The Lupton Library isn’t just filled with books. The Special Collections also houses paintings, sculptures, and artifacts, some which are on display in its newest exhibit, “Distant Sands and Faraway Lands: Art, Books and Artifacts from Around the World.” Pottery from Ecuador, art from Japan and China, books from England, Italy, and the Netherlands, and documents and art from England and Germany are featured.
“Special Collections acquires books, manuscript collections, art, and other items that relate to the University, Chattanooga, the state of Tennessee, and the South. However, over the years other items have been collected and preserved, including items from other countries. Many of these items have never been exhibited before,” Steve Cox, Head of Special Collections and University Archivist, said.
Items included are a Shakespeare play, Timon of Athens, printed in England in 1632; a first edition of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book; undated pottery and figurines from an excavation in Ecuador; a late Qing Dynasty porcelain figure from China; a 1517 Edition of the Tragedies of Senaca, bound in an 18th century tortoise shell and brass cover; a leaf from the late 15th century Biblia Latina, published in Germany twenty years after the invention of printing (and the oldest item in the Special Collections). An early 19th century indentured servant document from England. According to Cox, it dates back to 1479, the oldest item in the collections.
The exhibit is in the Special Collections of Lupton Library and will run until April 29th. To see two images from the exhibit, please go to: http://blog.lib.utc.edu/archivist/page/2/
