Treasures and New Acquisitions

This exhibition showcases the wide variety of material held in Schaffer Library's Special Collections.

It includes samples of the treasures collected throughout the many decades of Union's history - among them, plates from John James Audubon's Birds of North America , purchased by the College from the artist himself in 1814 - as well as rare works and historic material acquired as recently as December 2012. Befitting the broad scope of Union's educational programs and unique cultural resources, the items on display represent areas ranging from mathematics to art to biology to American History.

Also presented in several cases are recently acquired materials - and approaches to presenting them in digital form - that offer new insights into Union's long history and its distinguished alumni. Featured are an online catalog of Joseph Ramée's 1813 plans for the campus, materials related to the career of William Henry Seward (Union College Class of 1820), the story of the first African-American student at Union, and the newly-revived Union Book, which both invoked the past and set a new direction for the student yearbook.