Exhibits

July 7 – September 15th, 2014 An Exhibit by the PSU Archives of Capital Projects and Construction Since 1975, Oregon state law mandates that at least 1% of construction funds for new or remodeled buildings with a budget over $100,000 be used for the acquisition of public art.  Building Art shows how construction has generated public art … Continue reading the article: Building Art: Oregon’s Percent for Art Program at PSU →

April 9 – June 27, 2014 The exhibit featured books and documents from the archive of Dr. Joel Walker Hedgpeth (1911-2006). Dr. Hedgpeth was a key figure in marine biology and oceanography, first along the inter-tidal coast of California and Oregon, the gulf coast of Texas, and then across the world. He was a skilled … Continue reading the article: Taxonomy, Ecology and Conservation: The Life and Tides of Joel Walker Hedgpeth →

March 19 – April 18, 2014 Dark Horse Comics has proclaimed March 22, 2014 as Hellboy Day, in recognition of the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1. We celebrated Hellboy’s anniversary, and the Dark Horse Comics Collection at Portland State Library, with a display featuring Hellboy and other Dark Horse figures, as well … Continue reading the article: Hellboy: the First 20 Years →

October 28, 2013 – March 21, 2014 Drawing on our collection of historic records from the Portland JACL, this exhibit highlights the pivotal roles that women have played in the organization since its inception in the 1930s. Japanese American Citizens League, Portland Chapter Records, 1930-2008, the Library’s new collection, comprises the records of the Portland … Continue reading the article: Beyond Convention: Women of the Portland Japanese American Citizens League →

June 12 – September 30, 2013 The Portland State Library had already been relocated twice when it was divided in 1968. It had outgrown its original Smith Memorial Center location, but the new Millar Library split services into two buildings: public access in Library West on the Park Blocks and technical services in Library East … Continue reading the article: Transitions of PSU Library →

January 13 – March 23, 2012 Highlighting PSU Library Special Collections’ Middle East Studies collection, this exhibit drew on a range of 17th- and 18th-century Western studies of the Middle East from fundamental academic works to popular memoirs and featured rare examples of cartography, scientific and landscape illustration, and early printing in Arabic. Materials in this … Continue reading the article: Historic Travels to the Middle East →

September 26, 2012 – January 31, 2013 PSU Library’s Special Collections presented an exhibit featuring original materials from the Verdell A. Burdine and Otto G. Rutherford Family Collection. Verdell A. Burdine Rutherford (1913-2001) and Otto G. Rutherford (1911-2000) were leading members of the African American community in Portland for much of the twentieth century. The … Continue reading the article: “Say We Are Here”: Culture, Community and Activism Across Four Generations of Black Oregonians →

June 25 – September 7, 2012 The PSU Library presented a collection of avian art, including the iconic work of John James Audubon, colorful tableaus of rarely-sighted tropical birds, and the first publication of high-speed photographs of hummingbirds in flight. The artists are naturalists, explorers, soldiers, scholars, and hobbyists, all sharing an enthusiasm for birds … Continue reading the article: The Art of Ornithology: A Century of Bird Illustration →

April 2 to June 20, 2012 This exhibit celebrated the legacy of Gordon Hunter. His love of books and his passion for history inspired him to make a gift to the Library’s Special Collections through the Oregon Commuity Foundation that each year helps the Library acquire new rare and significant books and manuscripts to support … Continue reading the article: The Gift of the Word: An Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions to PSU Library Special Collections →

January 13 – March 23, 2012 In early modern Europe, Time was seen as a destructive figure, relentlessly gnawing away at the works of man. The remnants of the ancient past that manage to survive were often described as having escaped his “envious tooth.” This exhibition highlighted original printed works from the Portland State University … Continue reading the article: “The Envious Tooth of Time”: Early Printed Works from the PSU Library Special Collections →