Friday at Fisher Fine Arts Library

Just a few feet from Van Pelt Library, the iconic Furness Building houses the Fisher Fine Arts Library. Opened in 1891, it was Penn’s first main library and now houses the Fine Arts and Architecture collection in partnership with the Weitzman School of Design. In our general collection, we have several reproductions of Books of Hours as well as other books on Early Modern and earlier arts and architecture.

If you would like an escort to the Fisher Fine Arts Library, meet at the Van Pelt 6th floor registration desk at 11:45 for the Common Press or 12:45 for the Materials Library tour.

It also has a Materials Library, which will be hosting an open house – just for KWHSS2024 – from 1-3pm! The Materials Library is a collection of over 7000 material samples that serves academics, designers, material scientists and engineers. As you can see from their social media, their holdings range from modern construction materials, to gilding materials and tools and natural dyes and diverse parchments and historical pigments. For example, if you’re looking for a side by side comparison of cochineal and Tyrian Purple – without spending your own money – the Materials Library has some samples!

The Fisher Fine Arts Library also has the Common Press! Ask them about the history of moveable type! But also they are planning a workshop using movable type and a handpress from 1860 just for us from noon-2pm. It will have a cap of 10 participants. (Register here)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *