Past Exhibits

This exhibit celebrates mail art — a rare, fun, and enticing form of art and print culture. Mail art became a traceable genre in the early 1960s. Artist-selected networks formed “add and pass” exchanges that resulted in visually provocative correspondence that was stamped and delivered via the United States postal system, fax machines, or computers. July 22 through September 30, 2019 at Elmer L. Andersen Library, Wallin Center, Bell Gallery (ground floor).

Our relationship with food is complex. Food sustains us as living entities, but it also plays a key role in how we live our lives. This exhibition, and its online companion exhibit, explore the history of our relationship with food in the premodern era using sources as varied as travel narratives, art, fairy tales, sagas, and medicinal recipes. October 14, 2019 through March 13, 2020 at Elmer L. Andersen Library, Wallin Center, Bell Gallery (ground floor).

The stories of women as workers are as complex, varied, and engaging as the women themselves. Visit the contentious battleground of women in the workforce and discover the laborers, pioneers, troublemakers, and reformers documented across the Archives and Special Collections. November 11, 2019 through March 6, 2020 at Elmer L. Andersen Library, 1st Floor Main Gallery.

October 8, 2018 through January 18, 2019 at Elmer L. Andersen Library Atrium Gallery. “It’s such a big dream, I can’t see it all,” is what Edward S. Curtis said of his master work, The North American Indian, published between 1907 and 1930. Co-curated by Curtis expert Christopher Cardozo, this exhibit highlights not only this work, but also examines Curtis’ life and the impact he had on photography.

Fifty years ago, John Luhman was drafted into the U.S. Army. He served a tour in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. Entymology professor Alexander Hodson asked him to collect insects while he was there and send them back to the University of Minnesota’s Insect Collection. Luhman caught more than 600 insects. For the 50th anniversary, we are displaying some of these insects along with memorabilia from his time in Vietnam.

View the work of nine ceramic artists. Their work takes advantage of the unpredictable nature of working in clay. January 24 to April 5, 2019 at Wilson Library, fourth floor.

This exhibit examines the intersection of culture, medicinal plants, and current research. It invites viewers to consider the value of ten plants that have taken root in Minnesota. The exhibit opens January 8 at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's Andersen Horticultural Library.

"Fortuitous Recovery" is a multimedia visual arts exhibition by Heidi Jeub inspired by a summer spent with the Architecture & Landscape Architecture Library collection. The work on exhibit reflects the relationship between art-making, being an architect, and architecture research.

September 24, 2018 through January 31, 2019 at Wallin Gallery at Elmer L. Andersen Library. Humans throughout recorded time have come together to celebrate, to express common cause, and to practice public rituals. From Venice to Beijing, from Cairo to Greenland to the South Pacific, this James Ford Bell Library exhibition will explore this fascinating aspect of the human experience that is common to us all.

A Campus Divided: Progressives, Anti-Communists, Racism, and Antisemitism at the University of Minnesota, 1930-1942 examines the campus climate during a time of division over issues including racial and economic equality, opposition to war, and students rights. Exhibit panels on display at Wilson Library, fourth floor, feature archival images and descriptions. This is the reprisal of the exhibit originally displayed at Elmer L. Andersen Library in fall 2017.

The Wangensteen Historical Library's new exhibit — "The Secret Lives of Books" — reveals the past and present secret lives of books and tells their captivating stories of health, illness, and the human experience. In an evolving exhibit experience, guest-curated exhibit vignettes will be changed each month to reveal more stories about rare books and their intersections with current events, historical experiences, and the research programs at the University of Minnesota.

Emerging local talent, Shanna Allyn, has composed photographic portraits of women that are like butterfly specimens displaying and showing-off beauty and presence. Two series of Allyn's work are one exhibit, one of which is new and seen for the first time. 

2018 marks the 90th anniversary of the University of Minnesota Archives, giving us a prime opportunity to highlight what we have and what we do. Please explore the online exhibit by diving into an entire section examining the role of academic freedom and tenure at the University or the University’s response to the massive influx of students following World War II. Or spend some time with a panel or two.

June 4 through September 14, 2018 at Elmer L. Andersen Library Gallery and Wallin Gallery. Libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, other cultural heritage institutions, and private collectors are invited to participate in a state-wide exhibition of global treasures from Minnesota’s book and manuscript collections. The exhibits will focus on the “best” rare and unique books and manuscripts drawn from Minnesota institutions and individuals.

May 14 through September 7, 2018 at Elmer L. Andersen Library Atrium Gallery. From Winona to Luverne, from Moorhead to Duluth, writers in Minnesota are inextricably connected. This exhibit will explore the reciprocal and often intimate relationships among writers and the role of editors and publishers in anchoring and supporting a literary community.

February 12 through May 18, 2018 at Elmer L. Andersen Library Gallery. This exhibit recovers the diverse, delightful, provocative, and sometimes unexpected stories from across the University of Minnesota’s Archives and Special Collections that have been unearthed as part of Umbra Search African American History’s effort to digitize hidden African American history materials.