Students in International History of the United States (Hist 119) studying materials in Special Collections. Photo: Emily Williams
Quaker & Special Collections
Quaker & Special Collections contains Haverford College’s rare books, manuscripts, and the college archives. We seek to collect, preserve, and make available materials which serve the research and teaching needs of the Haverford community as well as the wider scholarly community.
Our world-renowned Quaker collections, which illuminate Quaker life, faith, and practice from the earliest days of the Society of Friends to the present is the highlight of the collection, while our varied collecting foci provide many opportunities for researchers. You can learn about the different locations where we record information about our collections, or choose a database to search from the drop-down menu on this page.
Today's Hours
Additional Hours InfoCampus Location
Lutnick Library, View Map
Contact
hc-special [at] haverford.edu
(610) 896-1161
Current Exhibits
Special Collections materials are often featured in library exhibits.
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Curated by Maia Schwallie '25
Magill Wing cases
This exhibit explores performance at Haverford via materials that artistically render dramatic and comedic plays and sketches. Displaying theater photography as well as illustrated programs and posters, this exhibit lays out how an art form as dynamic and lively as stage performance can be translated into still, visual mediums.
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Curated by Skye X Zweben, BMC '25
Level 2 Wall Gallery, Lutnick Library
Opening April 3, 2025
This exhibition of woodblock prints and photographs engages with Western desires for imagery of Japan's premodern past, visualizing the concept of anemoia, a feeling of nostalgia for a time one has never known.
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A collaboration between artist Rainey Tisdale ‘94 and poet Charlotte Boulay, HC staff
Entrance Ramp Gallery, Lutnick Library
April 1–June 2, 2025
Provisions invites the Haverford community to experience poetry as tangible nourishment that girds us for the work of being human. The exhibit showcases "poem preserves"—buckeyes inscribed with carefully selected poems, nestled in glass jars like summer produce put by for winter.
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An Exhibit by Third Year Japanese with Kimiko Suzuki
Featuring artwork by Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver
Magill Wing, Lutnick Library
Begining Monday, March 31
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Curated by Luis Rodriguez-Rincon, Assistant Professor of Spanish
Rebecca and Rick White Gallery, Lutnick Library
February 1 - July 15, 2025
This exhibit gathers together texts and images that show the genesis and spread of the architectural phenomenon of the grotto in early modern Europe. These materials help us better understand and visualize Palissy’s lost grottos through an exploration of the textual and aesthetic influences that informed his work on ceramic recreations of nature.