Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery

Special Collections Exhibits held in the Library Rotunda and Library Room 104

Recent Exhibits

• Spring 2011 - Enduring Forest: The Synergy of Nature and People, April and May, 2011. Utilizing photographs from the Photography Collection, the Bafford Book Collection, and the Baltimore Sun Collection, as well as poetry from the Special Collections General Collection, this exhibit explores the complex relationship between humankind and the natural world. From reverence to destruction and back again, the modern impulse to conserve the natural environment is epitomized in our celebration of Arbor Day. Planned in conjunction with the campus-wide Arbor Day celebration, this exhibit was curated by Special Collections/Archives graduate assistants, Homira Pashai and Colleen Walter. See Arbor Day Book Display for a display of books that was exhibited related to this exhibit's theme.
• Fall 2009 - Pictorial to Typographical Form, Fall 2009. This exhibit features work by students from Professor Kathryn Bell's Spring 2009 Graphic Design I class, including: Kelley Kepley, Erica Shin, Maria McAllister, Sarah Fillmore, Brenna Miller, Jessica Gonzalez, David Lee, Nahyung Han, Kim Thompson, Phillip Jacoby, and Kemron Senhouse. Students viewed and selected photographs from the Special Collections Photography Collections and Bafford Photography Book Collection to study the graphic and geometric forms "hidden" in the images. These forms were finally translated into typographic compostions and forms.

• Spring 2009 – Images from the Honors College 2008 Trip to France, April 6-May 12, 2009.
• Spring 2009 - Bicentennial Celebration of Charles Darwin: Selections from the Special Collections, February 12 - April 1, 2009
• Spring 2008 - Real City, Dream City, a show curated by Art On Purpose and presented by the Language, Literature, and Culture program
• Fall 2007 - Vanishing Point, Photographs by David Plowden, on the occasion of the book signing by Plowden in the Library Gallery.
• Spring 2007 - Selections from 'A Box of Photographs' by Diane Arbus, April 23 - May 13, 2007. An exhibition in conjunction with Silence, Cunning, Exile, a Theatre Department production directed by Xeres Mehta.
• Spring 2007 - Illustrious Illustrations: Selected Rare Books from the Special Collections of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, June 15 - August 31, 2007.
• Spring 2007 - The Glory of Ruins, curated by a group of eight students taking part in an Ancient Studies/Honors College internship. This exhibition displays nineteenth and twentieth century photographs depicting classical Athens and Attica, all from the Special Collections of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery.
• Fall 2006 – The Evolution of a University, Selections from the University Archives on the Occasion of UMBC’s 40th Anniversary, Special Collections, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery.
• Spring 2006 – Speculations on Extraterrestrial Life in the Universe, Selections from the Azriel Rosenfeld Science Fiction Research Collection, Special Collections, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery.
• Spring 2005 -- Albert Einstein Photographed By Lotte Jacobi, May 5, 2005 - September 6, 2005. An exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of Einstein's death.
• Spring 2004 – Baltimore Images from the Era of Brown v. Board of Education, Photographs by Jack Engeman,April 12 – May 10, 2004. The landmark Brown v. the Board of Education, Topeka decision by the United States Supreme Court on May 17, 1954 that declared unconstitutional racial segregation in public education propelled dramatic and historic changes in the Baltimore City schools. Jack Engeman, who had been photographing in the schools for years, was a witness to the changes, and his photographs reveal much about the decision’s impact.
• Spring 2004 – Alternative Archives, A History of Underground Comics, January 30-March 14, 2004. The exhibition explores the history and effect of underground comics on the mainstream comic world and displays many examples from UMBC’s vast collection of comic books dating to the 1930s. The exhibition explores how comics changed after the Comics Code Authority Stamp was implemented in 1954 to censor comics for inappropriate content. Also explored is the way that underground comics, at each period of their history, have provided a rich arena for social and political discourse. Students at the Maryland Institute, College of Art collaborated with students in UMBC’s Graphic Novel class to research the thousands of comics in UMBC’s special collections and select works for this exhibition.
• Fall 2003 – UMBC Campus Life: A Tale of Two Histories—8,000 Years of Prehistory & 37 Years of Archaeology. Displayed are artifacts excavated from the Conservation and Environmental Research Areas of UMBC under the direction of former Assistant Professor of Ancient Studies Karen D. Vitelli in 1971 and 1972. Dr. Vitelli is currently Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Classical Archaeology at Indiana University. The exhibition was curated by Stephen S. Israel, member of the Archeological Society of Maryland, in cooperation with the Department of Ancient Studies and with advice and assistance from Tom Beck, Chief Curator at the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery; Carolyn G. Koehler, Associate Professor of Ancient Studies; Marilyn Y. Goldberg, Associate Professor of Ancient Studies; and Esther Read, Director of the Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology. The artifacts are on loan from the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.
• Spring 2003 – Atomic Culture: Cold War Civil Defense, co-curated by Joe Tatarewicz and presented on the occasion of a talk by Jane Loader, April 4, 2003.
• Fall 2002 – The Flag As Symbol—A Remembrance of 9/11, 9/11/02-11/11/02.
• Fall 2001 – Ray Bradbury: Selected Literary Works from the Holdings of the Azriel Rosenfeld Science Fiction Research Collection, Special Collections, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery.
• Spring 2000 – Julia Margaret Cameron, Photographer and Great Aunt to Virginia Woolf, June 8-11, 2000.