Exhibits – Special Collections & University Archives

Tulip poplar leaf Arthur Mange Collection

Drawing upon the unique materials under their care, the staff of the Department of Special Collections and University Archives organize two to three exhibits a year in their reading room and work regularly with their colleagues in the general library to prepare other exhibits for display on the Lower Level of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

Current Exhibits

Necessary Rights: Highlighting LGBTQ+ History and Collections at SCUA

Fall 2025

W. E. B. Du Bois Library
Floor 25

Exhibit drawn from several collections held by the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA), including materials that celebrate 40 years of the Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst, the Gittings-Lahusen Book Collection, and the records of MassEquality.

Ephemeral Politics

Through Fall 2025

W. E. B. Du Bois Library
Lower Level

As long as there have been political campaigns, there have been memorabilia and ephemera to accompany them. Bold, captivating, humorous, or pointed designs have captured the imagination of the public during the campaign season, inspiring curiosity and driving action around political candidates. The artifacts on display from the Driscoll Collection endure as symbols of democracy, empowerment, propaganda, patriotism and protest.

Exhibits online
UMass Historical Campus Map Once an agricultural college with wide-open spaces, and now a large research university with some of the tallest buildings in the region, the UMass Amherst campus has undergone a radical transformation in its 150-year history. You can explore the evolution of our landscape using our interactive historical map to travel through time.	Fifty Photographs: Selections from SCUA collections The premise of this exhibition is simple: to select one image each from fifty collections in SCUA both as an effort to explore the growth of these holdings and the range of “social feelings” embedded in them. For many collections, it is a challenge to select just one “favorite” image, and many of our favorites and some of our best photographic collections have been edged out. But the beauty of photography is that it will always be there to remind us of our lapses.
100 photos: Arthur Mange Photographs from the collection of Arthur Mange.	Through the Photographer’s Eyes: The Diana Mara Henry Collection (20th Century Photographer Photographs taken by Henry along with a rich array of related materials—speeches, press releases, brochures, and her personal notes—collected over the years, which document the political and cultural scene of the second half of the twentieth century
Photographer: Diana Mara Henry Photographs from the collection of Diana Mara Henry. An exhibit by Chuck Abel.	E.D. Hudson: an Abolitionist Life An examination of social reform and antislavery in Antebellum New England. An exhibit by Charles Weisenberger.
Class of 1967 Memorial and Monuments Tour Highlights the rich legacy of alumni giving and participation on the UMass Amherst campus from 1867 to today. See the buildings, structures, monuments, plaques, gardens, sculptures, trees, and benches that tell the story of a century and a half of generosity. Exhibit courtesy of the Class of 1967; prepared by Cheryl Harned.	Source, History, Story: Teaching U.S. History in the Archives A digital curriculum for teaching U.S. history using archival resources. An exhibit by Emily Oswald (ETHIR recipient, 2011).
Behold And See As You Pass By An online exhibit on gravestones and mortuary art in Early New England drawn from the Association for Gravestones Studies Collections. By Molly Campbell (ETHIR recipient, 2011)	Uncertain Futures Science fiction readership in the Cold War and beyond. An exhibit by Morgan Hubbard.
Fifteen letters Conrad D. Totman’s letters home from Korea, 1954-1955. An exhibit by Alex McKenzie.	Du Bois: The Activist Life An online exhibit on the life and legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois based on his papers.
Herbals and Insects A selection of rare botanical and entomological books from the SCUA collections.	Apiculture and culture Books on bees and beekeeping. An exhibit by Richard A. Steinmetz.

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