Past Exhibitions
Pages of Wonder A Journey through literature for Children
Children's literature emerged in the late 18th century and expanded as a diverse and distinct category intended to entertain and instruct young people. The genre not only encompasses fairy tales and picture books, but also extends to more whimsical designs such as puzzles and pop-up-books developed for children to imagine, learn, and grow through books.
Pages of Wonder: A Journey through Literature for Children, explores how young children imagine, learn, and grow through the books they read. Children's literature emerged in the late 18th century and expanded as a diverse and distinct category intended to entertain and instruct young people. This literary genre not only encompasses fairy tales and picture books, but also extends to more whimsical designs such as puzzles and pop-up-books. In the 20th century, children’s literature has broadened and timeless classics like Alice in Wonderland and Robinson Crusoe have given way to popular film adaptations like Harry Potter and The Hate U Give, capturing the hearts of children and adults alike.
At the Crossroads with Benny Andrews, Flannery O’Connor, and Alice Walker
This exhibition by the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives & Rare Book Library features three artists whose collections are housed at Emory – Benny Andrews, Flannery O’Connor, and Alice Walker, all of whom grew up in middle Georgia. “Crossroads” focuses on O’Connor’s short story, “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” which Andrews later illustrated. Walker also responded to O’Connor’s work through an essay, “Beyond the Peacock,” and a short story, “Convergence.”
Using rare archival photos, journals, letters, original manuscripts and artwork, and personal artifacts, "At the Crossroads” examines how Andrews, O’Connor and Walker overlap geographically as Georgia natives, chronologically during their lifetimes, and creatively through their work. It reflects on their divergent origins and paths, while acknowledging the accolades and controversies in their lives, and illustrates how these three artists influenced and challenged one another.
Highlights from African American Musicians and Artists
American music history has largely ignored or disregarded the contributions of African Americans. Rose Library contains over 30 archival collections of various sizes that both uncover and recover the critical role African Americans played in the music culture of the United States. Collections include composers, entertainers, and scholars. The variety of materials includes: manuscript letters and scores, photographs, and published music by and about African Americans. This exhibit displays just a few highlights. Clint Fluker, the former curator of Rose Library’s African American collections and now Senior Director of Culture, Community, and Partner Engagement for the Libraries and Museum at Emory, describes the importance of these archival collections: “The African American music collections are so significant because they enable those who use the materials to engage with history through one of our most enduring artistic mediums. Music has always told a story of African American history that so often cannot be captured using words alone. In fact, at times, it is the sound that grabs our attention, provides new insights, and penetrates the soul.” While African American voices have often been silenced in American (and especially Southern) politics, economics, history, and culture, yet African American music has often found a way to endure.
Readers of the Lost Arkhive Afrofuturism, Black Speculative Fiction, and Special Collections
Today, artists such as Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemison, and Tananarive Due are household names who are representative of the term Afrofuturism—an aesthetic and philosophy closely aligned with Black-authored speculative fiction genres (i.e. science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc.). But this was not always the case. Just ten years ago, Afrofuturism was not part of the popular zeitgeist. One aspect of the popularization process included the canonization of writers—such as those previously mentioned—who were held up as exemplars of the term. But what of the other contributors to the field?
The title of this exhibition, “Readers of the Lost Arkhive,” references one of these contributors, Henry Dumas. Dumas’ 1974 short story, “Ark of Bones,” features two young boys as they discover a great Ark in the Mississippi River that houses the souls of every Black person who ever lived. The soul is often described as an immaterial essence of a human being — a spark of energy that enables us to live, imagine, and create. This means that the dreams, imaginations, and the infinite stories of Black people are preserved on Dumas’ Ark. In like manner, this exhibition serves as an Arkhive that houses the spectacular worlds created by Black authors from the 1773-1987. Though not exhaustive, the following selections demonstrate the depth and breadth of Rose Library’s holdings in this area and further adds to the growing discourse on Black speculative world-building.
Inner Beauty
Inner Beauty explores the vast world of rare books and highlights a diverse set of books that demonstrate the different elements that can contribute to a book’s rarity. Rare books often elicit images of beautiful leather-bound covers, gilt edges, and iconic dust jackets, but an exploration beyond their covers can reveal so much about the book’s history of ownership, reception among readers, and even be inspirations for new works. It invites viewers to contemplate and balance the beauty of pristine first editions with the play and creativity of heavily marked and worn readers’ copies. The selections within the exhibition serve as both an introduction and request to explore the world of rare books beyond their covers.
