The opening of the student-curated exhibition “Seven Wonders” on December 6 was a great success.  Over 50 people braved a dark and rainy Tuesday night to look at the show.  Many were also in attendance to pay their respects to Paul Lauter, who spoke movingly about his wife, Ann Fitzgerald (a Trinity professor who died tragically in mid-October), the original instructor of the course.

The students wrote, designed, and raised money for the production of a full-color 16-page illustrated catalog of the collection, printed in 100 copies.  These were sold for a pay-what-you-can donation to Ann’s charities (Doctors without Borders and Amnesty International), for which we collected over $200.

Faculty, staff, students, parents, and other members of the community mingled and chatted as local talent Romulus Perez played classical piano on one of the keyboards we have in the library.  After Paul spoke, we visited each exhibit, and its curator said a few words about why she chose her topic, and what items in particular were fascinating or compelling to her.

Going forward, this is clearly a model for us to follow.  Creating an exhibition is one of the best ways to learn about a topic, and about a collection (its strengths and weaknesses).  The librarians need not have all the fun–we will be encouraging students and faculty to be our partners in years to come.

Missing from the class photo is student Emily Bloom, who could not attend because of a family emergency–you were here in spirit, Emily!