Explore library collections through online and in-person exhibits.
See what's on display and opening soon at library locations across campus.
On view through May 19, 2025. Highlighting materials held by the Penn Libraries and the Penn Museum, this exhibit reflects on the cultural representation of the Ainu, the indigenous peoples traditionally connected to the northern islands of Japan and parts of Russia.
On view through May 19, 2025. See original photographs by Audrey Flack, an American artist who was considered a pioneer in the genre of Photorealism.
Exhibit extended through August 29, 2025. This exhibit examines the formation of the university, the debates that divided the school during the American Revolution, and the compromises that reorganized it as the University of Pennsylvania in 1791.
On view through Spring 2025. 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.
On view through October 2025. Gain insight into Mexican religious folk practices through ex-votos and devotional paintings on medical subjects.
On view through December 15, 2025. View a selection of correspondence between world-renowned contralto Marian Anderson and symphonic composer Florence Price, reproduced from Marian Anderson's personal archive.
Find displays featuring work by Penn students.
On view through August 2025. Experience fieldwork and research travel of current undergraduate and graduate students as documented through their own lenses.
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.”
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.
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 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.
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.
