New items now on display in our mini-exhibition, “From Our Collections…”
If you have not visited the M.D. Anderson Library recently, you should know that right now we have quite a bit we would like to show you.
Here at the University of Houston Special Collections we continue to shine light on the fruits of research’s labor. Our mini-exhibition, “From Our Collections…” is currently featuring a rotation of three new works that may be viewed at the entrance to Special Collections in the Aristotle J. Economon, Hanneke Faber & Andrew J. Economon Elevator Lobby exhibit space on the second floor. Now highlighting the breadth and variety of research potential contained in our collections are the following:
Breaking ground on the “World’s First Air Conditioned Domed Stadium” using Colt .45 pistols in lieu of the more traditional golden shovels (1962, from the George Kirksey Papers), featured on the cover of James Gast’s The Astrodome: Building an American Spectacle.
Incredible Tretchikoff: Life of an Artist and Adventurer, Boris Gorelik (2013); featuring research from the Cruiser Houston Collection.
The Other Great Migration: The Movement of Rural African Americans to Houston, 1900-1941, Bernadette Pruitt (2013); featuring research from the Oral Histories – Houston History Project.
The Astrodome: Building an American Spectacle, James Gast (2014); featuring research from the George Kirksey Papers.
In addition, Pat Bozeman’s exhibit, “1914-2014: Commemorating One Hundred Years — World War I,” continues it’s run at the foot of the Morrie & Rolaine Abramson Grand Staircase on the first floor of the M.D. Anderson Library. Timed in part to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the armistice, the exhibit features maps, poetry, prose, and propaganda representing a number of the Great War’s belligerent nations.
Also on the first floor you can find the celebrated “Nina Vance and The Alley Theatre: A Life’s Work,” a collaborative curatorial effort carried out by our own Stacey Lavender along with Catherine Essinger, Librarian for UH’s Architecture & Art Library. The exhibit chronicles the people, plays, and places that have made the Alley Theatre what it is today.
Finally, if you have visited us before here on the second floor, you have no doubt experienced our USS Houston permanent exhibition. Pulling letters, photographs, artifacts, and more from our popular Cruiser Houston Collection, the exhibit illustrates the long peacetime and wartime history of a ship that earned the nickname the “Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast” and the sailors who served on her.
But wait, there’s more! Can’t make the trip to campus? I’d be remiss if I failed to mention our growing list of online exhibitions, open 24/7, 365 days a year. A couple of my favorites are UH Homecoming Through the Years, where curators Matt Richardson and Sara Craig draw from our rich University Archives to tell the story of our homecoming traditions, and From American Football to ZZ Top: A History of Robertson Stadium, that highlights the history of the 70 year old stadium that was demolished in 2012 to make way for the new TDECU Stadium.
More information regarding our exhibits, past and present, can be found online here. Hope to see you soon!