Mortimer Rare Book Room Programs & Services

The Mortimer Rare Book Room engages students and faculty in a variety of ways. The curators promote use of rare books and manuscripts by Smith College students, faculty, and other researchers through class lectures and individual consultation. Exhibitions of rare materials are always on view in the Book Arts Gallery and the Morgan Gallery in Neilson Library and frequently in other parts of campus, too.

The department also sponsors three occasional lectures: the Mortimer Lecture and the Salloch Lecture, both on various aspects of the history of the book, and the McGrath Lecture on printing and the book arts. The curators offer presentations in many fields to classes visiting from the Five Colleges and beyond, and teach regularly scheduled full-credit and interterm courses based on the collections. The curators also travel to meetings of Smith Clubs across the country. Find out about instruction in the Rare Book Room here.

Martin Antonetti, Curator of Rare Books,  
lecturing on gothic letterforms.