Bryn Mawr College Special Collections

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Bryn Mawr College Special Collections

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Bryn Mawr College Library's Special Collections takes care of the rare books, manuscripts, artwork, artifacts, and anthropological collections that belong to the College. The Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Libraries support acquisitions, exhibitions, lectures, conservation, and other library projects overseen by Special Collections.

06/16/2026

Hello again! It is us, the FOL interns, back with another week of hard work. This was our first week helping with Rare Books and Manuscripts alongside Marianne Hansen and Janelle Rebel. This week we worked with the Rare Books and Children’s Books Collections. We moved some of the smallest and biggest books in our collection, from the tiny History of the Bible to the mighty American Edition of Boydell’s Illustrations of Shakespeare. We spent most of our time cleaning and shifting hundreds of our largest books, moving them to more efficient storage to make space for other books. Here are some photos that show our process!

Throughout the week, we also helped protect damaged books by measuring them for custom archival boxes which will be ordered and come in over the summer. Next week we will continue our work with the Rare Books Collection. Stay tuned!

06/09/2026

Hi! We are Sam and Sophia, the Friends of the Libraries Interns for Summer ‘26. Over the next eight weeks, we will be working with different staff in Special Collections in two-week rotations to help with various projects. We’re excited to show you our work this summer, starting with our first week working with Carrie Robbins and Maya Frydman on the Art & Artifacts Collection!

We focused on the Campus Art Lending Program for faculty and staff, which facilitates requests from the Circulating Art Loan Collection for offices around campus. A lot of work goes into making that happen! We assisted with many parts of the process: we equipped a frame shop with new functional furniture (that we built!), inventoried a new art donation from an alum, streamlined metadata, and even helped hang some requested pieces. We’ll be back in a few weeks to continue with this project. Next week, we’re headed to work with the Rare Books team. See you there!

06/04/2026

This summer Bryn Mawr Special Collections is moving our archaeological collections with the help of Theo Mullen and his dedicated crew .fas. 📦 Here are some behind-the-scenes snapshots of week 1 from our Collections Manager of Art & Artifacts . 📸

1-2 Extra care and packing needed for this South-Italian red-figure krater (mixing bowl) and Attic red-figure pelike (storage vessel)

3-4 Textile box making and packing with Theo and Adam

5-6 A variety of small pots before padding is added to the boxes

05/28/2026

Are you going to be at Reunion? Tomorrow (Friday 5/29) from 2-4pm join us in the Seminar Room (Canaday Library 205) for Show & Tell with Special Collections! Stop by to interact with materials from across our collections and chat with Special Collections staff!

While you’re here, you can also check out some of our exhibitions! Exhibitions are listed below, but you can find out more about our current exhibitions here: https://www.brynmawr.edu/about-college/special-collections/exhibitions-events

Current exhibitions:

SAY IT! Poster Design & Graphic Messages
1912 Gallery (1st Floor Canaday Library)
Open Mon-Fri 10-4pm

Knitted, Knotted, Spun: The Textuality of Textiles
Canaday Library 2nd Floor
Open whenever Canaday is open

Voracious: Cycles of Consumption
Old Library, 1st Floor
Open whenever Old Library is open

05/15/2026

Special Collections is building a collection of cartoneras for use in classes beginning this fall. Cartoneras are small hand-made books, inexpensively produced, and distributed by non-profit publishers or social or political groups to share literature, poetry, essays, etc. Cartoneras were first produced in Argentina in the early 2000s. They usually have covers made of recycled cardboard, often decorated by hand with paintings or collage. This “traditional” form may be altered or supplemented by the small independent groups and artists who make them - recent cartoneras are sometimes reminiscent of zines, artist’s books, poetry chapbooks, or other small press or personal publications.

Our collection includes books from Argentine, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Columbia, Canada, and the US.

05/06/2026

Congratulations to the winners of this year's Seymour Adelman Book Collector's competition! First prize goes to Piper Farmer '26 for "Old Weird Albion" - a collection of books about the imagined and imaginary Britain of the past. Second prize was won by Tallulah Stallvik '28 for a collection about popular rock music and musicians of the last 70 years. We loved both collections!

Read more about the contest - https://www.brynmawr.edu/inside/offices-services/library-information-technology-services/opportunities-students/seymour-adelman-book-collectors-prize. The contests is sponsored by the Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Libraries.

05/05/2026

You're invited to attend "Reading by Touch: Learning from Tactile Print" a virtual symposium on Thursday, May 14th.

Before the widespread adoption of Braille in the early twentieth century, blind and seeing readers were exposed to a variety of tactile writing systems: embossed or raised print, touch art, and tactile maps. This symposium brings together scholars, archivists and collectors to ask: how did blind communities envision their books in the past, and what can we learn from them in our present?

The symposium is completely free to attend, though registration is required.

See the full program and register: https://readingbytouch.com/

05/04/2026

UPDATE: Deadline to apply extended to Tuesday, May 12th.

Special Collections is hiring a summer graduate student assistant to help with cataloging 17th- through 21st-century rare, old, artist's books, and children's books in Special Collections. The position is part-time and open to Bryn Mawr graduate students who are interested in working with historical and cultural collections.

Find out more information about the position and apply by searching “find student jobs” on Workday, or by using this link: https://wd12.myworkday.com/brynmawr/d/inst/15$158872/9925$346.htmld

05/01/2026

Bryn Mawr College Special Collections is hiring a Collections Move Technician to support the move of more than 10,000 archeological objects this summer. Responsibilities include: supervising art movers, unpacking, inventorying, and using a collections management database.

The schedule for the position is 4 days a week from 9am – 4pm, and the position will run the months of June, July, and August 2026. The pay rate is $22/hr.

Application deadline is May 11th.

You can see full job description, qualifications, and apply using the link in our bio. http://brynmawr.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/External

04/29/2026

Have you had a chance to see Knitted, Knotted, Spun: The Textuality of Textiles? Stop by the 2nd floor of Canaday Library to view the exhibition for yourself. Knitted, Knotted, Spun will be up through the summer, but if you aren’t around this summer, make sure to check it out before you leave campus!

Knitted, Knotted, Spun: The Textuality of Textiles
March 19, 2026 through Summer 2026
Coombe Suite Case, 2nd floor Canaday Library

What if we thought of textiles as texts? What if we gave them the same authority and legitimacy we have afforded words and documents? When we focus on the roles and work of women to understand our families and neighbors, we need a different way of “reading.” How can we discern how textiles share histories, transmit cultural knowledge, build relationships, convey our love of family and community, and express political opinions?

Textiles, as much as words — and often together with words — are witnesses to history. From them we learn how the unrelenting and predominantly female labors of raising livestock and crops, picking, shearing, carding, spinning, weaving, sewing, darning, and knitting are not simply technologies of survival. They produce wrought and embodied expressions of meaning. We create — and must read — these textile “texts” not just with our eyes, but with our hands and our hearts.

Knitted, Knotted, Spun is curated by Marianne Hansen, Allison Mills, Janelle Rebel, and Carrie Robbins in honor of the Text & Textuality symposium. We thank the Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Libraries for supporting this exhibition.

Address

101 N Merion Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA
19010

Website

http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/speccoll/index.html, http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/fol.html

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