed.” This Times of India headline of July 26, 1964 typifies hundreds throughout the world that announced startling news from a city known largely for its close-to-idyllic quality of life. The news stories reported that on a hot July evening, a small street dance party suddenly transformed into an angry mob scene of several thousand citizens countered by all available Rochester law enforcement. 

At the end of the third day, when uneasy quiet was restored, the tally included: four people killed; heavy looting and property damage totaling more than one million dollars, with numerous commercial properties damaged beyond repair; and more than 1,000, both African Americans and whites, arrested. Rochester’s riots were classified as “most severe” and preceded many others through out the United States during the Sixties summers. 

With the approaching fiftieth anniversary of Rochester’s riots, this exhibit acknowledges that it is well to remember and to continue learning from Rochester’s ’64 riots. Beyond Rochester’s ’64 Riots: 50 Years Seeking to Make One City Out of Two showcases a balance of highlights from the past, with the present-day, in search of a fresh perspective on ways to move our community forward. 

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Friedlander Lobby, Rush Rhees Library, through October 5, 2014.

In May 1861, just a few weeks after the firing upon Fort Sumter which launched the Civil War, President Martin B. Anderson gave this exhortation to the first group undergraduates who enlisted in a regiment led by the Professor of Mathematics, Isaac Quinby. By war's end, one of every 12 undergraduates would enlist, along with at least 85 graduates and former students, serving on such battlefields as Cold Harbor, Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Gettysburg. 

Drawing upon letters, journals, photographs and scrapbooks in the University Archives, this exhibit recounts the honor the University's enlisted brought back, and the effect of the war upon those who remained on campus.

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor, through August 15, 2014.

In his inauguration as the University's fifth president, Cornelis de Kiewiet said, "A university is never fully mature. It must grow and change, else it languishes and loses its place." The same is true of a research and teaching collection: it sustains its usefulness, becomes more complete, and supports new and original inquiry through acquisition. 

Building a collection is a deeply collaborative effort. Each item on display is an acknowledgement of our crucial partnerships with friends and donors over the years, and a timeless mark of their interest and trust. 

A collection keeps its place by building on solid foundations; it grows and changes by exploring new avenues that encourage innovative teaching and support the research interests of new generations of students, faculty and scholars. 

New additions to the following collections and more will be on view:
University Archives, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Bragdon Family Papers, Langston Hughes, John C. Gardner, Frank Lloyd Wright, YWCA, Seward Family Papers 

The exhibit will be on view in the Reference/Circulation area of the Rush Rhees Library, all hours the library is open. For more information, please call the department at (585) 275-4477.

By the 1870s, Rochester had become “The Flower City,” home to thirty-one nurseries and seed companies within its city limits and another two dozen in the surrounding area. Flourishing alongside this industry were local artists, printers, and publishers who produced fruit and flower prints (or plates) to promote commercial trade. These remarkable works of sometimes lifelike, sometimes abstract botanical art were also assembled by nurserymen into unique salesmen’s plate books, each of which offers a glimpse into gardens of the past. 

Fruit and flower plates are a major resource for studying the 19th century nursery trade and the social and cultural changes it both depended upon and brought about. Showcasing this art form, Cultivating Color features material from our Ellwanger & Barry collection and the related holdings of over 50 nurserymen’s plate books. These works of art, each distinct in its assembly and patina of use, continue to proselytize for plants. 

The exhibit will be on view until May 23, 2014, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Saturday hours, please call the department at (585) 275-4477.

The Digital Page, a Humanities Research Lab at the University of Rochester is designed in conjunction with two seminars in media studies and media history at the undergraduate (ENG 283: Media ABC) and graduate (ENG 557: Text and Medium) levels. Both seminars explore the very idea of medium and media. All media - the human voice, books, paint, electronic files - shape their content - words, pictures, sounds, etc. - along with their authors and their audiences. Through a series of collaborative projects The Digital Page lab explores different forms of digital textual encoding as tools for research, analysis, and scholarly communication.

