This exhibition features a wide range of books and artifacts hand-selected by members of the library staff and by students in Martin Antonetti’s fall-semester class, Art and History of the Book. Zoe Mindell ’08, a student assistant in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, came up with the idea for the exhibition while talking to some friends about her work. She realized many students at Smith remain unacquainted with the collection, a treasure-trove of first editions, manuscripts, and unique objects, dating from medieval Europe to modern America. This exhibition showcases some of these treasures, including a selection of artists books, a 14th-century manuscript, a typed letter signed by Albert Einstein, and a hand-printed edition of Virginia Woolf’s Kew Gardens. Mindell hopes the exhibition will give students an idea of the impressive holdings she has been privileged to work with every day.

Woodcut by Lynd Ward from his graphic novel Wild Pilgrimage, published in New York in 1932.
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