Exhibits

Visitors to the RIT Archives, located on the third floor of Wallace Library, can see plenty of archival materials and collections on display.

Student-curated exhibits fill display cases in the third-floor corridors, and the RIT Museum is prominently located near classrooms and study spaces. The inaugural exhibit, Student Made: 50 years of the RIT Purchase Prize Collection, is a retrospective celebrating Wallace Library’s collection of art purchased from MFA students. Professor Lorrie Frear’s Experiential Design class worked closely with university archivist Liz Call to curate the exhibit that opened in September 2023 and will run through the end of the Spring 2024 semester.

On the first floor of Wallace Library, the RIT Archives Photo Alumni Gallery features its inaugural exhibit, Chasing the Rectangle: Chris Nakis (RIT Photo, '83). The exhibit was curated by student Emma Truscott (Photographic and Imaging Arts BFA, ' 24) along with an oral history interview series conducted with Nakis during the Spring 2023 semester. Chasing the Rectangle will also be mounted through the Spring 2024 semester.

Epidemics, Economics, and Elections: The Editorial Cartoons of John Scott Clubb and Elmer Messner

This digital exhibit features the work of Rochester editorial cartoonists John Scott Clubb (1875-1934) and Elmer Messner (1901-1979). Together, the lives of these two cartoonists span a century of change in the city of Rochester, the state of New York, and the United States as a whole. Looking beyond the brisk changes and innovations of their lives and work reveals patterns that still resonate today.  This exhibit was a collaborative effort between Liz Call and Jody Sidlauskas in RIT Archives; Digital Humanities & Social Sciences Librarian, Rebekah Walker; and community member and donor, Melissa Corcoran Hopkins. 

Transformative Impacts: Archives of an Entrepreneur

Transformative Impacts gives an introductory exploration into B. Thomas Golisano's rich contributions in the world of business, philanthropy, and activism.

The Stories They Tell 

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These series of student-curated digital exhibits are the creative end products of an ongoing collaborative program between Associate Professor Juilee Decker and RIT Archives. Students in the Museum Studies course Cultural Informatics (MUSE 359), curate both a physical and digital exhibit.  Their exhibits seek to share stories of the RIT community through documents, photographs, yearbooks, memorabilia, and other items.

For more information on the process of creating these student-curated exhibits, see https://ritmuse.wordpress.com/. 

Women at Rochester Institute of Technology: The Past, Present and Future

This digital exhibit brings together three projects that highlight the evolving roles of women on RIT’s campus since 1885.

Spirit of RIT

This digital exhibit highlights the influence that the original mascot has had on RIT.