Library Exhibitions

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Mariam Coffin Canaday Library

Intimate Devotion: The Book of Hours in Medieval Religious Practice
January 31 May 30, 2008

Rare Book Room. Open 9:00 - 4:30 Monday - Friday.

The spring exhibition in Canaday Library, Intimate Devotion: The Book of Hours in Medieval Religious Practice, features some of Bryn Mawr's most gorgeous medieval manuscripts and printed books and an extraordinary group of novice curators. The exhibition is the work of the students in Professor Martha Easton's undergraduate seminar last fall, "The Book of Hours and the Art of Devotion." It opened on Thursday, January 31, with a panel discussion featuring the student curators.

Martha Easton, lecturer in History of Art, said she developed the course so that students could work with original objects, but also have to think about how to present the subject to a wider public. "From the beginning this has been their show," she said. "Collectively they came up with the theme, decided what aspects of the book of hours they wanted to highlight, and chose the objects and images they wanted to display. I have been very impressed with the way they collaborated together in a professional way, listening to divergent points of view but finding the common ground between them, meeting deadlines and commenting on each other's work. The end result has been a cohesive and thoughtful examination of the book of hours in medieval religious life."

Thirteen students participated in the class, including eight from Bryn Mawr, four from Haverford, and one from Swarthmore. The students are Bianca Bromberger '08 (HC), Jacob Carroll '09 (HC), Jenny Castle '09, Erina Donnelly '08, Brittaney Golden '08, Talia Greenwald '08, Kira Grennan '08 (SC), Lavanya Jayakar '09, Margaret Livingston '08 (HC), Lindsey Merikas '08 (HC), Annie Morse '09, Alex Solomon '08, and Arianae Tsavaris '09. Special Collections Librarian Marianne Hansen helped the class with expertise on the physical production of medieval manuscripts and also served as the exhibition coordinator.

The exhibition will be open from January 31 through May 30. The exhibition hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. For additional information, contact the Special Collections Department at 610-526-6576.

Tuesday, April 8, at 4:30 p.m. in Carpenter Library 21.

This lecture is sponsored by the Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Library. A reception follows in the Rare Book Room, Canaday Library.

Shifting Sands: Roman Glass in the Bryn Mawr College Art and Archaeology Collections
Kaiser Reading Room, during regular library hours. The exhibition will run through January 2008.

Drawn from the College's extensive holdings of ancient glass, Shifting Sands: Roman Glass in the Bryn Mawr College Art and Archaeology Collections is organized around the theme of change. The invention of glass blowing at the end of the first century B.C.E. revolutionized the art of glass manufacture, turning glass from an elite luxury item into an everyday commodity for the masses. Shifting Sands traces the evolution of glass-forming techniques from the second millennium B.C.E. to the late Roman period and showcases the wide variety of uses to which glass was put in the Roman world. The exhibition also explores change in another respect. Much ancient glass is altered in its physical appearance over time, often as a result of natural deterioration but sometimes as a result of modern restoration and conservation attempts. The process by which ancient glass acquires its iridescence is explained and the recent conservation of one of the Collections' own vessels documented.

Bryn Mawr College Lanterns
Floor 2, main staircase landing
Open regular library hours

Bryn Mawr College Handbooks
Floor 3, main staircase landing
Open regular library hours

The Dr. A. V. Heyl Mineral Collection
Foyer. Open regular library hours

Allen Heyl grew up in Allentown, majored in geology at Penn State, then went on to Princeton for graduate work and a Ph.D. He had a long and illustrious career with the US Geological Survey, which required that specialists in mineralogy be able to work in all related branches of geology, including geochemistry and geophysics. Among his numerous publications (over 200) is a valuable work on the chrome mines of southeastern Pennsylvania. This year Dr. Heyl has generously presented the Geology Department with his Pennsylvania Collection of minerals. Many of the sites where the minerals were collected are no longer available or open to the public. Anyone interested in viewing more of the collection may contact Associate Curator, Juliet Reed by e-mail.

Luxuriant Nature Smiling Round
January - May 2006

Building Muscles While Building Minds: Athletics and the Early Years of Women's Education
September - December 2005

Mapping New Worlds: The Cartography of European Exploration and Colonization, 1450–1750
January - May 2005

The Invention of Antiquity
September - December 2004

Bryn Mawr Plays: Dramatic Productions at Bryn Mawr College 1889-1920
2002-2003

Jeannette Jehanne Jeanne Joan: Shepherdess Soldier Savior Saint
January - June 2003

Dedicated to the Cause: Bryn Mawr Women and the Right to Vote
September 26 - December 20, 2002

The Very Best Woman's College There Is: M. Carey Thomas and the Making of the Bryn Mawr Campus September 21 - December 20, 2001

The Sargent Portrait: M. Carey Thomas and John Singer Sargent
September 21 - December 20, 2001

Books, Printers, and the Information Revolution in Early Modern Europe: 1450-1600
February 22 - June 1, 2001

It's the Ticket: Nineteenth-Century Bookbinding in the British Isles and the United States
September 23 December, 1998

Leading Bryn Mawr: An Exhibition in Honor of Nancy J. Vickers
1997