The work of the Oberlin College Libraries extends beyond matching students and faculty with the resources they need for teaching and research.
Our staff use the Libraries' collections to create original scholarship and exhibitions that further tell the story of Oberlin. Explore the following exhibitions, many available online, to learn more about the rich materials and history of Oberlin College and Conservatory.
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Jazz and Media Studies through the Neumann Archive
Ten seminar participants interpret archival holdings from the Neumann jazz collection, including nightclub noisemakers, an inscribed silk scarf, and manuscript music. Topics include the Cotton Club, jazz and propaganda, bossa nova, and jazz careers.
Children's Books as Mirrors of Society
Curated selections from the Children's Book Collection explore how children’s books and their content reflect changing social attitudes towards children and their place in society from the 18th to 20th centuries.
Measured Steps
In the long eighteenth century, dance moved across media, from courtly choreographies to rustic genre scenes. Selections from special and circulating collections show how music, movement, and print found expression together.
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From "Her smile so soft, her heart so kind" to "Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians"
From Oberlin College Archives and Special Collections, this exhibit features love through three centuries of mementos, letters, photographs, and even several locks of human hair.
Early Pathways of Ashkenazi Sound
Early print sources of Hebrew chant include a 1524 grammar by Münster and psalm settings by Marcello from the 1820s. Both reflect Ashkenazi tradition and are complemented by many later works in the Conservatory Library.
Sounding Muslim in the early Americas
An exhibit of Transatlantic string instruments, scores, books, and prints to accompany the Oberlin performance of Omar. The opera by Rhiannon Giddens ’00 and Michael Abels was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Melville's Billy Budd at 100
Oberlin College Libraries presents an exhibition commemorating the centenary of an American literary classic: Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd.
Music of the British Isles 1609–2020
Letters, prints, sound recordings, scores, and books exhibited for participants in the twentieth anniversary conference of the North American British Music Studies Association.
Toni Morrison in Music
Milt Hinton’s inscribed personal copy of Morrison’s novel Jazz (1992), awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, is shown alongside musical adaptations of Morrison’s Beloved (1987) by composer Richard Danielpour ’78 and mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves ’85.
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
This three-part exhibition at Terrell Main Library, Oberlin College Archives, and the Conservatory Library presents letters, concert ephemera, campus publications, scores, and sound recordings related to the folk music scene at Oberlin 1953–1972.
Jewish Studies 50th Anniversary
Terrell Library First Floor Gallery
Welcome to Aegina
Welcome to Aegina celebrates the wooden scale model of the Temple of Aphaia made by Jeanne E. Quinn (OC '88) and the history that inspired it.
Overseas to Oberlin: A Global Mail Art Network
Features examples of the Clarence Ward Art Library's mail art collection. It was student-curated by Carolyn Liebovich '22, Melody Rice '22.
Nancy Stark Smith (OC ’74): Her Life and Work
Part of Critical Mass: CI @ 50, (July 7-11, 2022), you are invited to look, listen, read, relax, roll, and dance with kinesthetic principles.
Kung Hsiang-Hsi 孔祥熙 (1880 – 1967, OC ’06)
Celebrate AAPI heritage month with Chinese artifacts donated by Hsiang-Hsi Kung, 孔祥熙, ’06 in the pop-up exhibits area, Terrell Main Library.
Electrifying Music Began Here
An exhibition of early electronic musical instruments, curated by Roderic Knight, Professor of Ethnomusicology, emeritus.
Art in the Archives of Oberlin College
Art in the Archives of Oberlin College showcases historically significant visual works with deep stories informing Oberlin’s rich history.
Popular Protest in Post War Japan: The Antiwar Art of Shikoku Goro
This exhibit explores the vibrant grassroots artistic culture of Hiroshima, known as the atomic bombed city.
Oberlin's Women: A Legacy of Leadership and Activism
An exploration and celebration of the lives and work of Oberlin alumnae, starting with their efforts to achieve the passage of the 19th amendment.
Out of the Box
Out of the Box is a semi-permanent exhibit of historical objects in the Oberlin College Archives reading room. See the exhibition catalogue.
A Storied People
Oral history interviews (2017–18), sound recordings, and sheet music related to Romani musicians in northeast Ohio, and Romani music donated by Hungarian-Slovak Romani violinist George Batyi (b. 1959).
Peace Posters Dialogue Project
The brainchild of Prof. Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, this site provides a forum for an international exchange of ideas about peace through visual imagery
Mary Church Terrell: An Original Oberlin Activist
Materials from the Oberlin College Archives explore the life and work of renowned educator, writer, lecturer, suffragist, and civil rights leader.
History of Carnegie Library (1908-2008)
A commemoration of the first one hundred years of the Carnegie Library building in Oberlin, Ohio.
The Oberlin Sanctuary Project
The Oberlin Sanctuary Project, with student, faculty, staff, and community partners, explores what it means to be a sanctuary campus or community.
Playing the Changes: The Life & Legacy of Milt Hinton
An exhibition on the life and legacy of jazz legend and photographer Milt Hinton, one of the 20th century's most accomplished bass players.
Oberlin's Namesake
Virtual exhibit on Oberlin’s namesake, John Frederick Oberlin, featuring College Archives objects, photographs, and video.
Ruth Hughes Collection of Artists' Books
Show and Bestow: The Ruth Hughes Collection of Artists’ Books. (Philadelphia, PA & Oberlin, OH, Nov. 2009-June 2010)