Students put Wadham's rare books on show

At Wadham, we love it when fellows, staff, students, or alumni come together and collaborate on exciting new projects. Over the last couple of terms, Wadham has seen a new type of partnership emerge.

The Library team, passionate about the beautiful rare items in Wadham's collections, often put on public exhibitions to show their splendour to the wider world. Recently, students have shaped and driven these exhibitions alongside our librarians. Weina Jin (MBiol Biology, 2021) and Annabel Brodersen (English Language & Literature, 2023) share how their exhibitions came to life.

For Weina, inspiration struck on a botany field course in Tenerife. She described being "motivated to foster greater student engagement with botany", and applied for one of Wadham's Equality Fund grants. The initial aim was simply to expand the library’s collection of plant-related books.

But the project would expand. While working on the application, Librarian Tim Kirtley mentioned that Wadham's archives held a wealth of botanical material. Here was the opportunity. "I had long been thinking it would be great to put on an exhibition showing some of our wonderful botanical works," said Tim. With Weina's enthusiasm for the material, the time seemed right for the first student collaboration in an exhibition.

The timing was also perfect for Wadham's new Rare Books Cataloguer, Alison Felstead, who'd been learning about botany since starting part-time work at Batsford Arboretum. "When Tim mentioned that Weina was interested in co-curating a botanical exhibition incorporating some of Wadham's early printed books, it felt like fate," she said.

Designing and putting the exhibitions together involved a lot of thought, teamwork, and fun!

Weina and Alison bonded over a shared love for cats and printmaking. Annabel "learnt so much about the practicalities of setting up manuscripts for an exhibtion display, including choosing specific opening pages and the compositional layout of the works in the exhibitions."

The library team also learned from the experience. "I am an old-school librarian at heart," Alison said, "but Weina's ideas and enthusiasm opened my eyes to the possibility of a much more interesting exhibition."

These ideas included the incorporation of pop culture and video games. As Weina maintains, "Pokemon cards make a great analogy to plant collecting!"

Weina attributes the exhibition's title, Leaves on Leaves & Screens to Alison. The title captures how "plant media exists on both book pages and digital devices. We wanted to display the ways people have been interested in plants through time," Weina explains.

When Leaves on Leaves & Screens came to life, it also set Annabel's exhibition in motion. Struck by the strength of the botanical displays and intrigued by the books she'd seen on a tour of Wadham's special collections, she knew she wanted to inspire the Oxford community to "celebrate the medieval collections at Wadham!"

As Arts Officer within Wadham's SU, Annabel is used to putting on art workshops, but with the support of Tim, she put on two interlinked exhibitions. The first, From Parchment to Print: Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts to Early Printing, "traced the chronology of medieval book production from manuscripts to printed works."

The experience with workshops still came in handy. Annabel organised a painting workshop where students could produce art inspired by the first exhibition, and then have their art feature in the second exhibition. This second exhibition, open to the general public, "physicalised the intersections between medieval and modern art and literature because I organised student artworks next to the manuscripts or printed works they were inspired by."

Eventually, exhibitions move from planning to reality, and witnessing people engage with the display material brings a special satsifaction. "That's always a great moment," says Tim, "It's really nice to see visitors' reactions, and it reminds me, if I needed reminding, just how special our special collections really are!"

"I really enjoyed seeing the transformation from the research stage to the in-person exhibition!" Annabel shared. "I loved talking to different people across the university and Oxford about the manuscripts and the artworks too."

For Weina, there was enjoyment in seeing "live reactions" to particular items, explaining her favourites and meeting visitors interested in similar themes. Plus, "the display cases really upped the official factor!" she added.

Both Annabel and Weina were thankful for the opportunity and stressed the importance of having a space to explore topics outside of one's studies (Weina: "and where better than a library, with librarians!?") But Annabel also shared the value of the collaboration for her own subject area. "It has allowed me to think in a slightly different, more spatial and more creative way about the manuscripts I encounter in my degree."

"It's been such a great experience!" said Tim. Will there be more in the future? "Who knows, perhaps our 17th and 18th century broadsides or historical atlases could make great exhibits." If those ideas or any others strike your interest, you can contact the library team at library@wadham.ox.ac.uk