The projects have been designed to enrich conversations about media studies and media history while also providing a broad introduction to digital methods for editing and investigating a variety of objects and subjects. From encoding personal multimedia histories into dynamic timelines, to independently designed and executed digital editions of particular works, students have developed projects responsive to their own research interests while learning foundational skills in digital approaches to literature and other media. Since no previous knowledge or technical skills were required for the lab, students have learned how to design, plan, and execute each of their projects “from the ground up,” gaining a wide range of skills and experience in digital humanities methods and technologies, especially XML.

For the second project in The Digital Page lab this semester (Spring 2014), students explored the history of a specific rare book in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation in Rush Rhees Library. Following seminar readings and discussions on the history of print and presentations on early printing and bookmaking by Rare Books Director Jim Kuhn and Rare Book Conservator and Curator Andrea Reithmayr, students collaborated in small groups to design a digital edition of their chosen work highlighting the bibliographical information embedded within it. 

Students made digital photographs in the Rare Books reading room, conducted independent bibliographical and provenance research and designed custom “Title Page” editions of their works using the TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) XML framework to structure the information about their books’ history of production and transmission. To visualize their historical research, students then created interactive “Time Map” animations using the Google Earth API and KML. By coordinating historical maps, images, and descriptions in 4-dimensional guided tours of their books, students retraced the books’ passages from their printing to their current location in the University’s collections. 

For more information, please visit: The Digital Page online. 

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Reference/Circulation, Rush Rhees Library, through May 23, 2014.

What skills, challenges and joys are involved in using primary source materials to bring new information and ideas into the world? 

This exhibit highlights research projects—past, present and future—drawn from Rare Books and Special Collections’ holdings, spanning more than 500 years. Showcasing manuscripts, letters, documents, books, drawings, and photographs, it celebrates the non-linear journey of research as reflected by a range of scholars throughout and beyond the University community. Demystifying the collaboration between researchers and curators, Nurturing Inquiry prompts conversation about the meaning and mechanics of research and inspires new work in the collections.

Co-curated by Phyllis Andrews, Lori Birrell, Abby Glogower, Andrea Reithmayr, and Melinda Wallington

The exhibit will be on view until February 28, 2014, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Saturday hours, please call the department at (585) 275-4477.

On October 22, 1938, in Astoria, NY, Chester Carlson’s revolutionary theory was “reduced to practice” and a new method of making copies was born. Using materials from the Chester F. Carlson Papers, the John Dessauer Papers, the McKelvey-Wilson Papers and other Rare Books and Special Collections holdings, this exhibit examines the evolution of xerography from theory to practice, from Astoria to Rochester, and the truly original individuals who made it happen.

1st floor, Carlson Library. Available for viewing all hours the Library is open.

Curated by Claire Crowther (UR 2013), this exhibit showcases the intersection of manuscript collections and modern, student experiences. The items on display feature travel experiences from around the world. These photographs, letters, and journals illustrate the importance and value of global adventures. 

The exhibit is open April 22, 2013, through December 27, 2013, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Saturday hours, please call the department at (585) 275-4477.

Meliora is the motto of the University of Rochester, and translates from the Latin as “ever better.” The form in Latin is imperative — an exhortation to do and to be ever better.

For 25 years of Freshman Orientation, and every November for 15 years before 1988, Wilson Day has been an exhortation — to students, faculty and staff — to remember the life of Joseph C. Wilson and to honor his example to make the world “ever better” by engaging in the life of our community. 

This exhibit looks at who Joe C. Wilson was, what he stood for and why he should be remembered, as the 25th Wilson Day takes the theme of “Where’s Wilson?” 

Rush Rhees Library, Friedlander Lobby, first floor. Available for viewing all hours the Library is open, through November 15, 2013.

This year the Gallery is celebrating its Centennial. This exhibit tells the story of the Gallery’s beginnings as a generous gift to the University for the Rochester community by Emily Sibley Watson. 

