Exhibits in the Greenfield Library

book-collecting contest honorees 2025

On exhibit through 5/1/2025 are items from the collections of our 2025 book-collecting contest honorees. The collectors recognized in the 2025 Book Collecting Contest are:

Graham Testen (A27), for Paths through Time, an essay and bibliography exploring how books can inform our understanding of the concept and possibilities of the past, present, and future.

Davin Faris (A28) for How to Fall in Love with the World, an essay and bibliography reflecting on poetry as a mechanism for exploring the human condition.

Congratulations to both awardees. We invite you to visit during the library’s regular opening hours to see titles from these collections, and the authors’ submitted essays. In support of these collections, we are also featuring poetry and speculative fiction from the E. Barrett Prettyman collection. This exhibit is on view in the library’s Nutt Room from February 17 to May 1, 2025.

Bibliophile: Inscribed Books from the E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr. Collection

E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., a distinguished lawyer in the District of Columbia, generously donated his remarkable and unique collection of over 1,000 inscribed books to the Greenfield Library in several installments, beginning in 1997. A true bibliophile, Prettyman believed the value of a book is raised significantly if it is signed by its original author. He believed books are even more valuable if they are inscribed with elaborate personal inscriptions.

As a lover of books, Prettyman decided that it would be ideal for his collection to be housed at a College that is filled with book lovers. The Prettyman collection is an eclectic mix of books which spans from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. The collection includes, but is not limited to, books signed by important political figures, artists, American, British, French and German literary authors, Nobel Prize winners, and contemporary authors. A selection of titles from the collection are on display in the Nutt Room.