Current Exhibit

Victorian Yellowbacks from the Collection of Marcia McGhee Carter ’62

On View Spring 2025 | Main Library

"Defined by its its distinctive yellow binding and chromoxylographed cover image, the yellowback emerged in mid-Victorian Britain to provide cheap reading material for a growing middleclass audience. Its success depended on an expanding rail network, a developing consumer culture, a growing population of readers, and a robust publishing industry boosted by the application of steam power to printing and paper manufacturing." ~ "The Most Inspired Publishing Invention of the Era": The Victorian Yellowback by Professor Susan Zlotnick

To learn more visit the online exhibition here: https://vclibrary.vassarspaces.net/victorian-yellowbacks

Image: Covers and spine of 1867 edition of Anthony Trollope’s novel Castle Richmond.

Past Exhibits Available Online

• Elverhoj: The Arts & Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson (Fall 2024)
• Books in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Spring 2024)
• Elizabeth Bishop's Postcards: An Exhibition (Fall 2023)
• Beauty Out of the Ashes: Printed Works of the Harlem Renaissance, 1923-1936 (Spring 2023)
• Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s Natural and General History of the Indies, Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea: An Exhibition
  (Fall 2022)
• Ilse Schreiber-Noll: Nature, and Nature Defiled
  (Spring 2022)
• Some Rare Editions of Dante in Special Collections
  (Fall 2021)
• Work Prints: Eric Lindbloom’s Panoramas of the Hudson Valley
  (Spring 2021)
• Votes for Women: Vassar and the Politics of Women's Suffrage
  (Fall 2020)

Past Exhibit Highlights

• The Bannon McHenry James Merrill Collection
  (January 29 to June 8, 2020)
• Africana Studies, 1969-2019: A History of Imagining Otherwise
  (September 19 to December 22, 2019)
• Ivan Turgenev and His Library
  (January 21 to June 10, 2019)
• Homer's Odyssey: A Sampling of Editions in English 1616-2017
  (January–June, 2018)
• The Children’s Books of Nancy Willard
  (Aug 30–Dec 11, 2017)
• Vincent and Vassar
  (May–October 2017)
• Edna St.Vincent Millay: Treasures from Steepletop
  (January–June 2017)
• Shakespeare at Vassar
  (September–December 7, 2016)
• Seeing the Sun: Maria Mitchell’s Observations, 1868-1888
  (January–June, 2016)
• James Joyce’s Ulysses: Text and Art
  (February–May, 2015)
• The Age of Alice: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Nonsense in Victorian England
  (February–May, 2015)
• Never Before Has Your Like Been Printed: The Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493
  (August–December, 2014)
• The Architect’s Library: Notable Books on Architectural Themes in the Vassar College Library
  (January–May, 2014)
• W.K. Rose and the Rose Fellowship
  (August–December, 2013)
• The Artist's Book in Wales: Shirley Jones and the Red Hen Press
  (January–May, 2013)
• Reexamining Books: Book Objects and Artist's Books by Werner Pfeiffer
  (September–December, 2012)
• Mary McCarthy and Vassar
  (March–June, 2012)
• Hand, Voice & Vision: Thirty Years of Artists' Books from the Women's Studio Workshop
  (January–March, 2012)
• From the Archive: Discovering Elizabeth Bishop
  (September–December, 2011)
• The Most Perfect Education of Body, Mind, and Heart
  (January–June 2011)
• Ars Omnia Tuetur: 25 Years of Fine Printing at the Thornwillow Press
• Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn
  (January–May, 2010)
• Poetry of the Hudson
  (September–December, 2009)
• Charles Dickens in the Marketplace
  (Feburary–May, 2009)
• Robert Owen: The Delicious Dream of the Future
  (September–December, 2008)
• My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
  (April 7–April 30, 2008)
• Walt Whitman and John Burroughs: Literary Comrades
  (January–June, 2008)
• A Life in Art and Letters: Priscilla Morgan
  (September–December, 2007)
• Mapping America: 500 Years of Cartographic Depictions
  (Feburary–May, 2007)
• Bernard Shaw: Portraits and Portrayals
  (September–December, 2006)
• The Fergusson Years: Vassar, 1986-2006
  (January–May, 2006)
• Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: Sources and Editions
  (September–December, 2005)
• Albert Einstein: Life and Letters, 1905-1955
  (February 1–May 4, 2005)
• Elizabeth Bishop: A Growing Legacy
  (September–December, 2004)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin in Print: The Collection of Mary C. Schlosser
  (January 27–May 15, 2004)
• Teresa Carreño: Walküre of the Piano
  (September–December, 2003)
• Incunabula at Vassar: Examples of Western Printing in its Infancy
  (April–June, 2003)
• Mary McCarthy: Adding to the Legacy
  (October, 2001)
• Treasures of Americana, 1760-1830
  (May–June, 2001)