Key exhibit items are an architectural rendering from 1912, and compelling images of key personalities and events of the Gallery for the next 100 years. Exhibit materials are drawn from the Gallery’s Archives and the Rush Rhees Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. 

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor, through September 30, 2013.

After the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have been among the most frequently published books in the English language. Just as each decade or generation ‘reads into’ the text, the illustrators also bring their own Time and Place and Talent into finding their own artistic interpretations of Alice. The exhibit embodies the treasures of local Lewis Carroll collector, Jeanne Harper, and her own adventurous fall down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. 

Opening January 21, 2013 and running through September 20, 2013, the exhibit can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Saturday hours, please call the department at (585) 275-4477.

On November 4, 1872 Susan B. Anthony and a group of women from Monroe County, New York asserted what they believed to be their “citizen’s right to vote” and cast their ballots in the Presidential election. Three days after casting her ballot, the Registrar of Voters filed an arrest warrant for Anthony and charged her and her alone, with illegal voting. A Citizen’s Right to Vote: United States vs. Susan B. Anthony chronicles eighty years of suffrage activism and positions Anthony’s leadership and trial as a cornerstone of the American women’s suffrage movement. 

Opening February 4, 2013 and running through May 20, 2013, the exhibit coincides with the Humanities Project Spring 2013 lecture series: The World of Susan B. Anthony.

This exhibit can be viewed in the Friedlander Lobby, 1st Floor, Rush Rhees Library. Available for viewing all hours Library is open.

This exhibit reflects the process, methodology and delivery of Presidential speeches and speechwriting. Senior Lecturer of English at the University of Rochester and exhibit curator Curt Smith, describes the process of writing as an opportunity to express oneself and one’s ideas. 

The items on display are borrowed from public and private sources, including Presidential libraries, the holdings of the UR’s Rare Books and Special Collections Department, as well as famous phrases included in the book My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America’s Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama, and the private collection of the man who wrote more speeches than anyone for President George H.W. Bush: Curt Smith.

The exhibit is open January 14, 2013, through March 8, 2013, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m to 3 p.m.

For 50 years, the Plutzik Reading Series has brought major voices in contemporary writing to campus. The series was established following the death in 1962 of Hyam Plutzik, the John H. Deane Professor of Rhetoric and Poetry -- to honor and carry out in a formal way Professor Plutzik’s frequent practice throughout his UR teaching career of offering readings of his own poetry, and inviting readings by other visiting writers as well. 

For this exhibit, curator Phil Witte (UR 2010) has invited some of the students and alumni who have filled the audiences of Series readings to contribute brief commentaries on the work of several dozen of the nearly 300 past Readers--including the likes of Elizabeth Bishop, Edward Albee, Adrienne Rich, Bernard Malamud, Anthony Hecht, Angela Carter, and Allen Ginsberg--as a way of continuing the conversation about literature which each event sparks. For each featured Series reader the exhibit includes a first edition or two as well as a photograph and brief bio-bibliography .

The exhibit is open September 18, 2012 – January 11, 2013 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, For Saturday viewing hours, please call (585) 275-4477.

William Henry Seward’s ability to find balance between his social values, foreign and domestic influences, and his family and political life allowed him to become a center of influence in American politics from the 1830s through the late 1860s.

The documents and photographs in the Seward collection exemplify his importance to people of the day. Newspaper clippings compliment his intelligence and powerful oration. Letters from his wife, prominent senators, and President Lincoln show the confidence many held in his ideas and opinions. Photographs and household objects from Seward and his family provide glimpses into this public figure’s private life. 

The exhibit is open October 10, 2012, through January 4, 2013, and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Saturday viewing hours, please call (585) 275-4477.

