Material World
On view through December 9, 2024. Work by artists and bookbinders from the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers encourages viewers to question the traditional understanding of what constitutes a book.
Exhibits
Explore library collections through online and in-person exhibits.
On View Across the Libraries
See what's on display and opening soon at library locations across campus.
The Movement of Books
On view through December 13, 2024. Using rare books, video footage, and interactive models that visitors can touch and handle, this exhibit explores the many ways books move — as physical objects in different formats, and across space and time.
Boxing at the Legendary Blue: Photography by Larry Fink
On view through December 15, 2024. See photographs of the Blue Horizon, Philadelphia’s legendary former boxing venue on North Broad Street, by American photographer and educator Larry Fink (1941–2023).
A Selection of Mexican Ex-Votos
On view through February 2025. Gain insight into Mexican religious folk practices through ex-votos and devotional paintings on medical subjects.
Concrete on Paper
On view through April 28, 2025. A complement to the conference Cement Age/Concrete Nation, this exhibit examines the architectural, technological, and cultural development of concrete built heritage.
Through Nursing's Lens: The Nurse in Wartime Imagery and Photographs
Opening November 13, 2024. Explore depictions of nursing in America during wartime through an exploration of recruitment posters, postcards, and magazines alongside the photographs and experiences of military nurses themselves.
Student Focus
Find displays featuring work by Penn students.
Books, Bans, and Business: Two Women and a New York Bookshop
Pop-up exhibit on view December 5 from 10:00am to 1:00pm. Penn students curate a special display on the collections of Frances Steloff, who founded the influential Gotham Art and Book Mart in the 1920s.
Egyptology at Penn in the 1850s: The Philomathean Society's Translation of the Rosetta Stone
On exhibit through December 12, 2024. See excerpts from a Penn student-run literary society's full translation of the Rosetta Stone, which was published in 1858 to great acclaim.
Penn in the Field: Student Fieldwork Photography
On exhibit through August 2025. Experience fieldwork and research travel of current undergraduate and graduate students as documented through their own lenses.
Exhibit News and Events
- Libraries exhibition explores the movement of books
- Penn Libraries opens two new exhibits exploring physicality, movement of books in Van Pelt Library
- Arthur Tress and the Japanese Illustrated Book receives honorable mention from the Association for Asian Studies
- Civil Rights photography at the Penn Libraries (Penn Today)
Online Exhibits
Justice Now: 1960s Protest Drawings by Ashley Bryan
The author, artist, and humanitarian Ashley Bryan responded to Civil Rights protests about police bias and brutality in the 1960s with this series of drawings, made from his studio overlooking Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. The signs carried by these protesters speak to today’s issues as well: “Stop Police Brutality Now,” “End Police Bias Now,” “Jim Crow Must Go,” “Freedom Now,” “We Demand Decent Police Now,” and “Justice Now.”
Remarkable Figures: Women in the Art of Ashley Bryan
Ashley Bryan—renowned artist, writer, storyteller, and humanitarian—created thousands of drawings, paintings, collages, and linoleum block prints over the course of his long and productive life. This exhibition highlights Bryan’s portrayals of strong and resourceful women in his art. Many of these works were made for books of poetry, including Freedom Over Me, ABC of African American Poetry, and Aneesa Lee and the Weaver’s Gift.
Discovering Marian Anderson
This research portal provides online access to more than 2,500 items from the collection of Marian Anderson, one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. The body of primary sources in the collection — including letters, diaries, journals, interviews, recital programs, and private recordings — spans the Philadelphia-born musician’s six-decade career as an opera singer and advocate for social justice.
The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica
The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica teaches us about the everyday lives, families, communal institutions, religious organizations, voluntary associations, businesses, and political circumstances of Jewish life throughout the western hemisphere over four centuries. It also provides a unique window into the changing character of colonial and early American life and culture in the United States. The collection is more than the sum of its parts. It is the constellation of unlimited potential connections among its thousands of items dating from the time of colonial settlement in the 16th century into the era of mass migration at the end of the 19th century.
Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries
Drawing on the wonderfully diverse collections of Philadelphia institutions, this exhibit attempts to encompass the broadest possible scope of ideas and material manifestations associated with the European Renaissance. Through a selection of extraordinary manuscripts, cuttings, and incunables, it explores the intellectual and artistic depth of a time of political, religious, and technological transformation in Europe.