What is your Roman Empire? If the answer is the Roman Empire, we’ve got the books for you! You can find some of our books on the Roman Empire on display in the Ellis Library colonnade. Feel free to check one out today!
The Roman Empire Book Display
Events and Exhibits
Cozy Comforts Book Display
What makes you feel cozy? It’s time to break out those cozy comforts and slow down for winter break. Learn how to cook comforting meals, crochet some granny squares, meditate or improve your sleep. Here is the full cozy reads book list with links to the e-books.
New online exhibit: No Bones About It
On October 24, 2023, Special Collections held a spooky exhibit! From 11am until 2pm, we were in Ellis 114A with as many skeletons as we could find in our collections! That exhibit is now available online for your viewing pleasure.
The exhibit includes books in five different languages, from the 15th century to the 20th century, all linked by their shared interest in skeletons. From a book of hours to Vesalius’ anatomy textbooks, from a proto-novel with Death as the main character to art history, these books are full of insights as well as bones. Modern medicine wouldn’t be where it is today if it hadn’t been for anatomists dissecting bodies to see how they worked, and the dances of the dead are an important reminder of our shared humanity, no matter where we live or what we do for a living.
Whether you missed the exhibit while it was down in 114A or whether you just want to take a second look at some of the books, we hope you enjoy the exhibit in its online form!
University of Missouri Press: National American Indian Heritage Month Exhibit
November is National American Indian Heritage Month and the University of Missouri Press joins in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans with some of our recently published and backlist books, which are featured on one side of Ellis Library’s 2nd floor display case. These titles include historian Greg Olson’s newest book, Indigenous Missourians: Ancient Societies to the Present and Paul Hillmer and Ryan Bean’s Inappropriation: The Contested Legacy of Y-Indian Guides, in addition to several backlist titles on different indigenous groups and archaeology in Missouri.
On the other side of the display case, we feature books by University of Missouri faculty. From the history of civil rights in Missouri, to the culture of fiddle music in the state, to a fictional journey through a 19th-century United States, these titles demonstrate the breadth and depth of current and former University of Missouri faculty interests. Some of these titles include O America: Discovery in a New Land, a historical novel by William Least Heat-Moon, volumes I and II of A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200 coedited by history professor and Kinder Institute chair, Jeff Pasley, and the three-volume history of fiddling in Missouri by professor emeritus, Howard Marshall.
Discovery of Biographies Untold and Works Unnumbered
Ellis Library Colonnade
From October 2023
“Discovery of Biographies Untold and Works Unnumbered” is now on display showcasing research and creative works completed by students enrolled in the Honors Seminar during Fall 2023, GN_HON 1050H, “Get Real, Go Places! Let Objects Take You There.” The eight-week course explores the study of material culture and the opportunities for research that objects and artifacts make possible. Students are introduced to the concepts of object biography, provenance, and approaches for interpreting, inspecting, and synthesizing objects through regular use of a sketchbook journal and student feedback. The course is taught by Dr. Sarah Buchanan of the iSchool at the University of Missouri (in the College of Education and Human Development) and by gallery, library, archive, and museum professionals based on the Mizzou campus who belong to the Material Culture Studies Group, established in 2014.
Art and heritage objects are often collected for their outward beauty, but a closer look even just beyond the surface can reveal many more fascinating layers to their story. Innovative combinations of method and material hold great promise for deepening our personal connections to representative art, or “finishing” the unfinished work of those whose legacies we encounter today. Our student showcase features 18 art objects created by 11 undergraduate students, each based on the class visit to a particular collection on the Columbia campus. Students created weekly syntheses reflecting on their visit and a culminating object analysis supportive of continued study.
On display here are papier-mâché geometric shapes in the style of an artist’s book in our Special Collections, a map of its exhibitions and placement in permanent collections, textile art inspired by Isaiah ‘Fireball’ Jackson’s “View of a Prison Cell,” a paper floral arrangement of irises and speculative blue peonies, digital art of a mirror inspired by UMKC Professor Hyeyoung Shin’s “Face the Music” in the Bingham Gallery, reflections from the concurrent student exhibit “TAM 2280: Designing with Ginger” Rogers, drawings of a coin depicting Justinian I (545-565 CE) and of a terracotta Silen mask (100s BCE), and an animation image of an Inuit shell reloader seen further in our neighbor exhibit on Alaska Native Heritage.