Since the Dedication of the River Campus in 1930, the Hopeman Memorial bells have sounded out over the campus and adjacent Rochester neighborhoods. This exhibit features highlights of the history of the Hopeman bells. Viewers will see the original keyboard used to sound the Chime, William Ehrich’s Bellman’s Society nameplate holder, an architectural drawing of the Tower with an explanation of how the Carillon works and much else. University Carillonneur Doris Aman and the University Archives collaborated to produce the exhibit. 

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor, through September 30, 2012.

Analyzing manuscript and archival collections compels us to consider the ways we document our present. Will scholars one day study our emails, Tweets and YouTube video clips in an attempt to understand American culture and experiences? 

“Documenting the Past”, curated by Lori Birrell, features manuscript and printed items acquired through donation, and recent purchases. The items in this exhibit offer viewers the opportunity to examine once common acts of daily life. In addition to viewing the physical items on exhibit, the viewer can also scan the QR (Quick Response) code located on each display case panel with their mobile device to learn more about these collections and their greater historical context.

The exhibit is open June 11 to September 21, 2012 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"Your Kind invitation to Visit the old familiar place stirs up many fond recollections" - William Cooper Nell to Amy Kirby Post, 1862

Please join us for a student and faculty panel discussion followed by a key note address given by Rutgers University professor, Nancy Hewitt.

Thursday, September 13, 2012, 5pm 
Hawkins- Carlson Room

Reception and website viewing to follow in Rare Books and Special Collections 
2nd Floor, Rush Rhees Library 

This on-line project, features a selection of letters from the Post Family Papers- a manuscript collection that documents one Rochester family and their involvement in national, social reform movements.

Project Managers: Lori Birrell and Melissa Mead

The paper engineers who design movable and pop-up books that spring to life before our eyes make the transformation look effortless. The term “movable” refers to books containing mechanical paper devices that remain flat, such as paper discs, flaps, and pull tabs. “Pop-up” describes collapsible paper devices that elevate off the page into three dimensional structures. Today’s movable and pop-up books contain the same basic elements developed and improved upon by previous generations of paper engineers.

This exhibit, curated by Leah Hamilton, features more than 50 examples of pop-up books, bibliographic mechanisms, and amazing feats of paper engineering and spans nearly 500 years of the interactive book. 

The exhibit is open January 23 to August 17, 2012 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Manuscript materials offer the user the unmatched experience of learning about the past through the lens of another’s experience. Representing recently acquired and processed collections, Manuscripts as the Portals of Discovery explores four themes: activism, innovation, knowledge and travel. 

“Manuscripts as the Portals of Discovery”, curated by Lori Birrell, features manuscript items acquired through donation, and purchased from manuscript dealers. The items in this exhibit celebrate human ingenuity and creativity. 

The exhibit is open February 3 to May 25, 2012 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Over the last 30 HIV/AIDS has spread unevenly across the globe. In the process it has altered bonds of intimacy, scientific knowledge, and diverse beliefs about morality and life. Constellations of imagery from awareness campaigns form alongside global networks of transmission and treatment. Drawing from the Atwater Collection of AIDS educational posters, Picturing AIDS and Its Publics shows the changing look of AIDS. The posters communicate diverse ideologies and visual strategies, showing how various groups around the world conceive of the virus.

The exhibit has been curated by Berin Golonu and Alexander Brier Marr and is mounted in conjunction with the Humanities Project, "Looking at AIDS 30 Years On." 

The exhibit is open January 26 to May 21, 2012 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Curated by student Sergei Kriskov (English/Political Science, 2012), Hyam Plutzik, Poet: A Centennial Celebration showcases Plutzik’s books, poetry manuscripts, broadsides and other selected materials from the Hyam Plutzik Papers. Sarah Young (English, UR 2013), has prepared a special exhibit “Rochester Students Read Plutzik” highlighting student responses to selected Plutzik poems. 

The exhibit is open through January 15, 2012 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On September 22nd, the University of Rochester opens the largest-ever exhibition of the graphic art of Kenneth Patchen, the controversial 20th-century poet-painter who pioneered the anti-novel, concrete poetry, poetry-jazz, and picture-poems. 

