New Stanford Libraries exhibition highlights rare artifacts important to faculty research
Scholars Select highlights rare books and artifacts held in Green Library collections that are valuable to the research of scholars at Stanford. Faculty members share their cherished item.
A 17th-century volume of William Shakespeare’s plays, a piano roll recorded by Claude Debussy and a 1959 edition of the Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans driving through the Jim Crow-era South, are among dozens of unique artifacts now on display at Stanford’s Green Library Bing Wing as part of a new exhibition.
Scholars Select: Special Collections in Action, which runs through April 14, highlights 36 rare books and other relics held in Green Library collections that are valuable to the research of scholars at Stanford. Each item was chosen by a Stanford researcher as the one artifact they would take to study if they were on a desert island.
The exhibition celebrates 100 years since the opening in July 1919 of Green Library’s building, known back then as Stanford’s Main Library. Over that time, the library’s collections have grown from 3,000 volumes in 1891 to about 12 million assets today.
Below are 12 Stanford faculty members with their chosen items in a series of portraits by University Photographer Linda A. Cicero. Click on each photo to read what the faculty member says about the cherished artifact.
