Special Collections And University Archives

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

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

Please Continue: Literary Correspondence as Conversation features notes and letters penned by acclaimed writers representing more than a century of English literature, from the mid-1800s to the 1980s. Highlights include correspondence from Mark Twain, Henry James, Arthur Conan Doyle, Zora Neale Hurston, C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, Langston Hughes, P.G. Wodehouse, Katherine Anne Porter and others. Read More

As classes get underway this fall, the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are here to support students in a variety of ways. Check out the following 10 tips to make the most of all the libraries have to offer. Read More

As classes and research get underway this fall, the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are here to support Vanderbilt faculty in a variety of ways. Check out the 10 tips below to make the most of all the libraries have to offer. Read More

A new partnership between the government of Québec and Vanderbilt University will bolster opportunities for academic and cultural exchange involving the Canadian province and the Nashville institution. The collaboration was announced June 18 at an event celebrating Québec’s deep ties to Middle Tennessee that also served as an early observance of la Fête nationale du Québec—Québec’s annual national day. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives has fully digitized the Rev. James M. Lawson Papers and made these materials available to the general public, giving students, scholars and historians a more complete picture of the distinguished activist’s life and legacy. The collection is available online through the JSTOR digital library of academic journals, books and primary sources.  Read More

A new article in EdTech Magazine and a case study by the Center for Digital Education highlight how the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries continue to innovate in the area of digital preservation. Both items detail efforts to scale up and make sustainable the Heard Libraries’ one-of-a-kind Vanderbilt Television News Archive, the world’s most extensive and complete archive of television broadcast news. Read More

For more than 75 years, Vanderbilt has been a pioneer in the study of the Americas, forging new paths to innovate, shape, and advance the field. Now, the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies once again finds itself at the forefront, driving important changes in education, research and programming, both at the university and across the country. Read More

The complete archive of Vanderbilt University’s flagship publication has been fully digitized and is now available online, making more than a century of university history accessible to the Vanderbilt community and others around the globe. The digitization project, led by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives, includes publishing the complete run of Vanderbilt Magazine and its predecessor, Vanderbilt Alumnus, on the JSTOR digital library of academic journals, books and primary sources. Read More