The drawings, prints and photographs of the Works on Paper Collection are used to enrich classes in History of Art, Fine Arts, Growth and Structure of Cities, Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, History, and languages. This collection is also a valuable resource for research by faculty, students, and other scholars. Many of these pieces are used in instructional exhibitions in the bi-college community and in museums across the country.The Print Collection illustrating the history of western printmaking from the 15th through the mid 20th centuries consists of master prints, art prints, as well as examples of 19th century book illustration such as wood engravings, lithographs, and chromolithographs. The Print Collection includes a core collection of master European prints, supplemented by the Drexel-Van Pelt Collection and the John N. Estabrook Collection contributing a wide selection of European 16th-20th century and American 19th century and early 20th century prints. The Harrington-Bishop Collection features American early 20th century printmakers, and the Albert W. Barker Collection is composed of his early 20th century lithographs. Artists represented include Dürer, van Leyden, Goltzius, Callot, Ruysdael, Rembrandt, Goya, Millet, Corot, Seymour Hayden, Whistler, John Taylor Arms, Joseph Pennell, John Sloan, Mary Cassatt, Picasso, Zorn, Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, and “Red” Grooms, among others. Contemporary works are found in the Scott Memorial Study Collection of Works by Women Artists. Asian prints include an extensive survey collection of Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints from the 18th to 20th centuries.

The Drawing Collection includes both preliminary draft work created in the process of making a final print, as well as drawings which are finished pieces of art in themselves. Strengths in this collection include 18th and 19th century British watercolors of the John N. Estabrook Collection, late 19th century illustrations by William Morris and Burne-Jones, and 20th century works, such as the Philadelphia watercolors by J.R. Riegel and F. Taylor, charcoal studies by A.W. Barker for his lithographs, the watercolors and pastels of Hobson Pittman, and drawings by Bryn Mawr alumnae authors Marianne C. Moore, '09 and Wendy Watson, '64. Asian drawings are represented by a small group of Chinese watercolors and calligraphy. The Photography Collection illustrates the history of photography from shortly after the invention of photography in 1839 until the present day. A variety of processes from daguerreotypes to 20th century silver gelatin prints, color prints, and alternative processes are found, as well as a variety of formats, such as stereo and cabinet cards, single prints, prints in series, travel and family albums, glass slides and negatives are represented. Some of the vintage photographs are in rare series. The Michaelis Collection provides examples of early processes and equipment. Particularly strong is the collection of Victorian documentary albumen and carbon process photographs (1860s-1900), assembled by President M. Carey Thomas and benefactress Mary E. Garrett during their world travels. These photographs depict paintings, sculpture, minor arts, and architecture and monuments of the Near East and Europe by such noted photographers as Bonfils, Braun, Ponti, Valentine, and Wilson. Other holdings include the Geology Collection of U.S.Geological Survey landscapes by W. H. Jackson and Hillers, assembled for classroom instruction; the Kelmscott Manor series by F.H. Evans, the T. Helburn Collection of New York Theatre Guild production and publicity stills, including Katharine Hepburn ‘28. Other photographers in the collection include Dixon and Bool, Atjet, Curtis, Hine, Kertesz, Adams, and women photographers E. Lowber, M. Weil, 1892, V.H. Francis ‘14), I. W. Pritchett, G. Peterich, L. Jacobi, and contemporary Delaware Valley women photographers of the Scott Collection. (Thomas and Susan Eakins’s photographs from the Adelman Collection are located in Canaday Library, Special Collections).