Exhibit on the Third Floor of Hillman Library of Japanese Woodblock Prints

Exhibits

You can see materials from Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) on display in several locations, including exhibit cases on the third floor of Hillman Library, the second-floor lobby at Thomas Boulevard, sometimes on the Ground Floor of Hillman Library, and numerous places around campus! We also periodically present pop-up displays of material in Hillman, and have a digital wall display outside our reading room on the third floor. All our exhibits are free and open to the public, so stop by and check them out! For more information on these and past exhibits, as well as how to work with us, visit our Archives & Special Collections Exhibits LibGuide.

Current exhibits on the third floor of Hillman Library

A Century of Mobilizing for Reproductive Care is curated by students enrolled in GSWS 2240: Reproduction, Fall 2022, taught by Dr. Rachel Kranson. This exhibition traces public conversations over reproductive health as they played out locally, nationally, and transnationally over the course of the twentieth century using materials from the Planned Parenthood Center of Pittsburgh Records.

Materials on display in this exhibit will rotate periodically while the August Wilson Archive is being processed by Archives & Special Collections staff. Currently we are highlighting materials relating to Wilson’s Seven Guitars, which included Keith David and Viola Davis in the cast.

This exhibition explores the life and art of Andrey Avinoff (1884-1949), the émigré artist, scientist, professor, and museum director whose scholarly rigor and flamboyant creativity left an indelible mark on Pittsburgh’s cultural landscape. Curated by students in our Museum Studies program, this exhibition is the 12th annual exhibition develop through the work of students in the Department of History of Art & Architecture’s Curatorial Development and Exhibition Presentation classes. Presented in collaboration with the University Art Gallery, the exhibition will span displays at the University Art Gallery and the Hillman Library.

September 18-24, 2022 is Banned Books Week in the United States. It brings awareness to current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. While many historians point to the ban of pro-abolitionist literature during the Civil War as the first major attempts to ban books nationally, the practice continues into the twenty-first century. This small display features books from Archives & Special Collections at the University of Pittsburgh Library System which have been banned or challenged at one point over the past nearly 100 years.

Showcases the work of University of Pittsburgh alumna ('71) and New York Times bestselling author Bebe Moore Campbell. It highlights Campbell's professional life with a specific focus on the creative and administrative process of publishing in the late 20th and early 21st century. Included are drafts and revisions of her writings, a writer's journal, awards bestowed on her by the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College Los Angeles Chapter and the League of African Women, as well as a copy of her novel What You Owe Me signed by the author to Hillman Library.

This exhibition examines revolutionary political movements during a period in which artists and writers increasingly promoted cultural and political ideas in print media. Latin American culture magazines, poster portfolios, and catalogues from ULS collections demonstrate how artists and intellectuals articulated their commitments to revolutionary politics and built support for these efforts. 

The Mitteleuropa: The Lands Between, 1626-1925 exhibit traces the geographic evolution of “Middle Europe” from the mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. It uses cartographic and published print sources along with musical instruments and an archival collection to illustrate the social, political, and cultural development of the region from the early-modern period to the 1920s. As large numbers of immigrants from “the lands between” settled in Pittsburgh during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the University Library System has long made collecting materials about the region a priority.

This exhibit is organized around one central artists’ book, But they did not know that the books were already in our head, by Becky Slemmons, faculty in the Department of Studio Arts. Together, Kate Joranson, Head of the Frick Fine Arts Library, and Becky Slemmons selected 5 companions for Slemmons’ book.  

The Art of Noh: Woodblock Prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo showcases reproductions of a spectacular series of Japanese color woodblock prints by the artist Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927). They are inspired by Noh, a theater form that originated in Japan in the fourteenth century, and represent a wide variety of performers as well as demons and ghosts.

Thanks to the generous donation of Pitt alumni Barry and Elizabeth Rosensteel, this collection is now home to 300 Ukiyo-e woodblock prints. This exhibit presents a series of prints by famous Edo period artists such as Utagawa, Ichirakutei, Katsukawa, and Totoya depicting portraits of Kabuki actors (yakusha-e) and women (bijinga). It also includes a set of privately published prints (sumimono), which were popular among wealthy merchants.

Selections from the George A. Romero Archival Collection features props, publicity, and production materials from across the career of George A. Romero, an independent horror filmmaker best known for Night of the Living Dead. Materials document both some of his most famous films as well as unrealized projects.

A poet of social protest and the leader of the Afro-Cuban / Afro-Antillean movement throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989) is known as the National Poet of Cuba. An agent for social change and a champion of Afro-Cuban people and culture, his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. Recognized as the most influential Latin American poet, he traveled widely visiting Venezuela (1945), Haiti (1949), Colombia, Peru, Chile (1946), Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay (1947), Angola (1978), Soviet Union (1960). All materials on display are from the Alberto Britos Serrat Scrapbook on Nicolás Guillén Visit to Uruguay, SC.2021.12, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh. The collection is in Spanish and fully digitized.

While on the third floor, check out our digital wall of interactive exhibits!

  • The Art of Noh Woodblock Print by Tsukioka Kōgyo
  • Skyscraper University: A Timeline of the Cathedral of Learning
  • Borges and Gómez de la Serna in Buenos Aires: Avant garde explorations about literature and tradition (1921-1951)
  • Get with the Program: A guide to Musical Analysis and Storytelling, including Archival Comparisons
  • “My Old Kentucky Home”: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song
  • The Everchanging Life of Latin

View our other exhibits in Hillman and around campus!

  • George A. Romero, Movie Posters – Hillman Library, Ground Floor Main Hallway
  • Erroll Garner & Martha Glaser – William Pitt Union, Ground Floor, International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame
  • Thomas G. Masaryk Papers, 1918-1938 – Posvar Hall, Global Hub Display Cases

Explore our digital exhibits

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Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) - Who We Are

A&SC at Hillman Library
320 Hillman Library
University of Pittsburgh
3960 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-648-8190

A&SC at the Archives Service Center
7500 Thomas Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
412-648-3232

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Close-up photo of the interactive exhibit wall on the third floor of Hillman Library

Close up of someone using a stylus on the interactive wall