Special Collections And University Archives

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have partnered with Amazon Web Services to launch the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab for Libraries and Applied Digital Preservation, powered by AWS. This initiative, the first of AWS’s cloud innovation programs to be housed in an academic library and focused on archival preservation, was celebrated Oct. 27 at a ribbon-cutting event and reception on the Vanderbilt campus. Read More

New exhibits in three campus locations celebrate the Immersion Vanderbilt program and highlight hands-on learning projects created by former undergraduate students in collaboration with the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Read More

Family, friends and colleagues of Sen. Lamar Alexander gathered at Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives Oct. 22 to celebrate his distinguished career and the digitization of the Lamar Alexander Papers by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. Read More

Power of Suggestion: The Hypnotism Library of Dr. Albert Moll, curated by History of Medicine Collections curator Chris Ryland and archivist Jim Thweatt, is on view at Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives through mid-February 2026. The items in the exhibit are drawn from a multilingual collection offering a unique perspective on the history of hypnotism as well as its relationship to animal magnetism, psychotherapy, mesmerism, sleepwalking, criminology, and even yoga. Read More

The 2025 Southern Festival of Books, presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, will connect faculty, students, alumni and others with university ties to a vast community that shares their love for creative expression. The festival, now in its 37th year, will be at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, Tennessee State Museum and Tennessee State Library and Archives Oct. 18–19. Admission is free. Read More

A new exhibit at Vanderbilt’s Central Library traces the evolution of the manifesto as a literary and artistic form, showcasing the bold declarations of poets, painters and provocateurs who reshaped modern culture. Revolution and the Arts: Manifestos from Symbolism to Surrealism is now on view outside the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies study room on the eighth floor of Central Library. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives has completed a long-term project to fully digitize the Lamar Alexander Papers, which document the life and work of a significant figure in Tennessee and U.S. political history. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries will mark the centennial anniversary of the landmark Scopes trial with a new exhibit at Vanderbilt’s Central Library. Celebrating 150 Years of Evolution at Vanderbilt is on view in the Central Library second-floor gallery until mid-November 2025. Read More

The influence of Vanderbilt University writers on acclaimed author Flannery O’Connor—and the extensive reach of O’Connor’s work on literature and beyond—are the subjects of a new Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries exhibit. Read More

The many contributions of LGBTQ people to the political, social and cultural fabric of Middle Tennessee are explored in a new exhibit at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. 'Alive with Pride: LGBTQ Existence and Resistance in Middle Tennessee' is on view in the Central Library fourth-floor lobby through September 2025. An opening reception for the exhibit will be on Tuesday, June 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and a series of curator talks will be held at Central Library on three Saturdays—July 12, July 19 and Aug. 9—this summer. Patrons are invited to view the exhibit from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each session, with guided tours scheduled at 11 a.m. and at noon. Read More

Digital preservation professionals from the Southeast and across the globe convened at Vanderbilt University for the inaugural Digital Preservation Coalition Members Forum in the Americas. The April 24–25 gathering, hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, supported the university’s goal of engaging a global community of scholars on campus and bringing their expertise to bear on the world’s most pressing problems. Read More

A new student-curated exhibit at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries explores the exciting world of book arts, with a focus on the intersection of art, craftsmanship and literature. Read More

With the impressive jazz collections at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, Vanderbilt students and faculty can delve deep into the history of jazz and the lives, music and impact of its pioneering musicians. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries hosted talks by two international scholars of Jewish history and culture on April 10 in the Central Library Community Room. Markus Krah, the John H. Slade Executive Director of the Leo Baeck Institute–New York/Berlin, and Caroline Jessen, a research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture–Simon Dubnow in Leipzig, Germany, discussed the life and legacy of German-Jewish philanthropist and publisher Salman Schocken. Read More

The agreement, signed by university and Canadian officials during a Dec. 3 ceremony at Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives, marks the second five-year collaboration between the two organizations and reaffirms their shared commitment to advancing academic collaboration and fostering innovative research. The new collaboration establishes the Fulbright Canada Distinguished Chair at Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science, with the recipients working closely with the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries.  Read More

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

A new exhibit at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries celebrates the rich world and colorful characters created by popular 20th-century British writer P.G. Wodehouse. “Blandings, Jeeves, and Psmith: The Worlds of P.G. Wodehouse,” curated by Special Collections and University Archives, commemorates the formal dedication of the P.G. Wodehouse Collection at Vanderbilt University. The exhibit is in the fourth-floor lobby of Central Library in wall cases stretching from the Reading Room to Suzie’s Food for Thought Café. Read More

Studio 608, a creative space located in the Central Library, provides Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff with opportunities to explore new modes of narrative storytelling through audio. The state-of-the-art studio can be used to record interviews, conversations, panel discussions and other formats that capture the diverse perspectives and experiences of the university community. Read More

James R. Sasser, BA’58, JD’61, was a three-term U.S. senator from Tennessee and ambassador to China. (Ann Rayner/Vanderbilt) James R. Sasser, BA’58, JD’61, a former three-term U.S. senator from Tennessee and ambassador to China, died Sept. 10 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was a statesman who loved Tennessee… 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