Exhibits
Advancing Accessibility: A Timeline
2 West
December 08, 2023 – April 30, 2024
Approximately 1.3 billion, or one in six, people experience disability worldwide (World Health Organization). Despite this high prevalence, people with disabilities have been oppressed and treated unequally and unfairly by ableist societies and systems since the beginning of history. There have, however, been many accessibility advancements and improvements, especially in technology and physical spaces, throughout time; some of which are highlighted in our exhibit.
Botanical Art & Illustration Through the Ages
May 02, 2023
This exhibit showcases the 150-year history and legacies of W.J. Beal’s garden’s influences with artifacts from Special Collections, Univ. Archives, and the W.J. Beal Dept. Utilized by the MSU community and visitors, the original intent of Beal’s pioneering garden has remained consistent – it’s a place to learn, a place to experiment, a place to sow, and a place to grow.
For Better For Worse
May 02, 2023
A collection of early modern, English, conduct books offering helpful advice of the period on conduct, behavior, morals, values, spirituality, education, letter writing, personal relationships, and practical topics. This exhibit is about marriage advice in some of these books.
A Catalog of Early Works in Ray Stannard Baker Bee Collection
May 02, 2023
For over a half-century the MSU Libraries has been acquiring and building an important collection of materials devoted to early bee keeping. The Baker Collection is especially strong in apiculture works printed in English, although other languages are well represented.
Healing Waters of Bath
May 02, 2023
Bath U.K.’s famous geothermal hot springs have attracted people since prehistoric times. From the 17th century, people claimed the water had curative properties if one drank or bathed in it. Bath became a popular spa town, a place to live in and vacation at, to see and to be seen.
Footpath to Freeway: The Evolution of Michigan Road Maps
May 02, 2023
A systematic review of the maps contained in Clason State Road Maps, touring atlases, and Green Guides reveal that the road legends and other map symbols varied over the years in systematic ways.
Michigan Writers
May 02, 2023
The Michigan Writers Collection, located in Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections, is devoted to collecting and making accessible all the manuscripts and published works of selected writers with important ties to Michigan. The Michigan Writers Series recognizes and highlights the literary work of important writers who live and work in Michigan.
Defoe and the Plague in London
May 02, 2023
Daniel Defoe, 1660?-1731, was a London businessman, journalist, political pamphleteer, spy, and proponent of the novel as a literary genre. As the Second Plague Pandemic approached London in the early 1720’s, Defoe published Journal of the Plague Year and Due Preparations for the Plague to teach people about the experiences English people had had in the plague of 1664-1665.
Clason Road Map & Atlas Site
May 02, 2023
A systematic review of the maps contained in Clason State Road Maps, touring atlases, and Green Guides reveal that the road legends and other map symbols varied over the years in systematic ways.
Telling Family Stories
May 02, 2023
This exhibit features American Jewish cookbooks and schoolbooks from MSU Libraries’ Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections. American Jews, in their children's books and cookbooks, demonstrated the importance of religion and gender in their families, and asserted themselves as both American and international/multilingual.