Main Library Gallery news

Stepping back in time: archival audio meets creativity in the Main Library Gallery

Exhibits always present opportunities for innovation.

When co-curators Katie Buehner and Sarah Sudadolnik were envisioning the visitor experience for Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon, an audio interactive was at the heart of it. They wanted guests of their spring 2026 University of Iowa Main Library Gallery exhibition to encounter an immersive space that could feel like James Dixon’s home office: a wallpaper pattern inspired by real designs from his home in Iowa City; a desk accessorized by music scores, photographs from his life, plants, an ashtray, and a coffee cup; a flannel shirt for orchestra rehearsals; and a record player with audio clips of his voice and performances he conducted.

José Jiménez, director of Libraries Information Technology (LIT), knew this record player would require special engineering and was invited to lead its design. After hearing Buehner and Suhadolnik’s idea for an interactive, he was reminded of a project he had seen online involving a mini jukebox that used an RFID (radio frequency identification) reader and tags. He decided to experiment with this idea for the exhibition.

The goal was to embed an RFID reader into a record player, attach pre-programmed RFID tags to real records, and encourage visitors to spin the records on the turntable. This would trigger audio to play through speakers that were connected to a computer hidden near the device.

“I’ve always been a tinkerer, and I’ve always liked solving problems,” says Jiménez, who has worked in information technology at Iowa for over 20 years. “In my day-to-day role, problem-solving usually involves a meeting or a conversation and connecting people to each other. Working on this project for the Main Library Gallery let me go back to my roots a bit, find as simple and efficient a solution to the problem as I could, and let me write a bit of code to boot.”

Jose Jimenez takes a record out of a sleeve. He is standing next to a turntable, a disconnected speaker, and a desk as he works to assemble a special audio interactive. — *José Jiménez, director of Libraries Information Technology, assembles a custom-built audio interactive for the spring 2026 exhibition in the Main Library Gallery. Photo: Sara Pinkham.*

Jiménez originally considered 3D printing the interactive display, which would have been designed to mimic a real record player. After some additional research, he realized the most cost-effective option would be to purchase and retrofit broken technology instead. After incorporating the RFID reader into the existing structure of the record player, Jiménez encountered a challenge.

“The reader could not find the tags,” he says. “There was too much metal in the way. We had to disassemble the record player, cut away some of the metal, and recreate the platter using other materials so the signals would not be blocked.”

Bill Voss, exhibit preparator and a conservator technician in Conservation and Collections Care, helped solve this issue by recreating the entire platter out of plexiglass and matboard. “Without this, the project would not have worked,” says Jiménez.

Collaboration with other colleagues ensured the interactive worked sustainably and matched the exhibit’s design aesthetic.

Will Brown, LIT support consultant, made the project sustainable for the exhibit’s five-month run.

“He provided the platform and the hardware,” says Jiménez. “Will made sure I had all the information and infrastructure I needed to make this a truly hands-off, robust system to power the interactive. I just added the software on top of that to play the audio when the RFID tags were recognized.”

The RFID tags were attached to real records and hidden beneath custom labels crafted by Lauren Coghlan, creative coordinator and graphic designer for the exhibit. Labels for each record were different and all inspired by retro design trends.

A custom label for Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 "Tragic" is shown on a repurposed record. — *Custom labels were designed by Lauren Coghlan. Photo: Sara Pinkham.*

“Being able to pick up a record from the rack, place it on the record player, and listen—as James Dixon might have—to the performance or radio interview in the audio allowed visitors to step back in time and be in the moment,” says Jiménez.

The audio interactive was one of the highlights of the exhibition, connecting visitors with archival audio and new oral history interviews related to James Dixon’s life and career. These sound clips, edited by Buehner, will remain available online.

Katie Buehner leans over the record player interactive and shows a visitor how to play the audio. — Katie Buehner, exhibit co-curator and director of the Rita Benton Music Library, shows a visitor how to use the record player interactive in the spring 2026 Main Library Gallery exhibition. Photo: Krista Hershberger.

