Browse Exhibits · Gallery

Browse Exhibits · Gallery
ONLINE EXHIBITS
Browse Exhibits
Browse Exhibits
Browse Exhibits (40 total)
"A Long, Troublesome, and Dangerous Passage" from England to India
The following exhibition catalogues chaplain Edward Terry's voyage from England to India in the 17th century. It does not document every encounter on his journey, but instead highlights a number of encounters that give readers a glimpse into the life and times of a 17th-century Englishman. The entire journey of Edward Terry can be found in
A voyage to East-India: Wherein some things are taken notice of in our passage thither, but many more in our abode there, within that rich and most spacious empire of the Great Mogol. Mix't with some parallel observations and inferences upon the storie, to profit as well as delight the reader
, located in the James Ford Bell Library, item number: 1655 Te
*We are located on Mnisóta Makhóčhe, the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of the Dakhóta Oyáte. The University Libraries acknowledges that the United States government failed to uphold the 1805, 1837, and 1851 treaties with the Dakhóta nation, which made possible the founding of our university through the Morrill Land Grant Act.
The James Ford Bell Library, through its exhibitions in the Bell Room Gallery, and through the management of its collection, is dedicated to giving voice to and sharing the stories of those who were marginalized, oppressed, enslaved, and underrepresented within the premodern narratives in our collection.
James Ford Bell Library
A Woman's Place: Women and Work
The stories of women as workers are as complex, varied, and engaging as the women themselves. Whether their work is paid or unpaid, by choice or by necessity, a path to freedom or a system of exploitation, the idea of “women in the workplace” has embodied many of society’s greatest hopes and fears about what it means to be a woman.
This exhibit attempts to unpack the stories of what “women’s work” truly embodies by pulling materials from units across the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections, as well as from the Wangensteen Historical Library and the Doris S. Kirschner Cookbook collection.
Social Welfare History Archives
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature
Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Balloons Over Broadway, Melissa Sweet, and the Engineering of a Picture Book
This exhibit shows the process of making a nonfiction biographical picture book, using Melissa Sweet's Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade as an example.
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature
Becoming Minnesota
"Becoming Minnesota" was first mounted in the Fine Arts Building at the 2007 Minnesota State Fair, and was on display in the Elmer L. Andersen Library January 23 - March 12, 2008. The exhibit focused on six themes: exploration and discovery, peiople, recreation, business and agriculture, education, and the arts. Each of the twelve Archives and Special Collections primary collectiong areas contributed to this exhibit.
Archives and Special Collections
Campus Kiosk: The Voice of Student Groups at the U
The Campus Kiosk: The Voice of Student Groups at the U
opened on the 2nd floor of Coffman Memorial Union in September of 2024, and featured five panels that told of the use and creation of posters, broadsides and fliers by student organization on the University of Minnesota's campus. In the Spring of 2025, this exhibit expanded to include nine vitrines covering other political and social action student groups and their activities while at the UMN over time. This online exhibit represents the items that the physical exhibit contains.
Learn more on the physical
Posters, Broadsides and Fliers collection,
at the University of Minnesota Archives, to find other representations of student organizations, departements, centers and services at the University of Minnesota.
Thanks to the Digital Library Services, the University Digital Conservancy (UDC) and the Strategic Digitizing Program the 984 posters, broadsides and fliers of student organizations at the University of Minnesota were digitized and are
available online
through the UDC.
The Campus Kiosk: The Voice of Student Groups at the U
will be open from March 10th through May 30th, 2025. Presented by the
University of Minnesota Archives
. Curated by Katelyn Morken, Research Services and Student Life Archivist
Physical design and creation of exhibit panels by Darren Terpstra, Archives and Special Collections Exhibit Design and Project Specialist
University of Minnesota Archives
Captain Cook's Voyages of Discovery
Captain James Cook was the most prominent explorer of the late 18th century, and one of the greatest explorers of all time. His three famous voyages of discovery to the Pacific Ocean made great contributions to Western knowledge of the region, and changed the course of history.
This exhibit looks at the cultural and scientific discoveries of Cook’s voyages as illustrated by images from the collections of the Bell Library.
James Ford Bell Library
Children’s Book Art:  Techniques and Media
This is a digital resource examining the works of over 60 artists' materials and process for the making of illustrations using primary sources held in the Kerlan Collection of the University of Minnesota’s Archives and Special Collections.
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature
Digital State
Former director of the Charles Babbage Institute, Thomas J. Misa, drew on a variety of rare archival sources to write his book,
Digital State
, which unveils the story of computer development in Minnesota after World War II. This exhibit is intended as a companion piece to the book.
Charles Babbage Institute
Engraved in Copper: The Art of Mapping Minnesota
This exhibit highlights unique engraved copper plates used to print topographic maps of Minnesota in the early 1900s, surveying and mapmaking techniques, and government documents related to the process.
The plates are part of the evolution of government mapping and the history of the United States Geological Survey, from early mapping efforts to Geographic Information Systems.
