Special Collections & Archives has dedicated exhibition spaces on both the ground floor and first floor of the McClay Library. Exhibitions reflect the wide range of books and manuscripts in our collections, as well as showcasing work created by Queen's students and associates. They are curated by a variety of people: SCA staff, Queen's academics and external researchers. This LibGuide will keep you up to date with exhibitions currently running and those from the past year. If you would like further information on any of our exhibitions, please contact us at specialcollections@qub.ac.uk.
To coincide with Black History Month, QUB Special Collections and Archives curated an exhibition highlighting some primary and secondary sources in the library’s holdings pertaining to slavery in the antebellum south, and to the post-Civil War and reconstruction era.
The exhibition drew upon The Smith Collection (MS 54), The Freedmen's Bureau Records (BRFAL) and a selection of books from the McClay Standard Loan Collection.
Please be aware that some of the documents in this exhibition contained language and phrases of the time which may cause offence.
A travelling exhibition curated by Dr Ciarán McCabe focusing on one of the most disruptive periods in nineteenth-century Ireland. ‘The Second Reformation and Catholic–Protestant Relations in Pre-Famine Ireland: Bicentennial Perspectives’ brought together unique holdings in the McClay Library to explore a period from the 1820s to 1840s when sectarian hatred, suspicion and rivalries dominated the public sphere, on both national and local levels.
This exhibition celebrated student creativity and the ability to interpret Latin American short stories through textile making. For more information, please read Dr Fiona Clark's accompanying blog.
A selection of hand-crafted books, all made between 1994-1996 by Cuban artisans from Ediciones Vigía in Matanzas.
Students taking part in the 'Wrapping Words' course, as part of the final year Spanish language module, had the opportunity to create their own handmade book using the Vigía process studied from the Cuban handmade books in Special Collections.
For more information on the handmade Cuban books held in Special Collections, please see our blog post.
Lise McGreevy was Queen's University's first ever Visual Artist in Residence, working with SECA (The Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action) until January 2024. In Summer 2024 she presented her exhibition "I am Woman", promoting female equality and diversity, in the ground floor exhibition space of the McClay Library.
A selection of literary magazines and journals held by Special Collections & Archives, displayed on Floor One of the McClay Library. This exhibition highlights the significance of “little magazines” in Ireland, and their ongoing impact on this island’s literary landscape. Along with showcasing literary developments in Ireland, these magazines are a valuable resource in understanding cultural, political and societal trends and concerns throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.
The World Administered By Irishmen: The Life and Times of Robert Hart and Contemporary Irish in East Asia by Robin Masefield was published in 2023 and launched at the McClay Library on 29th September 2023. To accompany the book launch, an exhibition of materials from the Hart Collection (MS 15) was available to view in the McClay Library’s ground floor exhibition area.
Between April and June 2024, the McClay Library hosted an exhibition of the Samuel Simms Collection of Medical Texts. On display were 19th and early 20th century texts and monographs, including first and early editions. These covered a range of subjects including paediatrics, surgery, infectious diseases, anatomy and medical biography. The exhibition also included pamphlets and unpublished manuscript material authored by Samuel Simms on a number of topics including the history of medicine in Ancient Greece, the United Irishmen and his lifelong passion for book collecting.
There is also an online version of the exhibition.
This exhibition showcased a small collection of books compiled by the prodigious Scottish book collector Andrew Gibson (1841-1931). The books generally concern Scottish songs and poetry from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many are written by or concern Robert Burns.
A full listing of the collection can be found here.
A selection of photographs from MS 69 The Desht Collection. In 2006 documentary photographer Martin Desht accepted a teaching residency at Queen’s University Belfast. During this time, he toured Belfast extensively, photographing as he went. The results of this residency became the exhibit A Certain Peace: Acceptance and Defiance in Northern Ireland.
The listing for this collection can be found here.
Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated every year on 27th January. The theme for 2024 was The Fragility of Freedom.