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Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon was on display in the Main Library Gallery at the University of Iowa Libraries from Jan. 2 –June 26, 2026. The exhibition was curated by Sarah Suhadolnik, assistant professor of instruction at the UI School of Music, and Katie Buehner, director of the Rita Benton Music Library.

Mahler’s influence on James Dixon

Black and white portrait of Gustav Mahler in the 1800s. He is posing for the camera in a suit and tie.

The following was compiled by Cecil Campbell, exhibition and engagement student lead for the Main Library Gallery, and features select exhibition text by Sarah Suhadolnik and Katie Buehner.

During his considerable tenure as conductor of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, James Dixon developed a reputation for programming modern compositions, which occasionally ruffled the feathers of his more traditional-minded audience members. Though he faced some objections, Dixon’s love for the music he conducted ultimately led to a wider appreciation in his audiences for newer or more avant-garde compositions. Amidst the repertory Dixon conducted, the works of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) figure prominently.

Gustav Mahler was born in Bohemia but spent a great deal of his professional life as a composer and conductor in Vienna. His last few years were spent as the music director of the New York Philharmonic (1909–1911), the longest consistently operating orchestra in the United States. No composer of orchestral music exploited the orchestra’s grandness like Mahler. He composed sprawling symphonic works of such breadth that just one can fill an entire concert program. His nine mammoth symphonies require enormous performing forces (up to 500 musicians for the Eighth Symphony) and often stretch over an hour in length (up to 100 minutes for the Third Symphony), making attempts to keep the composer’s music in the public ear a major event. Fearing such a limited program would result in low ticket sales, the Tri-City (now Quad City) Symphony Orchestra avoided programming a Mahler symphony until 1979, when Dixon conducted Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” with Martha Sheil (soprano) and Anne Larson (mezzo-soprano) and choirs from Augustana College joining for the performance. The symphony—nearly an hour and a half long—elicited an awed and intense reaction from the crowd.

In response to James Dixon’s conducting of Mahler’s second symphony, The Sunday Dispatch headline read, “Symphony concert of the decade,” with reviewer Bill McElwain in ecstasy over the “powerfully stunning performance of the Mahler Symphony no. 2.”

Mahler once told another composer, “The symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything.” His symphonic world included a wide array of musical styles and types, including sound effects evoking natural settings (e.g., birdsong, cowbells, bellowing horns), military marches, folk songs, chorales, funeral dirges, children’s music, and playful musical jokes. To conduct Mahler is to explore, with a complex and wide-ranging sound map, the many places in life where sound and music play a role.

For his last performances with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra—April 9 and 10, 1994, at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa, and Centennial Hall in Rock Island, Illinois—James Dixon selected Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler.

A composer with an incredible legacy and impact, the influence that Mahler had on Dixon comes as no surprise. The choice to perform one of Mahler’s symphonies for his last performance speaks to an open mind and considerable talent.

Learn more about James Dixon and his accomplishments both locally and abroad in the spring 2026 Main Library Gallery exhibit Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon.

James Dixon’s lasting impact on the Quad City Symphony Orchestra

Black and white photo of conductor James Dixon in formal tails. He is smiling and seated.

In 1916, the Tri-Cities area—Rock Island, Illinois; Moline, Illinois; and Davenport, Iowa—was the smallest community in the country to support a full symphony orchestra. Now the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO), it is one of the oldest continuously operating orchestras in the United States.

In 1965, 37-year-old James Dixon was hired as the music director, appointing him steward of this legacy and the most recent director in a line of (at the time) seven before him. Although Dixon’s programming choices initially tested the tastes of audiences and administrators alike, he quickly garnered a reputation for steady leadership.

While learning to work with professional musicians, Dixon also grew into his role in the organization’s ongoing efforts to secure subscribers—members of the community who provide essential annual support. The care and discipline Dixon brought to his work transformed him into a local celebrity. While that may seem like high praise, Dixon’s celebrity status could be seen in more than just reputation. For example, at the time Dixon joined the QCSO as conductor, the organization had a modest budget. By the time he retired in 1994, budgets were significantly larger owing to his fundraising efforts.

