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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · 12h

Register for the event here: at.virginia.edu/visions-cata...

Public unveiling of the catalog Visions of Progress: Portraits of Dignity, Style, and Racial Uplift, with Dr. John Edwin Mason.

at.virginia.edu

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · 12h

Join the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, @johnedwinmason.bsky.social, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and @uvalibrary.bsky.social in revisiting these beautiful portraits during the exhibition catalog launch celebration October 25, 3-5pm @ JMRL’s Swanson Room!

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · 12h

New on our blog: Senior Imaging Specialist Stacey Evans reflects on the process of re-digitizing African American portraits in the Holsinger Studio Collection for our 2022-23 Visions of Progress: exhibition. Read her post here: smallnotes.library.virginia.edu/2025/10/21/h....

A screenshot from working with Capture One software showing a 4”x5” black-and-white film target and object, content, and speculative artist’s intent versions of two plates featuring African American women.

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · 21d

Thanks to Abigail for sharing the joy of working with archival materials with others!

Interested in seeing these items and more like them yourself? Plan your own visit with our handy new LibGuide:

guides.lib.virginia.edu/speccoll/home.

LibGuides: Visiting Special Collections: Home

guides.lib.virginia.edu

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · 21d

Repost from @/abigailenjoysliterature on TikTok: “to this day, still one of the best days ever. this was one of the highlights of grad school. i yearn for access to special collections again oh my god. what’s the coolest book related artifact you’ve seen?? #reading #BookTok #literature #reader #fyp”

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Reposted by Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Scholars' Lab @scholarslab.bsky.social · Sep 19

"P is for Point Clouds" exhibit is up in our Common Room! These aren't 3D models—they're clouds of tons of tiny points of measured, preservation-level accurate 3D data. 5 local historical locations including the Pine Grove Rosenwald School=explorable in VR, or as flythrus on our display or online +

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Reposted by Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 25d

"Z is for Zines" exhibit I curated w/ @rareuva.bsky.social help. As a librarian, zines=I can amplify more authors/experiences/topics our community cares about+needs than via just books; especially work where racism, transphobia+more violence+systematic harm=barriers to author, publish, widely share+

Photo of a museum exhibit glass case on wooden legs, displaying 5 zines with written information about each, under a colorful large sign that explains the miniexhibit about zines: "People often picture zines similar to their 20th-century origins as free collaged and xeroxed paper booklets about subcultures, including punk music and the Riot grrrl movement; fandoms, including for mid-century sci fi; social justice and marginalized experiences; or their earliest precursors, especially the Harlem Renaissance's little magazines." Today, creators make "zines" that vary widely in how they look and what they contain—but most zines stay true to the form's original vision: radically low-barrier authoring, publication, dissemination, and reading.
This exhibit showcases a slice of that variety: zines are less about the visible object and more about a DIY (do-it-yourself) ethos of no-gatekeeping making and sharing art, information, and knowledge. The examples in this case are just a few of the many ways zines can look. Despite their differences, what similarities do you notice?
My favorite thing about zines and why I think they are important, especially in this moment-is how accessible they can be. Anyone with access to paper and a pen can make a zine and circulate it without dealing with a publisher's gatekeeping. Zines don't need to look good to be effective-there are great zines that are just scrawly penned thoughts on white paper! So many zines are free, in a world where most things (including knowledge!) cost money.
As part of the UVA Library's mission to make information accessible to all, zines provide a low- or no-cost way to author and spread knowledge and creativity, which is why we host a public zine distro, plan zine-making workshops and events, and archive campus zines..."

Photo of a museum exhibit sign that explains the miniexhibit about zines:l. Sign text continued from previous image alt text: "As a librarian, free zines mean I can display authors and topics from our public space amplifying more authors, more experiences, and more topics our community cares about or needs to know than we can with just books- especially where racism, transphobia, and other violence and systematic disenfranchisement make it hard for people to author, publish, and widely share in book form."

Closeup photo of a museum glass display case of 5 paper zines and exhibit labels explaining each

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Reposted by Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Rosie @rarebookrosie.bsky.social · 29d

In the American Civil Wars class visiting Special Collections today, students were greatly intrigued by a new acquisition: the James Thomas Watt Hairston Civil War prison ledger.
archives.lib.virginia.edu/repositories...

“Mrs. Van Lew, postmistress of Richmond, and a great friend of the prisoners.”

