"An object is not an object. It is the witness to a relationship" -- Cecilia Vicuña The Rare Books Department invites you to view its most recent virtual lecture, "Armchair Indigeneity: Memory, Language, Dissolution, Exile, Extinction." We look at writings by and about indigenous peoples in Mexico,...

09 October, 2020 /

To you, my children, These lovely flowers I give. Prune ye my vines and fig trees, With care my flowers tend, But keep the pathway open Your home is at the end. from "God's Garden" -- Robert Frost The first Mesopotamian writings on clay tablets included information about plants. Ancient pharmacopoeias recorded...

08 October, 2020 /

"Do not believe more than what you see with your eyes." -- Montezuma to Cortés, according to Cortés, 1519 Rare Books invites you to view its most recent virtual lecture, "What You See With Your Eyes." Why are texts written? and for whom? Why are texts recorded...

25 September, 2020 /

The covers of a book enclose worlds constructed of text and image. To open a book is to expose the intimate details of story, experience and idea. The Book Arts Program at the J. Willard Marriott Library champions wide-ranging explorations of the book. A fully...

16 September, 2020 /

"You'll get to see the vast networks that connect languages, cultures, and periods of history." -- Lyuba Basin The Rare Books Department invites you to two of our most recently published virtual lectures: A Look Into the Vault and Getting A Word In. Digital exhibitions, virtual lectures,...

10 September, 2020 /

Have the feeling that you are in a tunnel and can't see the end? We do, too. For a view of tunnels more expressive than ours, visit our most recent digital exhibition, Tunnel Vision. Based on our 2018 physical exhibition, Tunnel Vision was the result of a...

03 September, 2020 /

Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone. And the face of the deep is frozen --Book of Job 38: 29-30 Carte de l'amérique corrigée, et augmentée Petrus Bertius (1565-1629) Paris?,...

02 September, 2020 /

"Research ain't nuthin but formalized curiosity, just poking and prying with a purpose." Sanctified Betye Saar (b. 1926) Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 1990 N7433.4 S22 S26 1990 Betye Saar began her artistic career as a printmaker. Sanctified was published on the occasion of the installation (April 22...

26 August, 2020 /

from Paradise Lost, John Milton, 1688 “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” We miss our books, we miss holding our books, we miss our classroom, we miss our students, we miss putting our books...

21 July, 2020 /