Virtual / Past Exhibits A-Z

Now Showing | Virtual / Past Exhibits A-Z | About the Program | About Gallery Spaces | Future Exhibits

This page contains on-line content from past exhibits held in various library galleries at Duke University. Not all past exhibits have an on-line presence, so not all exhibits will be present here, but this page will attempt to list all temporary exhibits in the libraries beginning in Fall of 2008.

In order to allow ease of use this page has been designed to allow the user to list the exhibits by date of exhibition, title of exhibition, place of exhibition, or artist (where appropriate). Click a column heading and it will sort alphabetically or by date. If there is a more elaborate web page for a specific exhibit, you will be able to click the title of the exhibit to explore any available on-line content.

Exhibit	Artist	Display Dates	Location	Sponsor
The Art of Protest The stylistic affinities of protest art across space and time are compelling evidence of historical ties and strategic convergence between seemingly disparate actors in the social justice and human rights movements. We invite you to further explore these issues in the Archive for Human Rights collections of the Rare Book Manuscript and Special Collections Library from which items in this exhibit are drawn. Start: July 2009 \| End: September 2009 \| Rare Book Room Cases	Various	July 2009-September 2009	\| Rare Book Room Cases	Archive For Human Rights
The Sea is History Hundreds of thousands of Haitians, Dominicans and Cubans have left their homelands since 1960 by sea. They travel in fragile vessels or smugglers’ boats without prearranging authorized entry into another country. The aim of this exhibit is to raise questions, increase awareness, and encourage informed thought about these people.	Various	18 August-18 October 2009	Perkins Gallery	IAS
William Gedney & Paul Kwilecki Photographs by William Gedney & Paul Kwilecki	William Gedney and Paul Kwilecki	April 6-August 30, 2009	Special Collections Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
The Beautiful Eye of the Beholder This exhibition traces the making of the book “Das schöne Auge des Betrachters" (The Beautiful Eye of the Beholder)by showcasing sketches, materials and objects related to the writing, illustration, and design of the book. The book includes poems on friendship and travel by Christophe Fricker and is illustrated by Timothy J. Senior. The poems and images explore what it means to be home, and how hard it is to write down memories of precious moments shared with the people you love. Start: February 2009 \| End: April 2009 \| IAS Office Exhibit Space	Fricker, Christophe and Timothy J. Senior	February-April 2009	IAS Gallery	IAS
Popular Medicine A selection of popular medicine containers and advertising materials from patent medicine's heyday (1870s to the 1930s). Located in the 4 exhibit cases in the lower lobby of the Medical Center Library. Available for viewing any hours the Library is open. Scheduled to run through the end of September 2009.	various	July-September 2009	\| Medical Center Library	History of Medicine
Chinese Paintings from the Kingdom of Min Paintings from the collection of Professor Paul Wang	Various	May 12, 2009-August 16, 2009	Perkins Gallery	International Studies
Hanes Dream, Sarah's Gift, Our Treasure This exhibit explores the history of the gardens and its programs. The online exhibit includes images, videos, and archives.	Various	February-May 2009	Perkins Gallery	University Archives and Sarah P. Duke Gardens
Reconciling All Things The theme of the exhibit is drawn from a new book, “A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing,” by Chris Rice and Emmanuel Katongole, co-directors of the Duke Center for Reconciliation. Artists interpreted the theme broadly to include issues of Christian unity, social justice, creation care, and inter-religious dialogue. There will be a reception March 30, 2009. For more information see: http://www.divinity.duke.edu/programs/dita/exhibit	Various	March 20- May 1, 2009 \|	Divinity School	Divinity School
The Presidential Image:An exhibit in honor of the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln This exhibit by the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library shows how media threw the spotlight on Abraham Lincoln and helped form public opinion about his campaigns and major events in his presidency. Campaign and presidential portraits, caricatures from Southern sympathizers, images of the great emancipator, and Lincoln as martyr and American icon all have a part in this exhibit. Start: \|	Various	February 2009-March 2009	Special Collections Hallway Cases	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
The New Road: I-26 and the Footprints of Progress Rob Amberg's photographs tell a story of change within a rural community. This exhibit and his forthcoming book provide an intimate, long-term look at the social, cultural, and environmental impact of the construction of an interstate highway through rural Madison County, North Carolina.	Rob Amberg	January 2009 to March 2009	Special Collections Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Holocaust Remembrance Duke Undergraduate Eric Mansfield (P'09) traveled around Germany photographing sites associated with the Holocaust. He studied not only the design of the memorial at these sites but the reactions of the visitors. In his three part photo essay he examines memorials at sites of horror -concentration camps-, memorials in everyday life, and planned memorials. His work was supported by a generous grant from the Berlin Project, a research initiative for undergraduates	Eric Mansfield	December 2008-March 2009	Student Wall	DUU