John R. Borchert Map Library
Exploring Kierkegaard in Minnesota
The exhibit features Kierkegaard scholarship, translations, library collections, and illustrations from Kierkegaard's life -- brief in time but extraordinarily rich in thought, creativity, and legacy.
Wilson Library
Exploring the Historic Mississippi River
This exhibit examines maps and drawings of the Mississippi River and its various cultures, focusing on several of the most important explorations in the period of first contact between Europeans and Native Americans through the 19th century.
James Ford Bell Library
Gender Codes
This exhibit is intended as a companion to Gender Codes: Why Women Are Leaving Computing, edited by Thomas J. Misa, former director of the Charles Babbage Institute.
Charles Babbage Institute
Houlton's Legacy: The Magic of Dance
Loyce Houlton's legacy includes her stunning original repertoire of choreography, a major school of dance and professional company, and a community resource that is rich with opportunity for young dancers and artists, and a range of audiences to learn, grow, and discover their creative passions.
Performing Arts Archives
In The Public Interest
An Account of Community Service Rendered In a Statewide Emergency by Station KUOM - By Burton Paulu, Manager, University of Minnesota Radio Station, KUOM
University of Minnesota Archives
Juhla! Celebrating 150 years of Finnish Immigration to Minnesota
Juhla is a Finnish word for celebration, and it is our hope that Juhla! Celebrating 150 years of Finnish Immigration to Minnesota honors Minnesotans, past and present, who consider themselves Finnish American. This online exhibit is presented in eleven topics, and the contents were selected in consideration of our collection strengths, so as to celebrate, too, the IHRCA’s holdings.
Immigration History Research Center Archives
K is for Kiss-Me-Over-the-Garden-Gate
From apples to zinnias, stunning images in this horticultural alphabet highlight Andersen Horticultural Library's special collections of vintage seed catalogs, treasured rare books, and 19th century garden magazines.
Andersen Horticultural Library
Keeping Fit
"Keeping Fit" was a 48-poster series produced by the U.S. Public Health Service and the YMCA in 1919. It was designed to educate teenage boys and young men about the dangers of sexual promiscuity and urged them to embrace moral and physical fitness. A parallel series, "Youth and Life" was designed for girls and young women.
Social Welfare History Archives
Labor in the Eyes of Artists: Zines, Scenes and Inbetweens
The exhibit highlights artist zines, posters and other forms of aethetically derived text/image formats to explore issues of social justrive as a means to promote social change. The materials on exhibit are from the Francis V. Gorman Collection of Rare Art Books, and the University Libraries' Special Collections.
Wilson Library
Linda Wells Minnesota Women's Athletics Scrapbooks and Photo Albums
University of Minnesota Archives
Little Red Riding Hood: A Comparative Folk Tale Study
This exhibit uses materials from the Kerlan Collection with a focus on the Jack Zipes Rare Book and Art Collection. This project is a comparative study of versions of Little Red Riding Hood and a digital exhibit that can be used as a template for future fairy tale studies.
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature
Mary Read and Anne Bonny: Two of England's Most Notorious Pirates
Two of England's most notorious pirates happened to be women. This is their astonishing, swashbuckling, adventure-filled story.
This exhibit presented by the
James Ford Bell Library
James Ford Bell Library
Memorial Stadium 1924-1992
With this interactive digital archive, the University of Minnesota honors the history of Memorial Stadium. In 2008 while watching enthusiasm grow as TCF Bank Stadium came to life an inspired group of University Libraries staff explored how the rich archival resources and the digital technology expertise of the Libraries could be channeled to capture and share the history of Memorial Stadium.
University of Minnesota Archives
Nagasaki Harbor, 1741: Navigating the Many Dimensions of a Map
Within the James Ford Bell Library rests folded within a thin, square wooden box sits; though the box is small, it once held a colorful, detailed cartographic depiction of a bird's-eye view of Nagasaki Harbor in the middle of the eighteenth century.  This is the story of that map.
James Ford Bell Library
Open Heart: Intracardiac Surgery at the University of Minnesota
Open heart, or intracardiac, surgery became a research priority at the University of Minnesota in the late 1940s. Through the availability of state and national funding for medical research, increased awareness of heart disease, and an environment of collaboration and committed inquiry within the Department of Surgery, doctors at the University of Minnesota were able to perform the world’s first open heart surgery in a dry field under direct vision on September 2, 1952.
University of Minnesota Archives
Reaching for Gold
This exhibit explores the story of the origins and development of the Olympic movement in China by looking at the YMCA's introduction and promotion of athleticism there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Kautz Family YMCA Archives
Rejoice The Legacy!
This exhibit displays original manuscript pages, artist dummies, picture book proofs, original art, and sketches selected from among Andrea Davis Pinkney’s more than 20 published children’s and young adult titles. The exhibit provides insight into one writer’s creative process as well as a peek into editorial practice.
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature
Seed Stories: Catalogs of Life and Gardens in America
This online exhibit comprises nearly 150 catalog covers, pages and plates, culled from the Andersen Horticultural Library's extensive collection of over 57,000 historic seed and nursery catalogs.
