Students in a writing class study books in Special Collections. Photo: Claire Chenyu Wang '20.
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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James Van Der Zee (1886-1983) produced some of the most iconic images of the Harlem Renaissance, at once documenting and contributing to its creative, intellectual, and political ferment. Known for his technically precise and beautiful photographs, Van Der Zee bore witness to the multi-dimensional lives of Black Americans in the period between the two world wars, offering visual testimony to Black success, family, and futurity. He approached the photograph as a site of creative innovation, using theatrical backdrops, layered negatives, retouching, and etching to produce a sense of drama, setting the scene for Black artistic and political possibility.
January—March 2023
This exhibit was developed as a capstone project by students in Lindsay Reckson's ENGL/VIST215: Realism, Race, and Photography.
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What is a space? It seems obvious, particularly in relation to Haverford College. Every part of campus is a space of some sort. But what about the parts of our campus that aren’t clearly defined as places? This exhibit examines how past generations of students have engaged with and in these in-between spaces–turning them into places.
September 2022—March 2023
Curated by Emma Scharff ‘25 as part of the Documenting Student Life Summer 2022 Internship.