Held during the centennial of Patchen’s birth, the exhibit presents a striking collection of more than 200 painted books, silk-screen broadsides, picture poems, paintings, photographs and inscribed first editions. The show pays tribute to a prolific artist whose work gained widespread attention and whose readings of poetry accompanied with jazz were a phenomenon in the 1950s.  Published from the 1930s through 1972, Patchen writings have been labeled as Romantic, Proletarian, Socialist, Surrealist, Dadaist, and Beat, but ultimately defy easy categorization. 

Infuriating to critics and largely ignored by academics, Patchen nevertheless has been lauded as “the best poet American literary expressionism can show” by Poet Laureate James Dickey and as “all that a poet should represent” by novelist and painter Henry Miller. His boosters, including James Laughlin, Kenneth Rexroth, and e.e..cummings,  "would constitute a Who’s Who in 20th century American letters,” writes exhibit curator Richard Peek, director of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Rochester.

Patchen’s was an unconventional life, one committed to art, social justice, pacifism, and to his wife and muse Miriam, to whom he dedicated all of his books and love poems. But it was also marred by a back injury at age 26, complications of which eventually left him bed-ridden and poverty-stricken during the last dozen years of his life.

Also on September 22, 2011 at 7:30pm, as part of the first Neilly Lecture Series, Jonathan Clark, a Patchen expert and personal family friend of the Patchens will be present his talk  Extending the Medium of Words: The Graphic Art of Kenneth Patchen. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The exhibit is open through January 5, 2012 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Susan B. Anthony Institute, home of the Gender & Women’s Studies Program, was named in honor of the 19th century suffragist who led a successful campaign for the enrollment of women to the UR in 1900. This exhibit celebrates the accomplishments of the SBAI, which generates interdisciplinary research in gender and women’s studies through grants, seminars and lectures. 

The exhibit also tells the story of how women were admitted to the University 111 years ago and highlights many of the “first” achievements and publications of UR’s female students, faculty and staff. The faces of the first African-American and first Asian women students can be seen as well.

This exciting exhibit is a collaboration between the SBAI and the University Archives.

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor, through December 31, 2011.

Festivals and celebrations have long been a part of Rochester’s history. Within the span of four months both Rochester natives and visitors alike can enjoy lilac blooms, duck races on the Erie Canal, jazz concerts and products from the city’s vibrant arts and crafts culture. This exhibit brings together all of the fun and excitement summer has held for festival goers from the 1890s to the present day.

The exhibit is open through September 14, 2011 and can be viewed in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"Pictures added to poetry is a treacherous pursuit... I Am Ill, Book Number 279, represents a new direction in my work. For the first time, my text does not accompany the pictures, but is incorporated into the pictures. In each segment of the book I search how to make the text more visual."

Keith Smith's latest work is on display through September 5, 2011, and can be viewed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Hilfiker Gallery of Rare Books and Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd floor.

This exhibit showcases some of the earliest maps and drawings of Western New York and includes the first map printed in the colony of New York, dated 1723.

The print is one of more than 40 rare maps, prints, books, and copper engravings recently donated to the library's Rare Books and Special Collections Department by Dr. Seymour Schwartz. The Drs. Ruth W. and Seymour I. Schwartz Collection charts the 18th- and 19th-century development of Western New York from its days as the home of Native American tribes to its division into vast land tracks in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase to its emergence as a commercial shipping artery along the newly constructed Erie Canal. 

Michael Powers (UR 2011), a history major, worked with Dr. Schwartz to prepare the exhibit of the rare maps as part of a library internship.

The exhibit is open through August 25, 2011, and can be viewed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Curated by History undergraduate Carlie Fishgold and Visual and Cultural Studies graduate student Alex Marr, this exhibition presents photogravure prints from a very rare portfolio collection of Edward Curtis’s magnum opus The North American Indian. The opening will include a screening of a documentary film about Edward S. Curtis, a reception and viewing of the images, and a roundtable discussion with Native scholar Joe D. Horse Capture (A’aninin/White Clay People) and scholars from the University of Rochester.

