Time of Change: Civil Rights Photography of Bruce Davidson
On view through May 20, 2024. See six powerful photographs by Bruce Davidson, who documented the experiences of Freedom Riders challenging segregation during the Civil Rights era.
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 20, 2024. See six powerful photographs by Bruce Davidson, who documented the experiences of Freedom Riders challenging segregation during the Civil Rights era.
On view through April 19, 2024. Examine 19th-century aesthetics of Victorian wallpapers from the Materials Library’s collection of handprinted contemporary reproductions.
On view through May 24, 2024. Selections from a recently-acquired collection of posters from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama offer a window into Central America's Cold War-era conflicts from the 1960s to the 1990s.
On view through March 29, 2024. In honor of Black History Month, explore the history of Mercy-Douglass Hospital and the Nurse Training School in Philadelphia through the lens of the Black community's struggle against segregation and healthcare inequality.
On view through May 31, 2024. Join us in honoring the 200th birthday of Dr. Thomas Evans, Penn Dental Medicine's earliest benefactor. This special exhibit showcases highlights from the Thomas Evans collection.
Opening April 12, 2024. Gain insight into Mexican religious folk practices through ex-votos and devotional paintings on medical subjects.
Find displays featuring work by Penn students.
On exhibit through August 31, 2024. Experience fieldwork and research travel of current undergraduate and graduate students as documented through their own lenses.
Find displays produced in collaboration with campus partners.
Opening March 18, 2024. Presented in concert with Barbara Earl Thomas: The Illuminated Body, this exhibition shares insights into Thomas’ artistic process, featuring photographs and materials from the artist’s studio.
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.