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."

Past Exhibits

Behind the Scenes at a Presidential Inauguration Very few but those intimately involved in the planning process realize how much work goes into planning the inauguration of a college president. This exhibit provided you with examples of that planning process, as well as some of its exciting results in order to celebrate our fifteenth president, Dr. Donna Randall.

The Changing Face of Campus This exhibit illustrated the ever-changing face of the Albion College campus. It included original documents, ephemera, artifacts, newspaper clippings, and photographs relating to Robinson Hall, Dickie Hall, and buildings no longer on campus, including the Bell House, McMillan Chemical and Epworth Physical Laboratories, and the original Eat Shop, Gymnasium and Greek houses. A special addition to the exhibit, thanks to a then-recent discovery under the steps of Baldwin, was a look into the “Keller,” then and now.