| Fifteenth Century Printed Books |
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Bryn Mawr holds one of the country’s largest collections of books printed in Europe during the half-century between the invention of printing and 1500. |
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Travel Accounts
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The library has an extensive collection of printed European and American accounts of travel to the rest of the world. |
| Women’s History |
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As one of the country’s preeminent women’s colleges for nearly a century and a half, Bryn Mawr has built extensive collections on women writers, artists, and activists, as well as collections that document women’s daily lives.
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| Illustrated Books |
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The Library’s collections of illustrated books date from the 15th century to the present, and include large numbers of books on natural history, travel, classical antiquities, and daily life.
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| Literature, Theater and Art |
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The Library includes a strong collection of books by women writers from the Italian Renaissance to today, important editions of major literary works, and the papers of prominent writers, artists and people active in the theater.
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| Works on Paper by Women |
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The William and Uytendale Scott Memorial Study Collection introduced over 300 works of art on paper by women artists to the College's holdings. This gift enhanced collections that already boasted works by Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, and Marie Laurencin among others. |
| Photography |
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The photography collection was born in the late 19th century from those photographs used in the study of subjects ranging from art history to geology. Since then it has grown through generous gifts by Seymour Adelman of photographs by Thomas Eakins and by other donors of modernist works by Walker Evans, Lewis Hines, and Lotte Jacobi, among others. More recent acquisitions include those from exhibitions at the College of Gilbert Plantinga, Kris Graves, and Jessica Todd Harper. |
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| Sande Society Masks |
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Bryn Mawr holds one of the country’s, if not world's, largest collections of Sande Society masks. Such masks are worn and danced by Mende women during ceremonies to mark significant events for their all-female Sande society. It is through this society that many women in Sierra Leone were educated and exercised political, religious, and social power. |
| Paintings (late 19th - mid 20th centuries) |
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The College's painting collection boasts fine portraits by John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, and Violet Oakley, as well as other works by Rosa Bonheur, Cecilia Beaux, Romare Bearden, Milton Avery, and Susan MacDowell Eakins. |
| Archaeology Collections |
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Bryn Mawr established one of the first independent archaeology departments in America and the earliest donation to the collection in 1901 included an important group of Greek vases. The anthropology collections were established in the 1950s and 1960s and include significant artifacts from North, Central, and South America, Africa, Asia, and prehistoric Europe. |
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