Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, UVA

Monuments dot the American landscape as tributes to history and memory. Fifty years ago, Lee Friedlander’s first-edition photobook The American Monument was published by Eakins Press.

Featuring more than 200 black-and-white photographs, the volume documents Friedlander’s 12-year journey across the United States. By placing monuments within the everyday American landscape, he reveals how these commemorative figures coexist with daily life.

Each photograph is titled simply by the monument’s name and location: The Boy Scout Statue of Liberty, Madison, Indiana; Volunteer Fireman, Walden, New York; Doughboy, Clearwater, Florida.

Item ID: The American Monument, Lee Friedlander, E159.F74 1976

AmericanLandscape UVARare SpecialCollections UVALibrary

Remembering Patrick Oliphant | UVA Library By Jeff Hill | July 14, 2026 Oliphant in 2018 at the exhibition of his work in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Patrick Oliphant, a giant of 20th-century political cartooning, has died in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 90 years old.Oliphant, who died on July 13, built his repu...

“My goal is not necessarily to get it looking like it once did. We want these to be as intact and true to their history as possible.”
—Sue Donovan, Special Collections Conservator

A 35 pound medieval Italian choir book, believed to date to the 14th or 15th centuries and held in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, illustrates 500 years of alterations and use. During the 1700s, someone added a page of paper to the choir book, while every previous page had been made of animal skin. Someone also may have added brass coverings to the iron bosses on the book’s leather-bound wooden covers. And at some point, the Latin words in the book were covered because, while the music stayed the same, the liturgy would change.

Donovan estimates she spent about 100 hours analyzing the book’s construction—even taking it to UVA Health for an X-ray—and conserving its spine, making a special housing, and building a specialized cradle so researchers and conservators can handle the book with minimal wear.

Today followed each step of the process, and a group of students was among the first to see the newly conserved book and examine its components.

“I want people to still be able to use this 100 or 150 years from now.” And they will, thanks to Donovan and our colleagues in the Library.

View the story online:
https://news.virginia.edu/content/how-uva-conservators-bring-books-back-life

We're gearing up for the Revolutionary Printing event on the Fourth and hope to see you there!

Special Collections will be open for the event, which goes from 11-3 — drop in any time.

PLEASE NOTE that ALL other UVA Library spaces and services are closed on both Friday July 3 and Saturday July 4.

Whatever your plans for the holiday weekend, take breaks and stay hydrated in the heat!

Details on the Revolutionary Printing event at: https://discover.library.virginia.edu/s/declaring-independence/page/rev-print

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, UVA

Are you coming to the Revolution?! Revolutionary Printing on Saturday, July 4, that is??

Take a peek behind the scenes: we’re getting ready for you! Free timed tickets for printing the Declaration on the Common Press, for the Historical Sewing Sampler and Beadwork as Storytelling workshops, and for the Silhouette Portrait sessions are all “sold” out, but plenty of walk-up activities await: print your copy of the Declaration on the BookBeetle, view paper- and ink-making demonstrations, hear the music of the American Revolution, screen print a lunch bag, fold a printer’s hat, sign a giant copy of the Declaration!

It’s free family fun on the Fourth at Revolutionary Printing, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the Small Special Collections Library

Join the Revolution! Free timed tickets available starting today at 10:00 a.m. for Custom Silhouette Portrait Sessions with local artist Mara Sprafkin:
https://revolutionary.eventbrite.com

Limited free tickets still available for our 11:15 and 1:30 Historical Sewing Sampler workshops and our 1:30 Beadwork as Storytelling workshop. Alas, tickets for Printing the Declaration on the Common Press are sold out, so plan to print your copy of the Declaration on our walk-up BookBeetle printing station.

It’s all happening at Revolutionary Printing—free family fun on the Fourth of July!

For more information:
https://revolutionary.library.virginia.edu

On July 4, University of Virginia Library visitors can watch Josef Beery’s replica Franklin press print facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence, and even take a copy home. https://uvatoday.me/4xNt0iC