Kathy Smith

Since her appointment last September as the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ first curator of community histories, Sarah Calise has been steadily expanding Vanderbilt’s LGBTQ+ collections. The process has been equal parts nuts-and-bolts archival work—assessing, collecting, organizing and preserving historical items that document the LGBTQ+ experience in Nashville and Middle Tennessee—and dedicated relationship building. Read More

Embarking on a new research project often brings unexpected discoveries—some intriguing, some novel, but rarely a find of a lifetime. Such a remarkable discovery occurred when university archivist and associate director Kathy Smith stumbled upon a pile of plaster, hidden away for 60 years in a dim, cluttered closet of the Branscomb Quad basement. This plaster turned out to be the long-lost Crampton’s Plesiosaur Cast from the 1870s, missing for nearly six decades. Read More

Research projects investigating the history of evolution at Vanderbilt University led to the rediscovery of a long-lost Crampton’s Plesiosaur Cast from the 1870s. Read More

As part of Vanderbilt University’s ongoing Sesquicentennial celebration, the university created and distributed a free commemorative V150 coffee table book chronicling its rich history to over 1,000 staff and faculty members on Dec. 15 and Dec. 18. Due to the response to the initial distribution, the university is excited to announce a second opportunity for faculty and staff to obtain their complimentary copy on Jan. 18. Read More

Vanderbilt Law School professor Daniel Sharfstein will host a conversation with the National Trail of Tears Association’s Tory Wayne Poteete and the Oklahoma Historical Society’s Charles Tate on Thursday, Sept. 21, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Central Library Community Room. They will discuss research that contributed to Cherokee and Chickasaw Students at Vanderbilt, 1885–1899, an exhibit on display at Central Library through Sept. 29. Read More

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier lauded university staff and the “milestone achievements” they helped accomplish this semester during the 2023 Spring Staff Assembly. Read More

The pioneering roles of two Vanderbilt alumnae in the music and publishing fields—Marshall Chapman and Mildred Haun—are highlighted in exhibitions at the university’s Central Library. Read More

Three Metro Nashville high school students researched the earliest books acquired by Vanderbilt Libraries while participating in Mayor Megan Barry's Opportunity NOW youth employment program. Read More

Vanderbilt Central Library shares stories of journalists and others who put their lives on the line for freedom in a new exhibition open to the public. Read More

An exhibition drawn from more than 50 volumes in Vanderbilt University Special Collections that are by or about 2013 Senior Day speaker Toni Morrison are on display in the Central Library. Read More