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Reposted by Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

University of Virginia Library @uvalibrary.bsky.social · Sep 17

New exhibition—the ABCs of the UVA Library!
From Artists' Books to Zines, with 24 stops in between. (Actually more, as the article notes)
This evening's event is a sold out full house, but the exhibition will be up for the academic year at @rareuva.bsky.social (with outposts in other libraries)

Exploring the ABCs of the UVA Library

A yearlong exhibition showcases nearly 200 items, spotlighting rare books, artifacts and surprising objects from the collection.

news.virginia.edu

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Reposted by Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Scholars' Lab @scholarslab.bsky.social · Sep 12

The A-Z exhibits include 2 from the lab: "P is for Point-Cloud Data" by Will Rourk & @arinbb.bsky.social (on 3D captures of historic artifacts+architecture); and "Z is for Zines" by @literaturegeek.bsky.social

Poster graphic by Jeff Hill that says "ABCs of the UVA Library" with a colorful grid of squares behind each letter of the alphabet, with each letter decorated with something referring to the exhibits associated with that letter, such as a z-folded zine image on the letter Z

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jul 21

"A Discovery and an Eclipse: Langston Hughes’ Rise to Fame": In a new post on our blog, Curator George Riser highlights a set of poems addressed from Langston Hughes to Vachel Lindsay—whose endorsement contributed to Hughes' rise in acclaim as a poet.

smallnotes.library.virginia.edu/2025/07/21/a...

Typed copy of "The Weary Blues” signed and inscribed by Langston Hughes: “For Vachel Lindsay, whose poetry I much admire, these jazz poems of mine.” Lindsay writes below Hughes’ signature, “This is to certify I think these five poems are poetry.”

News page clipping featuring photo captioned "Langston Hughes, Washington's Bus Boy Poet"

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 30

Take this opportunity to print your own copy of the Declaration on the University's replica “Franklin” press. Then, walk downstairs to the Declaring Independence exhibit and see 1 of the 2 copies of the original Dunlap Broadside, part of the Albert H. Small Declaration of Independence Collection.

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 30

Approximately 200 copies were printed by young Philadelphia printer John Dunlap the night the Second Continental Congress ratified the words of Thomas Jefferson. The challenge of setting into type and printing this important document is often overlooked.

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 30

Join printer Josef Beery as he recreates the first printing of the Declaration of Independence in the South Gallery of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library on Thursday, July 3, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. No tickets required!

"Print your own copy of the Declaration of Independence with Josef Beery. South Gallery. Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Thursday, July 3, 2025. 1:00-3:00 p.m. University of Virginia Library." Graphic features a photo of Beery spreading ink on a printing plate and a photo of a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 27

Gifts Sent to President Teresa Sullivan (RG-2/1/8.122), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 27

Sullivan was reinstated just two weeks later. A full timeline via Virginia Magazine:
uvamagazine.org/articles/tim...

Timeline: Teresa Sullivan’s Resignation and Reinstatement

A comprehensive timeline of the events of June 2012 at UVA.

uvamagazine.org

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 27

We would congratulate you on your continued tenure @ UVA. You are a class act! One we wish we knew! Peace.”

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 27

Postage was placed on the insole, and the shoe mailed without any packaging on July 2, 2012. The inscription on the shoe reads: “Dear Dr. Sullivan – If only we could click our Red Ruby slippers together and make our way to Charlottesville we would!!! …

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 27

On June 9, 2012, UVA’s first female president, Teresa Sullivan, was controversially fired by the Board of Visitors. The President’s Office received hundreds of letters of support—none was more unusual than this red shoe, sent by the Reverends Mary and Milton Cole from Des Moines, Iowa.

Red shoe covered with words written in black marker.

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 24

Michael Laurie, White Fire (London: Quality Press, Ltd., 1949). (PR6023.A87 W5 1949)

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 24

Curator Yuki Hibben, who facilitated this recent acquisition, says, “As an object, the book is a beautiful and evocative work of art. The author expresses his tenderness and devotion to his beloved through the material qualities of the book.”

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 24

Written during a time when homosexuality was still illegal, the story and the book itself embody enduring love despite discriminatory social conditions. #QueerHistory #PrideMonth

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 24

Although printed on cheap paper and published by a little-known firm, this book was elevated with a full teal morocco binding, gilt lettering and edges, marbled endpapers, and hand-drawn motifs throughout.

Book open to title page of White Fire, featuring hand-drawn embellishments and leaf motifs in red. A J. M. monogram in red has been pasted to the blank facing page.

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Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library @rareuva.bsky.social · Jun 24

One of just eight known copies in the world, this lovingly adorned copy of White Fire, a story about gay male love, was gifted by its author Michael Laurie (likely a pseudonym) to his lover, Julian—whose likeness is captured in an intimate pencil and white gouache portrait drawn by Michael.

Pencil and white gouache portrait of a young man, bordered in red and silver and initialed at lower right.

Dedication written in green ink: "For my Julian — without whom there would have been no White Fire: but with whom, all things are possible — from the author. ‘Oh boy whom I love, I will carry you with me in my flight!’ — Gide. Richmond Hill 25/viii/49.”

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Reposted by Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Daniel Bachman @danielbachman.bsky.social · Jun 19

Happy Juneteenth! Here in Virginia we traditionally celebrate Emancipation Day in April, on the 3, the day Richmond fell, & on the 9, the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Check out my short piece here. @rareuva.bsky.social

Juneteenth in Virginia: Keeping the Celebration Going

Juneteenth in Virginia: Keeping the Celebration Going

Visit the post for more.

smallnotes.library.virginia.edu

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