Dixon’s—and the QCSO’s—long-term investment in local community has paid large dividends. When one considers not only how important the orchestra is—and was—to its audiences, but to the musicians themselves, it makes his level of commitment stand out all the more. As one of the Quad Cities’ oldest community groups, it makes sense that the QCSO has played a significant role not just in the lives of area residents, but in many of its members’ lives as well.

In a now-archived blog post from the Davenport Public Library’s website, special collections librarian Sarah J. Wesson wrote, “The Symphony has remained a cohesive group, weathering storms and uncertainties together. Though none of the original [early] musicians remain, of course, many of the current members have been with the orchestra for a remarkable length of time.”

After 29 years with the QCSO, James Dixon left an impression as significant as his orchestra. Former QCSO executive director Lance Willett said, “I think it’s something that rarely, if ever, will be seen again in most communities. That kind of dedication and connection to a community…is the sort of relationship that exists very, very, rarely.”

Learn more about James Dixon and his local impact in the spring 2026 Main Library Gallery exhibit, Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon, which closes June 26.

Curator Q&A with Katie Buehner

Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon, the spring 2026 exhibition in the University of Iowa Main Library Gallery, provides a glimpse into the life of its namesake through stories and objects from the recently donated James Dixon Papers. From newspaper clippings and photographs to official documents and correspondence, each item on display helps piece together his adventurous international career as an orchestra conductor while celebrating his roles as a longtime director of both the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra.

Katie Buehner, director of the Rita Benton Music Library, co-curated the exhibition with Sarah Suhadolnik, assistant professor of instruction at the University of Iowa School of Music. Buehner played an important role in facilitating the donation of the Dixon Papers to the Libraries.

Question: What inspired you to co-curate this exhibition?
Answer: When the Libraries received the donation of James Dixon’s papers, I knew they would make for a great exhibit. It’s a big collection—over 1,200 music scores to start, and we’re still working our way through the papers portion—and so there’s been a great deal of content from which to tell this story. When I met with the donors Carey Bostian and Miera Kim, one of our stated aims was to get the collection into the public eye so that they could use it for research and to spur their own creativity. An exhibit is a great way to start that process.

Q: What drew you into the story of James Dixon (1928–2007)?
A: I think listening to the stories from people who played under Dixon’s baton really drew me into wanting to know more about him and his philosophy of music-making. There’s great admiration for him as a skilled conductor and musician, even if he could be gruff and demanding. I also was so impressed by his mentor, Dimitri Mitropoulos, who despite being a world-class conductor lived such a humble, simple existence. One thing I feel I share with Dixon is the statement he made at his retirement party: he learned to love teaching, and that’s where he really felt he’d left something enduring behind.

Q: What has curating this exhibit meant to you as both a librarian and musician?
A: I haven’t seen many exhibits about music, especially centered on classical music stories, and that’s a world I’ve inhabited for decades now. It’s very easy to say that classical music or orchestras are passe and not accessible to the average person, but I think this exhibit tells a different story. It shows how orchestras can and are community-rich organizations that connect people with all kinds of music and experiences.

Q: How did the Dixon Papers come to Iowa?
A: I moved to Iowa in 2014 to become the music librarian, and a colleague at the Libraries—Christine Bellomy—introduced me to local musicians Carey Bostian and Miera Kim. Carey waited about two seconds before telling me all about Dixon’s score collection and other papers he had stored in every hidey-hole in their house, and it’s possible that my jaw hit the floor when I saw what they had. It would be another five years before we started moving the collection to the Rita Benton Music Library and another couple before the donation was completed. I’ve been humbled by the trust of Carey and Miera in the Libraries to steward this collection, and I’m also so glad to call them friends.

We’ve been able to process most (so close to all) of the collection, partially due to financial support from Carey and Miera, and I’m hopeful we’ll be announcing a completed finding aid soon.

Miera Kim, Carey Bostian, Sarah Suhadolnik, and Katie Buehner pose together behind a table displaying scrapbooks and a conducting baton. — Miera Kim, Carey Bostian, Sarah Suhadolnik, and Katie Buehner with materials from the James Dixon Papers.

