Exhibitions and Events

February 7, 2025 - June 1, 2025
Hours shared with Old Library
Lower level, East Hallway
Old Library

Opening Reception, Friday, February 7, 4:30-6pm

This exhibition asks us to look down and consider the historic tile floors of Old Library. Designed by Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930), founder of the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works, these beautiful floors demonstrate an Americanist ideology that was commonly referenced in architecture and interior design of the late 19th and early 20th century. This ideology, as well as many special details in these long-overlooked tiles, will be revealed in History Underfoot. 

Organized by Alexis White, PhD candidate, History of Art

October 25, 2023 - ongoing
Hours shared with Canaday Library
Coombe Suite Gallery
Canaday Library, 2nd Floor

This exhibition, organized by Grace Foresman (BMC '24) and Yihan Liu (BMC '23) as the newest contribution to the Who Built Bryn Mawr? project, explores the early history of Japanese and Chinese students at Bryn Mawr, a history colored by prevailing stereotypes about East Asian people that were circulating on Bryn Mawr’s campus, Philadelphia, and the country at large. At the turn of the 20th century, Bryn Mawr began accepting Chinese and Japanese students through designated scholarship programs. But were these programs actually intended to benefit Asian students? What would their experiences have been like?​

Two works exhibited in Bethany Collins: Tempest (1912 Gallery, Spring 2023) have been added to Special Collections. One of those, The Odyssey: 1990/1851/1980/2002/2000 (2022), is on view longterm on the lower level of Carpenter Library.