Andersen Horticultural Library
Seeing Child Labor
Child labor evokes images of exploitation. And yet, it’s complicated. Through one photographer’s lens, we can see children working under terrible conditions, and we also can see children working along with their families, children reading while they work, children playing in workplaces, and children doing schoolwork. Through these images, we view children across the globe as more than just “objects” who are manipulated by adults. Though relatively powerless, they are also active subjects who see the world through their own perspectives and act on it as agents.
Presented by Social Welfare History Archives
Social Welfare History Archives
Sem, GiGi, and Caricature
The exhibition
Sem, GiGi, and Caricature
celebrates the new thirty-foot long acquisition
Sem au Bois,
accompanied by other special collection materials contextualizing caricature during la Belle Epoque in France, and as expressed in the comedic novella, GiGi, written by the French author Colette Willy.
Wilson Library
Something About Cuba
"Something about Cuba" is based on an exhibit of books and other library material at the University of Minnesota Libraries, highlighting its collections on Cuban history, literature, art and music from the conquest of Cuba by Diego Velazquez in 1512 to the present.
Wilson Library
The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter
Although the exhibit's contents cover four centuries of literature,
The ABC of It
is not a strict history of children's books. Rather, it is historian Leonard S. Marcus's thesis on how "books for young people have stories to tell us about ourselves," and that "behind every children's book is a vision of childhood: a shared understanding of what growing up is all about."
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature
The Correct Way to Sail from Lisbon to Calicut
From Lisbon to Calicut was translated by Alvin E. Prottengeier, with commentary and notes by John Parker, curator of the James Ford Bell Library from 1953 until his retirement in 1991. It was published in 1956 by the University of Minnesota Press; the copyright is held by the University of Minnesota.
James Ford Bell Library
The Global Reach of Local Activism: Minnesota's Human Rights Stories
The people of Minnesota have played an outsized role in international human rights activism and scholarship since the 1970s. The story is also a complicated one. As Minnesota-based actors have made their international impact, the state remains the site of persistent human rights violations.
Fueled by the resources of the newly established Minnesota Human Rights Archive, "The Global Reach of Local Activism” recounts a compelling slice of local-to-global history, replete with triumphs, setbacks, and ongoing challenges.
Join us as we explore Minnesotans' contributions to the global movements to end gender-based violence, racial discrimination, and torture. A call to action offers hope for a better future while acknowledging the unfinished work of protecting human rights in Minnesota and globally.
University of Minnesota Archives
The Making of Picture Book Illustrations: What is Preseparated Art?
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature contains thousands of pieces of production materials and original artwork. Collectively these materials contain the history of modern children's book publishing. Many of the pieces of artwork in the collection, particularly those created between the mid-twentieth century and the late 1980s, bear little resemblance to the art on the page of the final printed book.
This exhibit was made possible by the generous gift from Leo and Helen Wolk. Additional support was provided by The Kerlan Friends, Ariane Dewey, Ava Weiss, and Paul Zelinsky.
The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature
Trade and Commerce in 17th-Century England: Proclamations
The James Ford Bell Library is home to a collection of several printed broadsides from 17th century England representing brief but critical moments that shaped many of the trade and commercial policies that influenced England’s role in the global economy and political sphere through the 17th and 18th centuries.
James Ford Bell Library
Upper Midwest Jewish Archives: Near North Minneapolis Map
This map, created by Clarence Miller in partnership with the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, illustrates an area of North Minneapolis, where many Jewish immigrant families lived, as it was during the 1920s. In this project we are attempting to pin information found online – from photos to oral histories – to locations illustrated on the map in order to better understand a neighborhood that has passed into memory.
Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Women's Athletic Association of the University of Minnesota
An exhibit - or "online Reading Room" - presenting the digitized versions of the contents of the
Women's Athletic Association records
(ua00816), preserved at the
University of Minnesota Archives
University of Minnesota Archives
YMCA in America
For 150 years, the YMCA has been a pioneering force in the United States—a force so powerful that, as we begin the 21st century, it is arguably the most successful social institution this country has ever known. Above all, the YMCA movement is about people—all ages, races, religions and incomes. Forever mission-driven, Ys exist to mold the kind of people who care about each other, who are firm in their own sense of worth and that of others, who try to foster understanding and respect, who take responsibility for their own lives and help improve the lives of others.
Kautz Family YMCA Archives
Youth and Life
"Youth and Life" was a 48-poster series, designed to educate teenage girls and young women about the dangers of sexual promiscuity and urged them to embrace moral and physical fitness. It was adapted in 1922 by the American Social Hygiene Association from
"Keeping Fit"
, a similar series for boys and young men.
This exhibit presented by the
Social Welfare History Archives
Social Welfare History Archives
유대감 (Fellowship): Images of American Efforts to Modernize Korea
This exhibit features lantern slides from the early 20th century, which documented interactions between the Korean people and the American missionaries who made it their life’s work to develop communities.
The exhibit is sponsored by the
University of Minnesota Libraries
and the Korea F
oundation in collaboration with Hennepin County Library - Minneapolis Central Library. The exhibit was open July 1 - August 15, 2016. An opening
reception
was held July 7, 2016.
Kautz Family YMCA Archives