Exhibits
Rotating
"Behind the Scenes at a Presidential Inauguration" is the
newest exhibit from Special Collections, located in the lobby of the
Mudd Learning Center. Very few but those intimately involved in the
process realize how much work goes into pulling off a presidential
inauguration. "Behind the Scenes" provides a peek behind the curtain
into a few steps of the process, which consist of the formation of
committees, taking meetings and minutes, the creation of special
accompanying events and schedules, sending out invitations, writing
press releases and speeches, shaping scripts and floorplans, the receipt
of congratulatory documents from other schools and organizations, the
publication and dissemination of promotional materials, and choosing the
appropriate attire. Documents and artifacts are provided to illustrate
each step, including William W. Whitehouse's regalia, a letter to Albion
College from President Richard Nixon congratulating them on the
inauguration of Bernard T. Lomas, a script for the Peter T. Mitchell
inauguration, a newspaper commemorating the inauguration of John W.
Laird, and a number of other examples.
For more information on
Albion College presidents and principals, please see the online guide
compiled by Special Collections at
http://www.albion.edu/library/specialcollections/Histories/CollegePresidents/
 Currently on display on Mudd Level 3 outside of Special Collections is
"Images of Spring", an homage to birds, butterflies, flowers, and all things green! "Images of Spring" includes a number of
items from the college's rare books
collection, including Studer's Popular Ornithology (1881),
plates from Audubon's Birds of America, and Daniel McAlpine's
The Botanical Atlas (1884). Also on display is poetry from the
collection, including Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1882),
The Nature Poems of George Meredith (1898), and Poems by Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow (1864), in addition to much more. It might just help to put a little "spring"
back in your step!
Online
Virtual Historical Tour of Campus
Currier & Ives Darktown
Comics Lithographs
Judson Dwight Collins: First Methodist Missionary to China
Photo of the Month
Permanent
Madelon Stockwell Turner Memorial Room
 In 1909, Madelon Stockwell Turner, alumnus and
daughter of the first principal of Wesleyan Seminary, Albion's
predecessor, bequested funds to Albion College for a building named
after her mother and father. The result was the Charles Franklin and
Louisa Peabody Stockwell Memorial Library, built in 1938. As part of the
arrangement, the library had to exhibit the furniture from her parlor,
pictured here in the 1970s. The furniture now resides in Special
Collections, rooms 302 and 303 of the Mudd Learning Center, where the
temperature, light and humidity can be better controlled for the
preservation of the furniture and artifacts.
Marvin Vann, '40 Collection
On over seven thousand feet of film and four thousand slides, Marvin
Vann, Albion College Class of 1940, managed to document
the Lacandon way of life just as it was
beginning to feel the impact of globalization. The Lacandon are among
the four million people living today who speak the Mayan language. Lacandon
is one of some thirty Mayan languages. It is closely related to Yucatec
Mayan and Cholan Mayan, the language of the inscriptions of ancient Maya
cities. The film and slides provide a valuable baseline record for
gauging changes in Lacandon culture in response to the recent array of
new opportunities and pressures. The online exhibit provides a look into
some of the images in the collection, while the exhibit on site in the
lobby of the Mudd Learning Center includes artifacts from the
collection.
World War I Memorial
 In 1919 the Student
Senate at Albion College proposed a bronze plaque as a “fitting
memorial” to all Albion College students who had served during World War
I. In the words of the Pleiad, “this was not to be an ordinary
bronze tablet but rather a super structure of imposing dimensions having
about 500 names upon it and constructed to last through the ages.”
(December 10, 1919) Such a total required a plaque measuring 4 x 4 ˝
feet, framed in oak, and designed to be portable. This memorial was lost
in 1922 after a fire in Robinson Hall, where it had been displayed. It
was relocated in 2002 when a closet in the Observatory was cleaned out.
It was restored and now stands in the Mudd Learning Center across from
classroom 209/210.
Kurt Vonnegut Blackboard
The blackboard design was created by Kurt Vonnegut, based on
the storylines of famous authors, while on campus to present the
Elkin Isaac Symposium Keynote Lecture for 2002, entitled "How to get a
job like mine." |
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