Exhibits

Summer 2023 Library Exhibit: Medieval Portland Senior Capstone

Welcome to Medieval Portland! Students in Professor Anne McClanan’s Medieval Portland Senior Capstone present the Summer 2023 Library exhibit, featuring 14th- and 15th-century manuscripts and incunabula from PSU Library Special Collections, and reproductions of manuscripts and printed books from Reed College Library Special Collections. Many of these pages are some of the earliest to be … Continue reading the article: Summer 2023 Library Exhibit: Medieval Portland Senior Capstone

Summer 2022 Exhibit: Medieval Portland Explores the Nuremberg Chronicle

The Liber chronicarum or Weltchronik of 1493, more commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, is a world history that is one of the most famous early printed books or incunabula. This summer, the PSU Library exhibit presents interpretations of leaves of the Nuremberg Chronicle by students in the Spring 2022 Medieval Portland Capstone taught by … Continue reading the article: Summer 2022 Exhibit: Medieval Portland Explores the Nuremberg Chronicle

Winter 2022 Exhibit: The Art and Social Practice Archive

Loose Body: A Survey of Ephemera from the Art and Social Practice Archive   Part of PSU Library Special Collections & University Archives, the Art and Social Practice Archive was founded in 2018 in collaboration with the PSU Art and Social Practice MFA program and is the first public archive dedicated to socially engaged art … Continue reading the article: Winter 2022 Exhibit: The Art and Social Practice Archive

Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies at Portland State

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Portland State’s Black Studies Department (BST) in 2020, Special Collections and University Archives will highlight materials from the department’s papers in a first floor exhibit. The Black Studies Department developed in September 1970 after a group of Black students formed an independent student organization called the Black Student … Continue reading the article: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies at Portland State

Athanasius Kircher and Other Curiosities from Special Collections

Welcome to Special Collections’ Spring 2019 exhibit: especially for bibliophiles! “Master of a Hundred Arts” Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was regarded as a great intellectual during his lifetime. With insatiable curiosity, access to the expansive knowledge networks of the Jesuit order, and the power to disperse his ideas in print, Kircher produced over forty “seat-cushion-sized” tomes … Continue reading the article: Athanasius Kircher and Other Curiosities from Special Collections

Autumn Exhibits: Special Collections and University Archives

What do a rare devotional text, published writing by Portland State students, and arguments aimed at convincing Oregonian voters have in common? The simple answer is that these are all examples of unique artifacts and collections held by Portland State University Library Special Collections and University Archives! The Library’s exhibit this autumn reflects the beginnings … Continue reading the article: Autumn Exhibits: Special Collections and University Archives

Origins of Modern Middle East Studies: Scholarly and Travel Writing Before 1900

Middle East Studies in the West is informed by centuries of intellectual exchange that includes foundational works by Middle Eastern historians, language and cultural studies by European scholars, and popular travel writing by men and women who toured Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey in the 19th century. The Library’s exhibit, richly annotated by PSU … Continue reading the article: Origins of Modern Middle East Studies: Scholarly and Travel Writing Before 1900

“Conservatism in a Revolutionary Era”

The latest Library exhibit, opening May 31, 2017, presents a less-examined side of political debates and demonstrations during the Vietnam War era. As United States military involvement in Vietnam escalated during the late 1960s, students at colleges and universities around the world mobilized against the war. From the Sorbonne in Paris to Kent State University in Ohio, … Continue reading the article: “Conservatism in a Revolutionary Era”

Never Built: The Past Future of Portland State

An astronomical observatory on the roof of the Ondine? An elementary school on campus? A student-run television studio? These are just a few of the Portland State projects that campus planners and architects envisioned, designed, and drew… but never built. The “never-built environment” is a term for architectural design and urban planning projects that were either … Continue reading the article: Never Built: The Past Future of Portland State

Viking Yearbooks Digital Collection and Library Exhibit

Portland State University, founded as Vanport College in 1946, celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2016. This fall, University Archives presents the ultimate Portland State flashback: the complete collection of Viking yearbooks, from 1946 until 1995, can now be read online, searched, and downloaded from the PSU Library! Leaf through the digital yearbooks online, and visit PSU Archives’ Viking collection exhibit in … Continue reading the article: Viking Yearbooks Digital Collection and Library Exhibit