Libraries | Penn Today

two sets of arms over a hand-operated printing press, one set with gloved hands putting ink on a metal cylinder and the other placing a printing plate with an image of a tree without leaves on the flat surface in front of the cylinder

Creating an artist’s book at the Common Press

Artist-in-residence Katie Baldwin is printing a book she wrote and illustrated, inspired by a 400-plus-year-old volume in the Penn Libraries collection, sponsored by a residency with the Philadelphia Center for the Book.

Dot Porter (left) and Andrea Nunez hold a rare book on a table.

Curator Dot Porter on rebuilding rare books in a virtual space

The Penn Libraries curator describes the formulas and structural information used to redraft and visualize rare books in a virtual space.

More to explore on women in the American wilderness

Caroline Fearey Schimmel has spent 50 years as a book collector and bibliographer on women in the American wilderness whose contributions went unrecognized, both as creators of fictional and artistic works and as history makers.

Rebecca Mendelson poses outside the library in front of green bushes

From Buddhist temples to Penn Libraries

Rebecca Mendelson is wrapping up her first academic year in person in her new role managing the Libraries’ Japanese and Korean Collections.

Wind turbines in water, with a sunset in the background.

Talking energy at Penn

Energy Week 2022, hosted by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology, runs April 4-8. It includes student presentations, along with conversations about renewables, energy and the war in Ukraine, and much more.

An old and large book upside down on a table, being held by two sets of hands, one gloved, the other not. There are boxes and other materials all around.

Keepers of the cultural memory

In wartime, saving human lives is a top priority. But secondary considerations often include preserving the cultural heritage also under siege. Penn experts offer their thoughts as the situation in Ukraine continues to unfold.

People and Places at Penn: Winter solace

From the Class of 1923 Ice Skating Rink to La Casa Latina, four students speak to what motivates them through the season.

students looking at manuscripts in a penn libraries course

From the archives, a class on different communities of Jews in China

Kathryn Hellerstein created an opportunity for her first-year seminar students to study archival material from a collection donated to the Penn Libraries by her mentor, Israeli scholar Irene Eber.

Two hardcover books on a table, “AIDS: The Burden of History” and “AIDS: The Making of a Chronic Disease.”

Penn Libraries acquires the personal papers of historian and activist Elizabeth Fee

The papers of the pioneering historian and health advocate, who died in 2018, adds to the Libraries’ growing collection of materials charting the history of public health activism.

Penn Libraries receives major gift of rare photographic plates by Edward S. Curtis

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries has received a rare collection of 151 interpositive glass plates by photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952) from collector William H. Miller III. Appraised at $4.2 million, the gift to the Penn Libraries complements holdings across the University, making Penn a major center for research and work on Curtis, one of the most prolific American photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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