Special Exhibitions

Future, current, and past special exhibitions are listed below. Public visitors are welcome in the Beinecke Library exhibition hall on Monday and Tuesday, 9am – 7pm; Wednesday, 10am – 7pm; Thursday, 9am – 7pm; Friday, 9am – 5pm; and Saturday and Sunday, noon – 5pm.

The special exhibitions can be enjoyed on a self-guided basis. Please check the Hours and Accessibility page on this website for detailed information, including current health and safety guidelines.

There are typically two sets of special exhibitions a year, on view generally from mid-January to early July and mid-July to early January. These exhibitions showcase collections materials using the flat cases on the ground floor and the curved cases and vitrines on the mezzanine. Detailed information on each special exhibition’s topics, themes, and contents, as well as specific opening and closing dates, can be read in the individual listings below.

  • Art, Protest, and the Archives

    ART? It is hard to miss the role of art in protest these days. Bold acts of performativity; vulnerable bodies marching and dancing in the streets; songs,...
  • Revisiting the Past—Imagining the Future

    The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library hopes to inspire an engagement with the past to transform the future. Our mission, as part of Yale Library, is to...
  • Brava! Women Make American Theater

    The Queen of the Cakewalk! Vera Wilson and her trademark toe-posing! The prettiest woman ever charged with murder in Chicago! Industrial pageants and labor...
  • Road Show: Travel Papers in American Literature

    Open weekdays to Yale students, staff, and faculty authorized to be on campus beginning September 1, 2021. All are invited to explore the exhibition virtually...
  • Subscribed: The Manuscript in Britain, 1500-1800

    Exhibition brochure & videos available through links below! View and download the exhibition brochure Watch exhibition videos on YouTube Join the...
  • Beyond Words: Experimental Poetry & the Avant-Garde

    So I judge a poem’s importance, if it is obviously as well conceived as possible, if it is also the most perfect, but above all if it was capable of joining...
  • Drafting Monique Wittig

    Monique Wittig (1935 – 2003) was an influential feminist writer who explored the intersections of gender roles, sexuality, language and literary form. Her...