The Rose Library holds several hundred thousand volumes of books and serials dating from the 13th century to the present. With formats ranging from scrolls to miniature books. Our collection is a significant resource for the study of the history of Western print culture. Our rare book collection complements and builds upon our other collecting strengths. We hold one of the world’s most significant research collections of printed material documenting the African American experience, and our other print collection highlights include contemporary literature and poetry, gay and lesbian pulp novels, and regional history. We also collect the personal libraries of authors and artists whose papers we hold, including inscribed and annotated editions. Particular strengths include the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, books printed in the American South, Belgian imprints, French Revolution pamphlets, Victorian yellowbacks, modern British and American literature, artists’ books, travel guides, and fine literary first editions.
Forbidden Loves and Secret Lusts - Rose Library Selections from the Golden Age of Queer Pulp Fiction
Forbidden Loves and Secret Lusts: Selections from the Golden Age of Queer Pulp Fiction is an exhibition that highlights both gay and lesbian queer pulp novels. The first encounter that many Americans in the 1950s and 1960s had with queer sexuality came at the train station or supermarket, where the paperback racks were filled with pocket-sized volumes bearing the images of brazen women or shadowy, yearning men splashed across their covers. These pulp novels, with their titillating cover art and promises to take the reader inside the shadowy world of queer love, were the first widely available media depictions of same-sex eroticism.
Books were surprisingly difficult to come by in the first half of the 20th century; until the 1940s they were only available in expensive hardcover editions and were sold exclusively at bookstores, the vast majority of which were located in big cities. 1949 saw the first books to be published originally in paperback. These paperback originals were much cheaper to produce than hardcovers, which gave publishers an incentive to take a gamble on publishing different types of genres, including mysteries, science fiction, and books featuring queer storylines.
These queer pulp novels proved very popular with both gay and straight readers, with many titles selling in excess of a million copies. These sales figures encouraged publishers to continue to seek out new books about queer desire to meet the growing demand, ushering in the golden age of queer pulps.
Graffiti: A Library Guide to Aerosol Art
Graffiti: A Library Guide to Aerosol Art is an exhibition that highlights library resources to help investigate aerosol art as an important historical, cultural, and aesthetic phenomenon, one that merits scholarly attention. Graffiti, in all its manifestations, has been a way for voiceless and invisible communities to be seen and heard. The Rose Library includes several photograph collections, as well as books and printed matter related to graffiti.
Graffiti, style writing, or aerosol art-It doesn't matter what we call It-represents one of the most dynamic and interesting visual elements in our everyday environment. Flashes of white or silver draw our eyes to "throw-ups" on walls; large, multi-color "burners" rush past us on the sides of freight cars; and pieces from around the country and the world appear regularly in our social media feeds. No matter where we are or what we are doing, style writing is an integral and underexamined part of our world.
Our Archives Could Be Your Life The photographs of Jon Arge & Allie Royce Soble
One way to understand a city is through the lives of its residents, the lives of locals like Jon Arge and Alli Royce Soble. These Atlanta artists and photographers carried their cameras everywhere they went. Day after day, week after week, month after month, they photographed their friends, family, places, events, and happenings. Over time these photos took on additional significance and weight; they became documentation of communities in Queer Atlanta. These collections illustrate how the Rose Library’s holdings can reflect your life, your friends, your family, and your community.
Born Digital From Kilobytes to Megabyte
Born digital material is created by the thousands every single hour. Every text sent, every document created, every photograph taken. These materials are vast and ever growing, both in size and formats. But, where did born digital begin? And when did the Rose Library start collecting this material? In this exhibit, we examine the collecting story of born digital materials at the Rose alongside the evolution of the technology creating these materials.
The Dream Machine: The Beat Generation & the Counterculture, 1940-1975
On display in the Woodruff Library's Schatten Gallery from September 2017-May 2018, this exhibit reconsiders postwar literature and the ways it mirrored, predicted, and remade the culture around it, with special focus on the influential group known as "the Beats."
Billy Howard's Epitaphs for the Living
Riveting images of people living with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, taken by Atlanta-area photographer Billy Howard, are the basis of an exhibit opening June 15, 2017 at Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library and a conversation with Howard scheduled for June 22, 2017.
Still Raising Hell: The Art, Activism, and Archives of Camille Billops and James V. Hatch
This major exhibition explores the meaning and purpose of African American art through the lens of collectors Camille Billops and James V. Hatch.
Stepping Out of Line: Exploring LGBTQ Activism
Our understanding of history comes from many sources, not the least of which are the records and manuscripts that document the events and personalities we consider historic. "Stepping Out of Line" explores both documented and emerging histories from the LGBT collections and University Archives in the Stuart A. Rose Library.
A Question of Manhood: African Americans and World War I
"A Question of Manhood: African Americans and WWI" commemorates the centennial of the First World War, and celebrates African Americans who served as citizen-soldiers while they were still systematically denied full access to the promises of democracy.
100 Years of Women at Emory: Many Milestones of Progress
In 1917, Eléonore Raoul 20L enrolled in Emory’s School of Law and became the first woman to earn a degree from the University. This important event broke a barrier for women who would follow. Exploring the noted and notable milestones in the history of women at Emory reminds us that phrases like “the first” and “the earliest” often warrant further research. Many of the events occurred only after years of advocacy and activism by others.
