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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

Jazz and Media Studies through the Neumann Archive

May 13 - October 17, 2025
Conservatory Library

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

Children's Books as Mirrors of Society

May 22 - August 29, 2025
Terrell Main Library Exhibition Gallery

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

Measured Steps

May 23 - June 29, 2025
Conservatory Central Unit

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"

February 13 - March 21, 2025
Terrell Special Collections and Archives Reading Room

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 Pathways of Ashkenazi Sound

January 10 - May 09, 2025

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

Sounding Muslim in the early Americas

December 02 - December 11, 2024
Conservatory Library

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

Melville's Billy Budd at 100

November 17 - December 20, 2024
Terrell Special Collections and Archives Reading Room

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

Music of the British Isles 1609–2020

July 25 - July 28, 2024
Oberlin Conservatory Library

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

Toni Morrison in Music

December 11, 2023 - November 29, 2024
Conservatory Library

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?

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

April 14 - June 16, 2023
Oberlin College Libraries

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

Jewish Studies 50th Anniversary

October 28, 2022 - January 03, 2023

Terrell Library First Floor Gallery


Welcome to Aegina

Welcome to Aegina

September 01 - October 15, 2022

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

Overseas to Oberlin: A Global Mail Art Network

September 01 - December 31, 2022

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

Nancy Stark Smith (OC ’74): Her Life and Work

May 05 - July 11, 2022

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)

Kung Hsiang-Hsi 孔祥熙 (1880 – 1967, OC ’06)

April 20 - June 10, 2022

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

Electrifying Music Began Here

Ongoing
Bertram and Judith Kohl Building

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

Ongoing

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

Popular Protest in Post War Japan: The Antiwar Art of Shikoku Goro

Ongoing

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

Oberlin's Women: A Legacy of Leadership and Activism

Ongoing

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

Ongoing

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

A Storied People

Ongoing
Conservatory Library

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

Peace Posters Dialogue Project

Ongoing

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

Mary Church Terrell: An Original Oberlin Activist

Ongoing

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)

History of Carnegie Library (1908-2008)

Ongoing

A commemoration of the first one hundred years of the Carnegie Library building in Oberlin, Ohio.


The Oberlin Sanctuary Project

The Oberlin Sanctuary Project

Ongoing

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

Playing the Changes: The Life & Legacy of Milt Hinton

Ongoing

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

Oberlin's Namesake

Ongoing

Virtual exhibit on Oberlin’s namesake, John Frederick Oberlin, featuring College Archives objects, photographs, and video.


Ruth Hughes Collection of Artists' Books

Ruth Hughes Collection of Artists' Books

November 23, 2009 - June 04, 2010

Show and Bestow: The Ruth Hughes Collection of Artists’ Books. (Philadelphia, PA & Oberlin, OH, Nov. 2009-June 2010)