Yale Postdoctoral Trainees

Textured Stories: The Chirimen Books of Modern Japan

Chirimen-bon, or crêpe-paper books, were a type of Japanese illustrated book produced between the 1880s and the 1950s and made with textured, fabric-like paper. They came into existence alongside textbooks for Japanese learners of Western languages,and often served as souvenirs for Western visitors to Japan. They covered a wide range of Japan-related topics—fairy tales, folklore, cultural traditions, holidays, festivals, performing arts, and scenes from everyday life—in English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and other languages.

Plants on Paper: Artists’ Engagement with the Green World

The plant kingdom has provided both the means of creating art and the impetus to do so for millennia. “Plants on Paper” reveals artists’ varied relationships with this more-than-human world, including Victorian works of nature printing and plant collecting, plant-based dyes and papers, and artists’ books looking closely at beneficial weeds, tenacious lichens, medicinal plants, and more. Together these works ask questions—about wildness and order, individualism and community, slowness and speed—and invite us to reflect on our place in plants’ green world.

Celebrating Willie Ruff as an Oral Historian

Celebrating the life of Yale’s Willie Ruff in conjunction with Yale School of Music’s Willie Ruff Memorial Concert. The exhibit features oral histories recorded by Willie speaking with other legendary Black musicians and composers. These oral histories are part of the Gilmore Music Library’s Oral History of American Music project and is presented in partnership with the Yale School of Music’s March 29th Willie Ruff Memorial Concert.

SENSATION! Reported Bodies in 19th-Century American Media

“SENSATION!” is an exhibit about your body: your eyes, ears, nostrils, skin, and tongue. It’s also about that strange, seductive sixth sense, your imagination. How does the news touch your imagination to make your body feel? 

Today, “sensational” writing is an exaggerated, titillating representation of sex or crime. In the 1800s, though, “sensational” simply meant creating a strong impact on the senses. When we recover this historical definition, many newspapers begin to seem sensational.

Curator's Talk: "SENSATION! Reported Bodies in 19th-Century American Media" 2025 Senior Fellowship Exhibit

Please join us to celebrate the opening of “SENSATION! Reported Bodies in 19th-Century American Media”, on view in the Sterling Library Exhibition Corridor from April 28 to September 28, 2025. Curator Anne Gross ‘25 will provide a tour of this exciting exhibition and will be available for questions and conversation over light refreshments afterwards. No registration is necessary.

Passover Pop-up Exhibition

Yale’s Special Collections at the Beinecke house extraordinary Passover Haggadot, books of Jewish custom (minhagim), and legal treatises related to the holiday. Join us to explore these rare and beautiful books from around the world as the Passover season begins. At a pop-up exhibit, you are welcome to come at any time during the one-and-a-half-hour period to view the materials and ask questions.

A Cosmos of Similarity

Imagine a world in which similarity is the foundation of everything. That idea, inspired by the writings of cultural theorist Walther Benjamin (1892–1940) and Yale Professor Paul North, is the basis for the new exhibition in the Cushing Rotunda: A Cosmos of Similarity. Showcasing lesser-known works from the founding collection of the Medical Historical Library, this captivating new display charts a rich intellectual history in which mathematics, theology, natural philosophy, art, and medicine intertwine.

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