Kathleen Smith

What do a Commodore ID Card, a piece of the Bicentennial Oak, a baseball signed by two-time national championship-winning head baseball coach Tim Corbin, and a video of the 2019 Carmichael Tower implosions all have in common? They are among more than 150 items that future generations will discover in a Vanderbilt time capsule to be opened in the year 2174. Read More

As part of Vanderbilt’s Sesquicentennial celebration, a time capsule will be placed in Kirkland Hall. All university community members are invited to submit a digital note about your aspirations for Vanderbilt’s future for possible inclusion in the new time capsule. Read More

This free exhibit is part of ongoing Sesquicentennial celebrations and features rare items from Heard Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives. Read More

University Archivist Kathleen Smith, University Librarian Jon Shaw and Vice Provost for Arts and Libraries Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting offer tips on how to design a time capsule of your own as they design one that will convey a message to the future university community. Read More

At Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, the three-dimensional history of the university is collected and lovingly maintained by the staff of Special Collections and University Archives. Their mission is to “preserve the historical memory of the university”—memory that is found in the objects that, by their survival, attest to a timeline grounded in the space between West End Avenue and 21st Avenue South. Read More

A campus survey is now available for the Vanderbilt community to make suggestions on what a new campus time capsule should contain. Ideas are now being collected to fill the shoe box–sized box with meaningful relics from life at Vanderbilt today.   Read More

A campus survey is now available for the Vanderbilt community to make suggestions on what the new time capsule should contain. Read More

Vanderbilt’s partnership with the National Museum of African American Music has moved forward with the university’s acquisition of a rich collection of photos, scrapbooks and more from the life and career of jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie. Read More

Rare photographs of the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., a pivotal figure in the history of the civil rights movement and Vanderbilt University, have been acquired by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Read More

Kathleen Smith, associate director of special collections for Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Library system, and her team occasionally find themselves on the receiving end of unique objects that have been passed along to the university, from vintage movie posters to—as in the case of items highlighted here—armaments and other war-themed matériel. Read More