Browse Exhibitions

Beginning with pioneering work starting in the 1980s to the development of today’s quantum information processors, Yale University holds a leadership role in quantum. Interdisciplinary quantum research bridges disciplines and includes the departments of Physics, Applied Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. This exhibit celebrates the University’s achievements in advancing our fundamental understanding of quantum science and engineering and turning quantum physics into practical technologies.

This online exhibition is a celebration of the history of the Visual Resources Collection and the key partners who contributed to the impact and evolution of this collection at Yale Library.

This exhibition documents the implementation of Coeducation in Yale College through the lens of the buildings and spaces of the Yale University campus. Through records, photographs, and audio-visual materials kept at the Yale University Archives, co-curators Charlotte Keathley, Class of 2022 (Ezra Stiles College) and Michael Lotstein, University Archivist invite visitors to experience the many challenges the first women undergraduates faced in creating a community for themselves on a campus conceived of, and built for, male students.

This exhibition presents a chronology of women’s presence at Yale by honoring women—the named and unnamed, the seen and unseen—whose heroic efforts have contributed to and enriched Yale University immensely. For centuries mostly unrecognized and in supportive roles, traces of women’s contributions to Yale can be found in a variety of sources, including treasurer’s papers, payroll records, directories, diaries, travel photos, and other people’s memoirs. As food service workers, telephone operators, secretaries, programmers, students, faculty, deans, administrators, and more, women have always been a part of the life and history of Yale University.

Medical astrology was widely practiced in Europe between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Part art, part science, it was integral to several fields of study, linking medicine to natural philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, among others. This exhibition explores the visual history of medical astrology in early-modern Europe. The spectacular collection at the Medical Historical Library, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library provides the conceptual foundation and pictorial framework for the study. Featuring nearly 200 images from this archive, the exhibition tells the story of a controversial yet popular healing practice that “represented the epitome of exact science” for its time.

Curated by Laura Phillips, Ph.D., History of Art, Yale University.

This exhibit was curated by Anna Duensing, Ph.D., then a graduate student in History and African American Studies at Yale University. It first opened as a physical exhibit in the Memorabilia Room of Sterling Memorial Library in Spring 2018 to mark the centennial of the end of the First World War and reflect on its legacies. The exhibit was made possible by the scholarship of Adriane Lentz-Smith, Richard Slotkin, David Kennedy, Christopher Capozzola, and Chad Williams. A very special thanks to Kerri Sancomb, Matthew Jacobson, Michael Printy, and the staff and curators at Manuscripts and Archives and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

In this online exhibit, the subject librarians for South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Near East, Japan, and Latin America would like to show off some of the items that they consider especially beautiful and eye-catching. But, don’t be fooled! There are plenty of rare find throughout the collections at Yale, so be sure to check out the research guides for each area to learn more and reach out to our area specialists. In the meantime, ENJOY!

The work of Yale researchers reshapes fields and changes lives, so it is not surprising that these scientists have received recognition from major organizations. These include such accolades as the Nobel Prize, the Lasker Award, the Kavli Prize, and admission to some of the most prestigious medical and scientific societies in the world. The individuals featured in this exhibition represent a small sample of the many remarkable Yale physicians and scientists who have received such recognitions over the past several decades.

In New Haven, urban renewal policies, aggressive policing and surveillance tactics, and de facto segregation all isolated communities of color and limited their access to health care, housing, and well-paying jobs. This led HIV/AIDS to disproportionately impact Black and Latinx people here. In the first years of the epidemic, clinicians and researchers in the city were particularly preoccupied with the emergence of HIV/AIDS among Black and Latinx people who used IV drugs, as well as their children. With a groundswell of activism at a national scale pushing back against the widespread failure to address HIV/AIDS, members of the Yale and broader New Haven communities took it upon themselves to build HIV/AIDS care and research infrastructure at the local level.

On May 1, 1970, the city of New Haven, Connecticut, found itself at the center of a national protest, a pivotal trial, and a college campus in uproar. Such were the unique circumstances surrounding the arrest of the group of Black Panther activists who became known as the “New Haven Nine” for the murder of Alex Rackley, a suspected FBI informant. At a time in American history in which racialized violence and oppression against Black people were widespread and well known in the United States, the May Day Rally represented renewed calls for racial justice by New Haven residents, affiliates of Yale University, and, of course, Black activists from around the nation, including but not limited to those within the Black Panther Party.