Haverford CollegeLibraries

Fine art materials, including photography, prints, painting, sculpture, and artifacts are part of Quaker & Special Collections. Like other materials, art can be used by researchers in our reading room.

To find materials in the art collection, researchers can search Triarte, the TriCo database for art and artifacts. In addition to information about the pieces in the collection, Triarte often includes an image of the artwork in question. This database also includes materials from Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges, but searches can be limited to the Haverford collections.

Some materials from the art collection are available for display around campus, including in classroom spaces, open spaces, and faculty and staff offices. Anyone interested in borrowing materials for use in spaces should contact hc-special [at] haverford.edu to begin a conversation and review our art display policies.

Non-photographic fine art (painting, prints, and three-dimensional art) is mainly collected via donation to support curricular and co-curricular learning. Please consult our gift policy for more information. All gifts or purchases of artwork are reviewed by the College Art Advisory Committee, overseen by the Provost.

We actively collect fine art photography in a wide variety of areas through both purchase and donation. The collection documents the history of photography and photographic technology, and include daguerreotypes, tintypes, glass plate negatives, lantern slides, carte de visites, albumen prints, silver gelatin prints, color photographs, and more. The collection includes significant collections of photographers including Ansel Adams, Charles Currier, Edward Curtis, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, Sol Mednick, E. Eugene Smith, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Edward Jean Steichen, Paul Strand, and Carl Van Vechten. It is also particularly strong in photographs of and by African-Americans.