"How full of life those days seemed": New Approaches to Art, Literature, Sexuality, and Society in Bloomsbury The members of the Bloomsbury Group, active in England in the first quarter of the 20th century, explored alternative ways of living and advanced fresh ideas in the arts and social sciences. Their shared spirit of collaboration, community, and inquiry spurred the creation of works as diverse as Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, J.M. Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, and Roger Fry's study of Cezanne. This exhibit features books and manuscripts from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library that showcase the work of the Group's members. Among the items in the exhibit are books printed at the Hogarth Press, created and operated by Woolf with her husband Leonard.	Various	December 2008 to March 2009	Perkins Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Not Just Mad Men: Real Advertising Careers of the 1960's This exhibit was inspired by the popularity of the AMC television series Mad Men, which centers on the lives of executives at a fictional advertising agency in the early 1960s. The series has generated much discussion among viewers, as well as among present-day advertising industry professionals and media outlets. Drawing from materials in the collections of the Special Collections Library’s Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, the exhibit highlights the real-life careers of 1960s advertising professionals who held positions in four of the types of agency occupations depicted on the television series: copywriters; creative directors; art directors; and account executives.	Various	October 2008 to February 2009	Rare Book Room Hall Cases	Hartman Center

7 Elections that Changed U.S. History Vote to change history! "7 Elections that Changed U.S. History" is an exhibit that explores elections of the past and is on display until December in the Perkins Gallery of Duke University Libraries. You can also revert back in time, look at the issues, and vote on the elections of the past--and find out who we would elect today--if we had it to do all over again!	Various	11 October 2008 to 14 December 2008	Perkins Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Pivotal Books/Personal Reflections Pivotal Books/Personal Reflections is an exhibit that explores the personal nature of books and the relationships that exist between reader and written word. There is a chemistry that can only exist in the private moment of reading; the images are fully formed within the readers mind and the exchange between the writer and reader is intimate and isolated and at times, personal. It doesn't matter whether the book is scholarly or children's literature; whether the reader is a professor or a mechanic; this potential relationship can exist for any person, regardless of race, social class, economic class, religion, mental ability or sexual preference; the only thing that matters is the desire for this relationship, and the ability to read (or be read to).	Various	11 August 2008 to 9 October 2008	Perkins Gallery
Olive Pierce: Forty Years of Photographs (1963-2003) A Maine resident and lifelong political activist, Olive Pierce's photographs reflect the spirit of community. This retrospective of black and white gelatin silver prints includes images that document life in Cambridge, Massachusetts as well as Maine fishing communities. Images of Iraqi citizens under US economic sanctions in 1999 and photographs of Maine citizens demonstrating for and against the war in 2003, make the connection between the local and global community.	Pierce, Olive	4 August 2008 to 14 December 2008	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Songs of Glory, Songs of Sorrow : The Civil War in Music The American Civil War remains the most devastating war in United States history, with deaths numbering about 618,000–more than in all the nation’s other wars combined, from the Revolutionary War through the Iraq War. This exhibit features sheet music and broadside verse expressing the triumphs and tragedies of the war’s battles, grieving mothers, soldier boys, flags, military officers, and even humor. Themes specific to the Civil War yet universal to all armed conflicts remind us of the high cost paid when peaceful solutions and diplomacy fail to win the day.	Various	1 July 2008 to 1 October 2008	Rare Book Room Hall Cases	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Then & Now - Eight South African Photographers An exhibition of 160 photographs mounted in 5 venues at Duke University. South African photographer Paul Weinberg conceived and curated Then & Now which is comprised of black and white and color photographs from 8 South African documentary photographers. Twenty photographs were selected from each photographer, 10 made under apartheid and 10 photographs made after the historic democratic elections of 1994.	Various	31 March 2008 to 27 July 2008	Special Collections Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Near the Cross: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta An exhibition of photographs by Tom Rankin from his long-standing work on the sacred traditions and landscapes of the Mississippi Delta.	Rankin, Tom	14 January 2008 to 23 March 2008	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Danny Wilcox Frazier - Driftless: Photographs from Iowa Danny Wilcox Frazier’s dramatic black-and-white photographs portray a changing Midwest of vanishing towns and transformed landscapes. As rural economies fail, people and resources are migrating to the coasts and cities, as though the heart of America were being emptied. Frazier’s arresting photographs take us into Iowa’s abandoned places and illuminate the lives of those people who stay behind and continue to live there: young people at leisure, fishermen on the Mississippi, veterans on Memorial Day, Amish women playing cards, as well as more recent arrivals, Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews at prayer and Latinos at work in the fields. Frazier's camera finds these newcomers while it also captures activities that seemingly have gone on forever: harvesting and hunting, celebrating and socializing, praying and surviving.	