Skip to Main Content

Legacy Online and Flash Exhibits in Library Special Collections

This guide aggregates legacy online exhibits. It also features flash exhibits of in-house exhibits that were typically on display for less than two weeks.

Art

Art

A Letter from the Renaissance: The Double Soul, Ariel Soulé/Simon Toparovsky, a contemporary art installation for UCLA Library Special Collections, August - December 2010

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. Autograph letter fragment in the hand of Michelangelo, 1533.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. Autograph letter fragment in the hand of Michelangelo, 1533. UCLA Library Special Collections | Used by permission

"In one thousand five hundred thirty-three I record that today 22 September I went to Santo Miniato al Tedesco to talk to Pope Clement who was going to Nice and on the same day Brother Sebastiano del Piombo left a horse of his for me."

Michelangelo's string of words kept at the UCLA Library as a fragment of DNA rekindles the spirit of the time, the late Italian Renaissance, bringing to light historical figures and events, works of art, feats of arms and power. Faced with a thousand ex­amples of the duality of the Renaissance soul, two artists, Ariel Soulé and Simon Toparovsky, who have for years represented the double soul of art, combining painting and sculpture, interpret well-considered themes with contemporary works representing a logical connection between the idea of the world of the Renaissance and the contemporary world.

Soulé and Toparovsky, who each live and work in Milan and Los Angeles, have created installations in major public spaces. This is their first public collaboration in the United States.

Europe

Europe

International Relations

International Relations

A Centenary Celebration of Ralph J. Bunche, January-March 2004

One of UCLA's most distinguished alumni, Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-1971) fought poverty and racism on his way to becoming one of the twentieth century’s leading peacemakers. The world honored him in 1950 with the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach a settlement between the Arabs and Israelis in the Middle East, but that was only one exceptional accomplishment in an extraordinary life dedicated to achieving harmony and equality among all people, regardless of nationality or race.

Part of an international celebration of the centenary of Bunche’s birth, this slideshow, based on the in-house physical exhibit that was on view January-March 2004, celebrates his remarkable legacy by focusing on his accomplishments in three main areas: as a student, a scholar, and a diplomat.

Latin America

Latin America

Rio de Janeiro: Two Centuries of Urban Change. 1808-2008.

Rio de Janeiro is a magical place, a city of fabled beauty and dramatic contrasts, where nature and the human hand have joined to create a landscape of panoramic views and iconic images—Guanabara Bay, the peaks of Sugarloaf and Corcovado, the rows of royal palms, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, the arcos of the eighteenth-century aqueduct, the Avenidas Rio Branco and Beira-Mar, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, historic churches, and hilltop shantytowns known as favelas.

This exhibit shows how, over the past two hundred years, artists and photographers have repeatedly been drawn to these images in a process of icon building within a dynamic context of urban growth and modernization. Such visual presentations reflect not only the changing times through which the cariocas—people of Rio—have lived, but are tied to their indomitable spirit as manifested in Carnival, popular music, beach culture, and daily life. Transcending persistent problems of poverty and crime, Rio is internationally acclaimed for its fun-loving atmosphere and its people, who call it the "marvelous city."

Materials selected for this exhibit, principally from UCLA Library Special Collections, illustrate the depth and variety of UCLA’s collections on Rio de Janeiro. Printed books, periodicals, and photographs are featured, as are, to a lesser extent, manuscripts, maps, films, original artworks, lantern slides, stereocards, chapbooks, and ephemera.

 

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Hotel Somerville owners John Somerville and Vada Watson Somerville, along with investors, at the hotel groundbreaking, 1928

Hotel Somerville owners John Somerville and Vada Watson Somerville, along with investors, at the hotel groundbreaking, 1928

The UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research (COHR) has released the website, “Community and Commerce: Oral Histories of African American Businesses in Los Angeles,” which features a series of eighteen oral histories conducted by COHR that document long-term African American business ownership in the Los Angeles area. The site uses excerpts from the oral histories and contemporary and historic photos to explore the financial and psychological challenges involved in starting up a business, the difficulties of weathering change over decades, and the sometimes challenging task of finding a successor. It also situates the narrators’ lives and businesses in the larger story of black Los Angeles, offering perspectives on the changing realities of historically black neighborhoods, the Great Migration, and the role businesses have played in African American political and social life.

Read a short interview with the project interviewer, Yolanda Hester, about the rationale for the project and the experience of doing the interviews.

Medieval Manuscripts

Medieval Manuscripts

UCLA

UCLA