March 2: Exhibition Opening and Roundtable
3:30-5pm
Screening Edward S. Curtis: Coming to Light (dir., Anne Makepeace).

5:00-5:30pm
Wine and cheese reception; “Theatres of Memory” opening 

5:30-6:30pm
Roundtable with Joe D. Horse Capture (A’aninin/White Clay People), Associate Curator of Native North American Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Janet Berlo, Professor of Art History and Visual and Cultural Studies at U of R, and Jessica McDonald, doctoral student in the history of photography in Visual and Cultural Studies 

The exhibition opens on March 2, 2011 and will run through May 15, 2011, and can be viewed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Artist John C. Wenrich created numerous renderings of University of Rochester buildings beginning in the 1920s and lasting into the 1950s. This exhibit features selections of his work from two major construction periods in the UR's history. 

The 1924 Greater University fundraising campaign to build the River Campus required Wenrich's skills to depict buildings that would inspire donors. With the completion of the new campus, Wenrich-by then a nationally recognized figure in his field-was called upon to illustrate new 1930 additions to the College for Women on the "old" Prince Street Campus. At mid-century, the unification of the campuses through co-education meant new construction: as always, Wenrich's delicate use of watercolor produced drawings of almost ethereal beauty.

Today some of the drawings look quite fantastical, while others very closely resemble the buildings we see every day. This exhibition invites the viewer to enter this world of the envisioned campus, visiting building interiors as well as exteriors. The drawings will rotate throughout the duration of the exhibit.

Available for viewing all hours the Library is open. Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor, through May 5, 2011.

Curated by Patrick Daubert, English 2011 as part of a Special Collections internship, this exhibit displays selected books, photographs, manuscripts and book reviews from our Curtis White Papers.

Born in 1951 in San Lorenzo, California, social critic, essayist, and novelist Curtis White has authored five novels -- The Idea Of Home (1992), Anarcho-Hindu (1995),Memories of My Father Watching TV (1998), Requiem (2001), and America's Magic Mountain (2004); four non-fiction books -- Monstrous Possibility (1998), The Middle Mind(2003), The Spirit of Disobedience (2007), The Barbaric Heart: Faith, Money, and the Crisis of Nature (2009); two collections of short stories -- Heretical Songs (1980), andMetaphysics in the Midwest (1988); four edited/co-edited works, and numerous articles and essays. His work has been widely excerpted and anthologized. 


The exhibition is open to the public from November 11, 2010 to April 15, 2011 in the Hilfiker Gallery of the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library can be viewed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Today, Claude Bragdon (1866-1946) is best known as a first-generation modernist architect, but he was a “many-sided genius” with technical and artistic expertise in several disciplines. In more than 20 books and hundreds of articles, Bragdon wrote about architecture, theater, film, color, hyperspace, art, yoga, feminism, Theosophy, and more.  During his lifetime, he was nationally known for his graphic art, his writing on the fourth dimension, his system of ornament, his Song & Light Festivals of 1915-1918, and his role in theater’s New Stagecraft.  Drawn from the Department of Rare Books & Special Collection’s comprehensive Bragdon Family Papers, the exhibition includes: juvenilia; graphic design; architectural drawings; plans for and ephemera from Song & Light festivals; color music notations; and theater designs.

The exhibition will be open to the public from April 9 to October 16, 2010 in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library.

The department is proud to announce that the exhibition catalog, Claude Bragdon and the Beautiful Necessity, published by the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, was a 2011 Leab Award winning catalog. Along with a catalogue of the exhibition, this volume includes eleven essays by notable scholars, contextualizing Bragdon within modern American architecture and various facets of American culture. To place an order, contact the Press at (585) 475-6766 or visit them online at carypress.rit.edu. The book is also available at the University of Rochester Bookstore.

