VCU Libraries: Inside The Collection

VCU Libraries Special Collections & Archives added several new, exciting artist books to their collection in 2025. Here are a few highlights: The things we take (and the things we couldn’t) (2024), edition of 16 By Gino Romero, published by Booklyn, New YorkWooden box, 4 artworks, relief print, sticker, screws, glue, packing paper “I did […]

The VCU Gay Alliance of Students digital collection contains legal documents, correspondence, applications, and other materials related to the VCU Gay Alliance of Students (GAS) and its court case against the university from 1974 to 1976. The case, Gay Alliance of Students v. Matthews, was one of the first LGBTQ+ student organizing cases to reach […]

Still images from reels (left to right, top to bottom): A 1965 voting rights march; an anti- and pro-Vietnam War protest, 1967; a 1966 American Nazi Rally; the previous Vietnam War protest; and footage from the trial of Jamil Al-Amin, 1968. A new digital collection offers a rare window into Richmond’s civil rights era and […]

January 1st is Public Domain Day in the United States. This year copyrighted works from 1929 become free for all to copy, share, and expand upon. Why is the public domain so significant? According to Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, the public domain 1) benefits the arts by allowing artists […]

This is a brief sample of recently acquired materials by Special Collections and Archives for two of its best- known collections. These items are representative of a focus on adding more diverse voices and themes to the research collection. They were added in the 2023-24 fiscal year.  Additions to the Book Arts Collection Special Collections […]

VCU Libraries continues to build its research collections of primary source materials supporting the teaching, learning, research and health care needs of the university. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, Special Collections and Archives completed the arrangement and description of a number of archival collections documenting organizations and […]

Explore the exhibit “Considering Comics” is a new VCU Libraries online gallery exhibit. The exhibit was created by Veronica Parker, Art History Master’s candidate, who fulfilled a 2019 internship with the James Branch Cabell Library Special Collections and Archives. The exhibit may well inspire others interested in studying or making comics. The art historian turned […]

Find It Betsy Brinson collection of AIDS epidemic exhibit materials Find It Equality Virginia records Two manuscript collections documenting stories of the LGBTQ community in Richmond are now open and available for research. This work was scheduled in part to strategically align resources in support of VCU’s recent hiring initiative that will support a new Virginia Commonwealth University a minor […]

Find It  Now available for researchers, the finding aid for the Zelda Nordlinger papers describes the recently-reprocessed collection. Zelda Nordlinger (1932-2008) devoted much of her adult life advocating for feminist causes. A freelance writer, she composed essays and short stories for numerous publications. The majority of her work carried a message promoting feminist ideals. The […]

Finding Aid In 1946, following the chaos and horror of World War II and concerned by what they saw as the American education system’s failure, Algernon D. Black, a leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, and Alice Kohn Pollitzer, a prominent civic leader, began an experiment in democratic living. Inspired in part […]