Frazier, Danny Wilcox	5 November 2007 to 16 December 2007	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Day of the Dead at Duke University Libraries In the Fall Semester 2007 the Archive for Human Rights sponsored a celebration of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. The Latin American tradition of Dia de Los Muertos is an exercise in memory and memorilization. Not only family photos but also favorite foods, toys, personal and family objects, and other items closely associated with the deceased are juxtaposed on an ofrenda or altar, offering a number of different avenues of memory (documentary, sensual, communal) through which the living and the dead, the past and the present, can reunite.	Students	30 October 2007 to 5 November 2007	Perkins Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Neither Model Nor Muse: Women and Artistic Expression Two exhibits were mounted as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture’s third biennial symposium: Stretching the Canvas: Women Exploring the Arts and The Feminist Art Movement, 1970s-1980s.	Various	22 October 2007 to 31 May 2008	Old Perk	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Close To Home: Photographs by Margaret Sartor Margaret Sartor has been documenting her family and her hometown in northern Louisiana for close to a quarter century. This exhibit of evocative black and white prints includes selected portraits and landscapes made between 1986 and 2004.	Sartor, Margaret	7 August 2006 to 12 December 2006	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Carl Mydans: Photographs, 1935-1958 A retrospective of Carl Mydans' early black and white photography for the Farm Security Administration and for Life magazine.	Mydans, Carl	3 April 2006 to 30 July 2006	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Maxwell Did It!: Photographing the Atlantic City Boardwalk, 1920s-1950s Black and white photographs in this exhibit were selected from thousands of images in the R.C. Maxwell Company Collection, part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History. The R. C. Maxwell Company produced electric "spectacular" signs and billboards and used the photographs to document construction and placement of those advertising signs on the boardwalk.	R.C. Maxwell Company	11 January 2006 to 26 March 2006	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Steven Smith: Photographs of the Suburban West In these black-and-white, landscape photographs, Steven Smith depicts the continuous expansion of suburban development into the deserts and up the mountain sides of California, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. Smith won the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book in Photography award for this stellar body of work.	Smith, Steven	7 November 2005 to 14 December 2005	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Night Vision: Photographs of William Gedney and Lynn Saville This singular show offers 48 photographs made between sunset and sunrise by nocturnal photographers Bill Gedney and Lynn Saville. These beautiful, edgy black and white prints reveal the evocative power of moonlight, reflected light, and deep shadow to alter familiar landscapes and inspire the imagination.	Gedney, William Saville, Lynn	8 August 2005 to 30 October 2005	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
James Karales: Photographs 1956-1969 The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library acquired the James Karales Collection in 2004. The prints in this show were culled from five distinct bodies of work: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March; the Vietnam War; the Lower East Side of New York City; Rendville, Ohio; and logging in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the exhibition quality prints, the collection contains negatives, slides, contact sheets and 5x7 and 8x10 proof prints.	Karales, James	11 April 2005 to 31 July 2005	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Comic Book Cultures Comic books have been an integral part of American culture since the 1930s. They have both influenced our collective imagination and echoed the concerns of the eras in which they were published. This exhibit explores the resonance of comic books in 20th century American culture from the 1930s to the present. The comic books in this exhibit are from Duke University's Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Pulp Culture and, where indicated, the Daniel Breen Collection of American Comic Books, Rare Book Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.	Various	3 March 2005 to 16 May 2005	Perkins Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Early Comic Strips 1898-1916 This exhibit of early "funnies" is drawn from the volumes of the recently acquired American Newspaper Repository (ANR) which contains over 152 titles dating from 1852 through 2004. Long runs of The World and The Chicago Tribune provided material for the exhibit. At the turn of the nineteenth century, two newspaper titans, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, were engaged in a bitter rivalry for supremacy in the New York market. The introduction of the color printing press and the modern "comic strip" was instrumental in their competition to circulate the most newspapers.	