The University Archives, sometimes called the UR’s attic, is filled with 159 years’ worth of treasures and marvels. This exhibit brings together an assortment of rarely seen objects: ephemera, photographs, clothing, mementos, curiosa, and much more that has been generated since the University’s founding. From the mundane to the rarified, from the funny to the poignant, there is something to enchant everyone. 

(Photograph: Dan Schapiro in his Oldsmobile on the Eastman Quadrangle. Gift of Dan Schapiro.) 

Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor through September 19, 2010 Exhibits are open all weekend.

The Genesee River attracted early settlers to the pioneer village of Rochester, where they harnessed its mighty falls to run flourmills. The Erie Canal, which made it possible to ship the products of the mills, changed the early settlement into a thriving city. Both the river and canal were marvels--one created by nature, one by man--that inspired many who viewed them to make records of the experience. This exhibition features a sampling of the pictures and paragraphs created by nineteenth-century admirers of the Genesee River and Erie Canal. 

The exhibition is open to the public from January 8 to March 26, 2010 in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library.

In honor of the seventh meeting of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies, the conference organizers present a series of interlinked exhibitions, lavishly illustrating the appeal of Robin Hood from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. 

The materials on display have been selected from thousands of items in paper (printed books, sheets, ephemera, cartoons, comic books, boys’ serials, garlands, prose lives, "histories," posters from well known and obscure films and TV), film and TV recordings (DVDs, and VCR tapes of commercial, public, and cable productions), musical recordings (popular song, operettas, rock and roll, rap, soundtracks, spoken word, and more), photographs, along with other artifacts such as games, puzzles, viewmaster reels, teapots and plates, and more.

Exhibit areas and dates:

RARE BOOKS AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, RUSH RHEES LIBRARY 2ND FLOOR:
October 5, 2009 through January 1, 2010
An Impression of the Middle Ages: Productions Stills from Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood 

AND:
The Americanization of Robin Hood, 1883-1923

ROSSELL HOPE ROBBINS LIBRARY RUSH RHEES LIBRARY 4TH FLOOR
August 17, 2009 through December 23, 2009
Manufacturing a Legend: Robin Hood

FRIEDLANDER LOBBY, RUSH RHEES LIBRARY
October 5, 2009 through January 1, 2010
Robin Hood: Media Creature

CARLSON SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING LIBRARY
October 13, 2009 through November 5, 2009
Rewriting History: Errol Flynn & The Adventures of Robin Hood

This exhibit illustrates Harkness’s nearly 40 year career at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC during which time he was a leading American astronomer. He directed expeditions to the far reaches of the planet to optimally view once in a lifetime events, including the Transit of Venus in 1874 from Tasmania, the transit of Mercury and numerous eclipses. His photographs, instrument box, books, maps, models and more will illustrate the career and mind of this 19th century man of science for whom Harkness Hall is named. 

Great Hall, Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor through August31, 2009
Exhibits are open all weekend.

Between 1834 and 1847 the British author Robert Southey published a seven-volume work called The Doctor. The volumes consisted of a vast assemblage of miscellany, anecdotes, and Southey's commentary on life and literature. Volume 4 includes the first published version of "The Story of the Three Bears." Here an old woman (rather than Goldilocks of later versions) eats the porridge, sits on the chairs, and tries out the beds of the Little, Middle-sized and Great Bear. When the bears discover the intruder their exclamations are shown in appropriate typefaces and font sizes. 

It is uncertain whether Southey is the author of this beloved story or if he was the first to record it in print. Since its appearance in The Doctor, the story of the encounter of a little girl—or sometimes an old woman—with three bears has appeared in numerous versions and it is still a popular tale. On display is a sampling of books published over several decades that portray “The Three Bears.” They are taken from the Mrs. C. Schuyler Davis and Mary Faulk Markiewicz collections of historic children’s books in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.

The exhibition is open to the public from April 20 to August 31, 2009 in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library.