Othello: The Moor Speaks
One of Shakespeare's most important works, Othello provides commentary on the “rise of colonialism and imperialism,” as well as the ongoing struggle to define the qualities related to quintessential manhood and masculinity.
Through the archival materials found in the Stuart A. Rose Library, this exhibition will explore the development of the play as a vehicle for African American actors such as Ira Aldridge, Paul Robeson, and Laurence Fishburne to claim the role of the “Black Moor” from white men in black face. Through the exhibition and programming, we will explore the complexity of being a black man in a white world, and the meanings associated with Shakespeare's provocative representation of race and racism.
Connecting Contexts: The Letters of Samuel Beckett
This exhibit will presented materials from each of the four volumes of The Letters of Samuel Beckett. Curated by Lois More Overbeck, the one of the editors, this exhibit offers more than 30 years of scholarship and insight into the life and work of Samuel Beckett.
The Letters of Samuel Beckett is the first comprehensive edition of the letters of Irish-born Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett (1906–1989). Perhaps best known for En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot), Beckett wrote fiction, poetry, and criticism as well as drama for stage, radio, television, and film. Writing in both English and French, he translated much of his work from one language into the other and assisted or directed productions of his plays.
Shakespeare Artists' Books
Like the First Folio, these artists’ books are not just repositories of stories and information, but are also exquisite and beautiful works of art.
To the Great Variety of Readers: Publishing Shakespeare
"An exhibition featuring the Second, Third and Fourth Folios of Shakespeare's works."
In 1623, 36 of William Shakespeare's plays were published in a single, large volume, or folio. This work, now known as the First Folio, has come to signify Shakespeare's unparalleled impact on English language, literature, and culture.
However, the book itself gives little insight into how and why it was produced. Through an exploration of the industry and market that created the First Folio, as well as its natural successors, the Second, Third, and Fourth Folios, this exhibit places the work in context and enriches our understanding of Shakespeare as both author and symbol.
Changing Atlanta 1950-1999: The Challenges of a Growing Southern Metropolis
Curated by Erica Bruchko, W. Michael Camp, Louis Fagnan, Kristin Morgan, and Laura Starratt, the exhibition illuminated how Atlanta citizens confronted the trials of a rapidly evolving metropolis during the second half of the 20th century focusing on four areas:
The end of the county-unit political system in Georgia and the revitalization of the state Republican Party;
How Georgia responded to the federal mandate to integrate the public schools;
The effect of advocacy in social planning; and
The involvement of neighborhood associations.
“Many of the topics that we address in this exhibition are ones that are still being discussed in Atlanta,” says Starratt, who is also a manuscript archivist in the Rose Library.
The World Between Word and Image
"The World Between Word and Image: Artists’ Books and Archives from Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, and Nexus Press" presents archival material from the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, and Nexus Press collection held by the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.
Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals
This exhibit is meant to give researchers and curious students alike a peak inside the collections of 9 African American women intellectuals, that are held in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL). Amber L. Moore, the curator and a project archivist in MARBL, has selected items from each of the 9 collections to present.
It's in the Cards: An Interactive Art Exhibit
“It’s in the Cards: An Interactive Art Exhibit” features old library catalog cards that have been turned into art and poetry. The exhibit is curated by artist and Emory Libraries conservator Julie Newton, who was approached by the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Books Library staff about making use of old catalog cards. Newton wants the exhibit to be composed of catalog cards that have been “transformed” by students, staff and faculty at Emory, as well as members of the Atlanta community.
Pearl Cleage: A Time for Reflection
One of the most acclaimed playwrights, Cleage produces works that celebrate the joy of being free. At the same time, she is committed to telling stories related to African Americans, and the complex issues surrounding racism, classism, and sexism.
In Focus: Evidence of a World Unseen
An exhibit highlighting historical photographs analyzed by students in the Introduction to African American Studies class. The fall 2014 course was taught by Pellom McDaniels III, MARBL faculty curator of the African American collections and assistant professor of African American Studies at Emory, who co-curated the exhibit with his students.
She Gathers Me: Networks Among Black Women Writers
"She Gathers Me" examines the connections found within intimate correspondences, personal projects, and speaking engagements and furthers our understanding of the interconnectedness of Black women writers beyond their published works.
Bobby Jones: The Game of Life
The exhibition "Bobby Jones: The Game of Life" presents the story of legendary golfer and Atlanta native Robert (“Bobby”) Tyre Jones, based on materials drawn from two Jones collections at Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL).
Building Emory's African American Collections
“Building Emory’s African American Collections: Highlights from the Curatorial Career of Randall K. Burkett" feature treasures from those collections and Burkett’s stories of their discovery and acquisition.