Various	14 January 2005 to 3 April 2005	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Mel Rosenthal: Photographs from In the South Bronx of America Against backdrops of rubble, abandoned buildings, and destroyed city blocks, these portrait photographs depict the everyday lives of residents as they struggle to survive "planned shrinkage," an urban planning strategy utilized from the 1960s-1980s to raze residential buildings in older urban areas and replace them with industrial parks.	Rosenthal, Mel	2 August 2004 to 12 December 2004	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Larry Schwarm: On Fire This exhibition presents work by Larry Schwarm, winner of the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography for his series of color images capturing the dramatic prairie fires that sweep across the Flint Hills of Kansas each spring. A professor of art at Emporia State University, Schwarm has spent the past twelve years photographing the burning of the tallgrass prairie in his native state.	Schwarm, Larry	October 2003	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Alex Harris: Photographs, 1998-2000. Images from the Duke University Special Collections Library Alex Harris juxtaposes two groups of color images - a series of Havana views seen through the windshields of aging American automobiles and a series of American landscapes seen in the context of a boy's electronic game - to explore the potential of the photographer's eye and the camera's frame both to limit and to expand our view of the world.	Harris, Alex	September 2003	Special Collections Hallway Gallery	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Bassett Affair In the autumn of 1903, a controversy that became known as the "Bassett Affair" erupted on the Trinity College campus. The resolution of the dispute, which lasted for six weeks, was a milestone for academic freedom in U.S. higher education.	Bassett, John Spencer	circa 2003	online	University Archives
Skirts, Bloomers, and Shorts An Anniversary Celebration of Women's Athletics at Duke	Various	circa 2001	online	University Archives
America Votes: Presidential Campaign Memorabilia from the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Winners share the limelight with the defeated in this exhibit of U.S. presidential campaign memorabilia drawn primarily from the holdings of the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. The exhibit illustrates the nation's presidential elections in letters, sheet music, leaflets, buttons, bumper stickers, and even t-shirts.	Various	circa 2000	online	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Women at Duke A brief narrative and a guide to resources in the Duke University Archives.	Various	circa 1996	online	University Archives
Guido Mazzoni Pamphlet Collection Exhibit: A Renaissance at Duke Originally a private library belonging to a Florentine professor of literature and Senator of Italy, the Guido Mazzoni Pamphlet Collection is a rich ensemble of more than 49,000 pamphlets, small volumes, librettos, newspapers, periodicals, and clippings spanning four centuries of Italian and European history. This on-line exhibit features selected items relating to literature, music, popular culture, the two World Wars, early Fascism, and more.	Various	circa 1996	online	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Third Person, First Person: Slave Voices from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library This exhibit probes the life experiences of American slaves from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century, and examines the enterprise of recovering and preserving African American history of the period. The exhibit showcases the kinds of rare materials that under scrutiny reveal the ambitions, motivations, and struggles of people often presumed mute.	Various	circa 1995	online	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Still Going On: An Exhibit Celebrating the life and times of William Grant Still A multimedia celebration of the centenary of the birth of William Grant Still, known as the dean of African-American composers. This exhibit contains a timeline of the cultural context in which Still lived and worked as well as a narrative of his life that includes photos, letters, music scores, and sound clips of his compositions.	Still, William Grant	circa 1995	online	Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Portraits in the Gothic Reading of Perkins Library The Gothic Reading Room of Perkins Library serves as a gallery of prominent figures in Duke University’s history. Portraits of Washington Duke, James Buchanan Duke, and Benjamin Newton Duke are surrounded by those of trustees of The Duke Endowment, Duke’s previous presidents, and other notable figures in the history of the university.	Various	circa 1985 to present	Gothic Reading Room	University Archives
Campus Protest The 1969 takeover of the Allen Building, Duke University's administrative center, came at a time of high tension on college campuses across the nation.	Various	circa 1969	online	University Archives
Joe McCarthy & Hornell Hart Academic freedom in the 1950s	Various	circa 1952	online	University Archives
Durham Rose Bowl, 1942 The only Rose Bowl not played in Pasadena	Various	circa 1942	online	University Archives
Cameron at sixty Celebrating Duke's Indoor Stadium	Various	circa 1940	online	University Archives
Faculty Houses Photos of faculty houses	Various	circa 1929	online	University Archives
Blue Devil Gallery A Pictorial History of Duke's Mascot	Various	circa 1929	online	University Archives
Above the Rim Duke basketball history	Various	circa 1906	online	University Archives
The Chronicle 100 years of a student newspaper	Various	circa 1905	online	University Archives
Highlights of Duke presidencies A history of Duke by administrations	Various	circa 1838	online	University Archives