Special Collections & University Archives Virtual Exhibitions and Displays

In 2001 the Donohue Rare Book featured the exhibition "Bibles and Biblical Literature" drawn from the collection. The exhibition featured prints, early printed books, and fine press materials.

In 2002 the Donohue Rare Book Room's Grace Hoper Press collection was featured in the Book Club of California exhibition "The Grace Hoper Press of Sherwood and Katharine Grover." The exhibition was drawn entirely from the Donohue Rare Book Room and featured a variety of printed books and archival materials including manuscripts, photographs, and original printing blocks.

In 2004 the Donohue Rare Book Room exhibited The Vico Collaboration, a typographic and photographic mediation on the work of the eighteenth-century philosopher, Giambattista Vico by Jack Stauffacher of The Greenwood Press and the photographer, Dennis Letbetter,

In 2004 the Donohue Rare Book Room featured the exhibition "The Peter Pauper Collection of Katheryn Fleming" which honored a recent gift to the Library by Don Fleming in memory of his wife, Katheryn Fleming.

In 2005, The Donohue Rare Book Room in collaboration with the Special Collections Department of Aubrey Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College hosted a joint exhibition of materials emanating from the circle of creative people associated with the Untide Press. Located on the Oregon coast, Waldport was the site of a civilian public service camp for conscientious objectors during World War II. Waldport became an important center of activity in the fine arts, marking the earliest collaborative efforts of several individuals who later earned substantial reputations as printers, poets, illustrators and designers. The exhibition featured rare and seminal artifacts by William Everson, Adrian Wilson, Kermit Sheets, William Eshelman, Glen Coffield and Kemper Nomland, among others.

In the fall of 2005, the Donohue Rare Book Room exhibition featured recent acquisitions to the collection. On display were a variety of materials highlighting various core areas of the collection: Eric Gill, fine printing, California book arts, wood engravings and illustrated books.

In the spring of 2006, the Donohue Rare Book Room featured the exhibition "Re-Imagining the City of San Francisco, 1905-1915." Drawing upon original source material from the collection, the exhibition presented artifacts of the earthquake and fire of 1906 in the context of “re-imagining” the City. Beginning with the Burnham Plan’s architectural vision for a redesigned San Francisco and concluding with the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915 in which San Francisco announced its comeback to the world, the exhibition considered the earthquake and fire not as a single catastrophic event but as one component in a greater period of imagining, rebuilding and re-conceiving the City.

In the fall of 2007, in observation of the Golden Anniversary of the Gleeson Library Associates, the Donohue Rare Book Room exhibited programs and keepsakes documenting the Associates fifty-year history at the University.

In conjunction with the dedication of Kalmanovitz Hall at the University of San Francisco in the fall of 2008, a sixteenth-century book from the Donohue Rare Book Room was featured in an exhibit showing the Jesuit history and presence at USF over the years. Read more in our blog post about this exhibition.

The books and prints are drawn from the permanent collections of the Donohue Rare Book Room of the Gleeson Library. The exhibition was held in conjunction with the colloquium “The Passion of Achilles: Reflections on the Classical and Medieval Epic” sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Francisco, October 1-2, 2008. The books on display are cataloged in Ignacio, the online catalog, and are available to students, faculty and researchers who wish to use them.

"Artistry and Artifacts: Highlights from the Donohue Rare Book Room Collections" is an exhibition of core areas of the Gleeson Library’s special collections. Materials range from the Sir Thomas More Collection to twentieth-century fine press books. The exhibition, held during the spring of 2009, included fine bindings, private press books, manuscripts, wood engravings, illustrated books, and original printing blocks.
The materials in the exhibition are from the permanent collection of the Donohue Rare Book where they are available to students, faculty and library users who wish to access them.

From September 10 though October 30, 2009 the Donohue Rare Book Room hosted the exhibition "Fine Design Bindings & Artists' Books," the 37th Annual Members' Exhibition of the Hand Bookbinders of California. The exhibition featured over thirty-five books submitted by contemporary bookbinders from throughout the country. The books on display ranged from traditional design leather bindings to unusual book structures and artists’ books. Read more in our blog post about this exhibition.

In the fall of 2009, the Rare Book Room exhibited material from the Albert Sperisen Collection of Eric Gill in conjunction with the exhibition "Eric Gill, Iconographer: Engravings From The Albert Sperisen Collection" held in the Gleeson Library's Thacher Gallery of Art. The exhibition in the Rare Book Room complemented the Thacher Gallery exhibition by presenting a closer look at other unique and published materials from the Rare Book Room's Eric Gill collection.

In the spring of 2010, the Donohue Rare Book Room featured an exhibition of the Pennyroyal Press edition of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" with wood engravings by Barry Moser.

In the spring of 2011, the Donohue Rare Book Room exhibition Two Recent Acquisitions" highlighted a couple additions to the collection: Moth and Bonelight, a book of poetry by Steven Brown with platinum prints by the photographer Jerry Uelsmann; and a facsimile edition of Arthur Szyk's Haggadah. Read more in our blog post about this exhibition.

In the April 2011 students from the Museum Studies I course at the University of San Francisco curated an exhibition documenting aspects of of the printed book drawing upon the rich collections of the Donohue Rare Book Room.

On exhibition in the Donohue Rare Book Room in the fall of 2012 were over eighty volumes from the Rare Book Room’s Dr. M. Wallace Freidman Collection of L. Frank Baum and Oziana. L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) wrote over thirty-eight children’s books, the most famous of which The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900 and later was made into a motion picture by MGM in 1939. Baum went on to write fourteen books in the series. Following his death, the series was continued by Ruth Plumbly Thompson. Baum also wrote several non-Oz titles, including Mother Goose in Prose (1897), The Master Key (1901), Phoebe Daring (1912), The Sea Fairies (1911) and Sky Island (1912) among others. The exhibition brought together a selection of Baum’s work, showing the breadth of his life’s work and a range of illustration by such figures as Maxfield Parish, W.W. Denslow and John R. Neill.

In 2012 the Donohue Rare Book exhibited selected prints from its recent acquisition "California Native Wildflowers" a collection of color linocuts by the San Francisco printer, Henry Evans.

In the Fall of 2012 the Donohue Rare Book Room exhibited its copy of Walls (Quail Press, 1990) along with the artist's archive for that project. In addition to original watercolors and woodcut blocks used in the production of the book, the exhibition also included several cases showing the Tom Killion's technique of printing from multiple relief blocks.

In the 2012 fall semester, USF history major Aidi Ma interned in the Rare Book Room and created a comprehensive guide to the rare book materials relating to East Asia. Featured here are some selections that he identified in the collection.

In November 2012 the Donohue Rare Book Room exhibited an archive of original line drawings by the illustrator, Valenti Angelo (1897-1982). The drawings are from the book Welcome Christmas! by Anne Thaxter Eaton. Also included in the exhibition were other Christmas and religious materials designed and printed by Valenti Angelo.

"Poetic and literary works possess the power to stir readers' imaginations and transport them to other times, places, and lives. These volumes convey themes central to the human experience - love, violence, injustice, hope, reinvention - often calling upon a collective sense of memory to create bridges between author and reader... These volumes help transport readers into constructed memories more or less tethered to their own realities. The visual aspects of these poetic and literary works brighten the experience." - "Poetic & Literary Worlds," Unbound exhibit text, 2013