This exhibit features original letters to and from Lincoln in the collection of the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and work by professors at the University of Rochester from 1850 to present, along with some reflections of Frederick Douglass, William Henry Seward, and Susan B. Anthony on the "Age of Lincoln".

Rush Rhees Library, 2nd Floor,
February 12, 2009 through July 31, 2009
For more information on the exhibit, call Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at (585) 275-4477.

On the 27th of December 1831, Charles Darwin joined the team of naturalists in the expedition of the Beagle around the world.  This extraordinary voyage, which lasted until the second of October 1836 and covered large areas of the South American and Pacific coasts, determined Darwin’s career, as he himself stated in his autobiography. Drawing from the extraordinary Darwin collection bequeathed by Charles Wright Dodge (1863-1934), Professor of biology at the University of Rochester from 1891 to 1930, our exhibit explores the history, and stories, behind Darwin’s scientific publications. It includes, for instance,  his first book, the third volume of Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of his Majesty’s ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836 (London: Henry Colburn, 1839) as well as those works leading to what many scholars consider the most important book of biology ever written,  and the central piece of our exhibit: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray, 1859).

The exhibition is open to the public from February 12 to March 31, 2009 in the Hilfiker Gallery of the Rare Books and Special Collections Department on the 2nd floor of Rush Rhees Library.

The exhibit explores Dryden’s diverse literary production (plays, poetry, translation, opera, and prose) in the context of his age, illustrating the role of the printing press in the ways this author’s texts materialized in book form. Thus, the exhibition includes not only a wide selection of Dryden’s works as they first appeared in print, but also a series of broadside reproductions of eighteenth-century engravings describing the different processes involved in the making of a book during the hand-press era.

Hilfiker Gallery, in the Rare Books and Special Collection Library, 2nd Floor, Rush Rhees Library. October 16-February 7, 2009.

This exhibit will be part of the events in the two-day conference "Restoring John Dryden: Music, Translation, Print." This conference has been funded by the Humanities Project, University of Rochester. Please check more details at http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities/projects/?dryden

In 1982 Richard Norton Smith, the well-known political commentator and author, published his first book, Thomas E. Dewey and His Times. Smith spent a year in the Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, University of Rochester Library, doing research in the Thomas E. Dewey archive housed in the Department. To celebrate the publication of the book, Smith put together an exhibition of documents, photographs and memorabilia from the collection. The exhibited items and Smith’s lively labels traced Dewey’s career as a gang-busting District attorney of New York County (1938-1943), governor of New York State (1943-1955), Republican candidate for President of the United States (1944 and 1948), and his post-governor years as a Republican elder statesman. 

Now, during this exciting Presidential election year, the Department is staging a revival of Richard Norton Smith’s exhibition. The exhibition also marks the 60th anniversary of the 1948 election which pitted Dewey against Harry S. Truman. The election is best remembered for Truman’s come-from-behind victory over Dewey who everyone expected to win. 

The exhibition runs from October 16, 2008 through January 20, 2009. Richard Norton Smith will speak at 4:30 PM on Thursday, October 23, 2008 in the Hawkins-Carlson Room (first floor of Rush Rhees Library) on “Choosing a President: Can History Help?”

Please join us for a lecture and the closing reception of "Pages as Stages," a retrospective selection of the work of book artist Keith Smith. 
Keith Smith has made 260 books over 41 years ranging from one-of-a-kind artist’s books to poetry, textbooks and dictionaries. Since the late 1960s, he has had a tremendous impact on artists of the book, bookbinders and printmakers through both his personal work and his textbooks. This exhibit, curated by Smith, is a retrospective selection of his favorite work and will feature the innovative structures and image-making for which he is renowned.

Smith has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Art (NEA), and other grants, including the Pollock/Krasner Foundation, Pilot Fine Art Still Photography Grant in 2002. His work is in the collections of the Museums of Modern Art of New York and San Francisco. Other museums include the Library of Congress of the United States of America; the Victoria and Albert, London; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.