For their contributions to the success of the course we gratefully thank: Megan Ballengee, Jessica Boldt, Gary Cox, Kelli Hansen, Rachel Harper, Anselm Huelsbergen, Nicole Johnston, Benton Kidd, Madeleine Lemieux, Maggie Mayhan, Pete Millier, MU student Paige, artist Hyeyoung Shin, Candace Sall, Karlan Seville, and Joan Stack.
Local Artist Jane Mudd on Display in Bookmark Cafe
During the fall semester, the work of Jane B. Mudd will be on display in Ellis Library’s Bookmark Cafe.
Jane Bick Mudd lives on a farm outside of Fulton, Missouri with her husband Tom. She has three grown children and is an Assistant Professor of Art at William Woods University in Fulton. She works in several medias and has a body of work that reflects many different themes. “The subject of my next painting or project is usually dictated by my daily experiences and exposures. I look for opportunities and challenges and I’m curious. I feel strongly about the environment, women’s issues, peace, and the importance of art in the world. I most often work directly from life but occasionally use other imagery for inspiration. Recently I have pursued several opportunities for public art.”
Learn more at The Fine Art of Jane B. Mudd website.
Museum of Anthropology Exhibit: Alaska Native Heritage From the Bering Strait Region
Come visit Ellis Library’s colonnade to see this exhibit put together by MU undergraduate students! Mizzou’s undergraduate Digital Indigenous Studies class put together an exhibit at the end of their semester to complement an online exhibit that they created during
their coursework. The exhibit uses objects from the museum’s collections and was done in consultation with the Kawerak people.
Since the Museum of Anthropology is still under construction, the exhibit is being displayed on the first floor of Ellis Library. To learn more and to see the digital exhibit, visit the the Museum of Anthropology’s website.
New Exhibit: The University of Missouri Press
A new display by University Archives in Ellis 401 provides a glimpse into the 65-year history of the University of Missouri Press through archival records from University Librarian Ralph Parker, Professor of English William Peden, and author Upton Sinclair.
The exhibit will last through September 30, 2023.
Old Hollywood Exhibit Now on Display
Please visit our summer exhibit celebrating old Hollywood movies and movie stars. This exhibit consists of old movie posters from the private collection of an MU staff member and several books about Hollywood from the library’s collection.
If you want to watch some classic movies this summer, you can check out DVDs at Ellis Library.
Special thanks to Farris Craddock for providing movie reels and to Catherine Hutinett for choosing the books for the exhibit.
Books on Display
Stealing the show: African American Performers and Audiences in 1930s Hollywood by Miriam J. Petty
Black manhood on the silent screen by Gerald R. Butters, Jr.
Cinematic appeals: the experience of new movie technologies by Ariel Rogers
Queer love in film and television: critical essays by Pamela Demory and Christopher Pullen
Beyond the Stars by Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller
Women on screen: feminism and femininity in visual culture edited by Melanie Waters
Heroines of film and television: portrayals in popular culture edited by Norma Jones, Maja Bajac-Carter, and Bob Batchelor
The cool and the crazy: pop fifties cinema by Peter Stanfield
Queen of the Plaza; a biography of Adah Isaacs Menken by Paul Lewis
Hollywood destinies: European directors in America, 1922-1931
Classic Hollywood: lifestyles and film styles of American cinema, 1930-1960 by Veronica Pravadelli
The many lives of Marilyn Monroe by Sarah Churchwell
This ‘n that by Bette Davis with Michael Herskowitz
The Hollywood family film: a history, from Shirley Temple to Harry Potter by Noel Brown
The Hollywood economist: the hidden financial reality behind the movies by Edward Jay Epstein
The ABCs of classic Hollywood by Robert B. Ray
The girl who walked home alone: Bette Davis, a personal biography by Charlotte Chandler
On film: a history of the motion picture by Frank E. Beaver
The phantom of the cinema: character in modern film by Lloyd Michaels
Matinee melodrama: playing with formula in the sound serial by Scott Higgins
Out at the movies: a history of gay cinema by Steven Paul Davies; foreword by Simon Callow
85 years of the Oscar by Robert Osborne
The films of Bette Davis by Gene Ringgold
Cast Gallery Finds New Home in Ellis Library
The Cast Gallery in Ellis Library is open! The North portion of Room 202 on the second floor of Ellis Library is now home to this collection brought to you by the School of Visual Studies.
The gallery is open during library hours but will be closed occasionally for instruction.
See more Art and Exhibits in the Libraries.