Q: Why is it important to have this exhibit in the Main Library Gallery?
A: The Main Library Gallery opened not long after I was hired at Iowa, and it’s a fabulous space for exhibits. I’ve seen the gallery mature during the last decade, and the exhibits staff have found so many clever ways to present content. I’m constantly impressed. The space allowed us to tell a story of a particular size that suited the collection and narrative well. The Main Library is also open more hours than the Rita Benton Music Library, so there’s time for people to experience it.

Q: What are some of the most surprising things you learned during your research for this project?
A: Dixon’s time in the U.S. Army is such an interesting corner of his history, and the history of the United States in post-World War II Europe. There’s a book about the Seventh Army Symphony, Uncle Sam’s Orchestra, for anyone who is equally fascinated by the topic.

The International Society for Contemporary Music festival in Boston was also a bright spot in researching Dixon’s time at Iowa. We found a reel from the event that had an interview with Dixon, and then the performances by the orchestra. As I listen to these recordings, I cannot believe it’s a college orchestra performing such complicated music. University of Iowa alumnus Greg Eriksen, who played in that concert, drove to Iowa City this spring to see the exhibit and let us scan a really cool poster from that event, which you can see here. Iowa was one of only two college orchestras to perform at that event, with the New England Conservatory orchestra being the other. ISCM has only been held in the United States that one time in 1976. And Iowa was there.

A red poster that says The Major International Contemporary Music festival. ISCM World Music Days. October 24 through 30, 1976. New England Conservatory of Music, Boston. — *Poster from ISCM/World Music Days, 1976. Contributed by Greg Eriksen.*

Q: What is your favorite object in the exhibit?
A: While I’m a sucker for telegrams, and I really like the one we have in the exhibit, I’m going to say the letter Dixon wrote to Maxon P. Roller. Roller was a symphony patron who wrote to Dixon lamenting the programming of contemporary works. Dixon responded with grace and a clear statement of his approach to programming and the importance of playing new music. He’s not snide or judgmental—he’s thoughtful but unapologetic. It’s a handwritten, muti-page letter, and I find it exemplary that he would take the time to respond so thoughtfully to this one audience member.

Q: What do you hope visitors will take away from their time in Orchestrating Community?
A: I hope visitors take away new ideas about orchestras and how they inhabit their own communities. But I also like when exhibits lead people to ask questions of themselves and others, so I hope some of that happens, too.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share?
A: I’m so glad I worked with a co-curator on this exhibit. Sarah Suhadolnik created the community frame for the narrative, and it beautifully anchors Dixon’s story and the story of his many orchestras. Exhibit work is highly collaborative, and I am grateful to every person who contributed to this project. Take a look at the credits and see how many cooks were in the kitchen as well as all the people who supported this endeavor. And, come back to the Main Library Gallery this fall for the Ding Darling exhibit, which, from what I’m hearing, sounds like it will be amazing.

Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon will be on display through June 26, 2026. The Main Library Gallery is open daily. Plus, hear audio clips from Dixon’s conducting career online.

Curator Q&A with Sarah Suhadolnik

Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon, the spring 2026 exhibition in the Main Library Gallery, provides a glimpse into the life of its namesake through stories and objects from the recently donated James Dixon Papers. From newspaper clippings and photographs to official documents and correspondence, each item on display helps piece together his adventurous international career as an orchestra conductor while celebrating his roles as a longtime director of both the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra.

Sarah Suhadolnik, assistant professor of instruction at the University of Iowa School of Music, co-curated the exhibition with Katie Buehner, director of the Rita Benton Music Library. The broader Dixon collection, now part of the University Archives at the UI Libraries, provided a strong foundation for Suhadolnik’s exhibition research.

Question: What inspired you to co-curate this exhibition?
Answer: I always listen with great interest to Katie’s tales of how the library collects the rare items it accumulates. Discussions of the work involved in acquiring the Dixon materials pushed me to develop my graduate seminar “Histories of U.S. Orchestras.” When it came time to put the exhibit together, Katie thought my work on the course would prove useful in developing the narrative for the exhibit. It did.

Q: What drew you into the story of James Dixon (1928–2007)?
A: Accessibility of, and advocacy for, public arts experiences are essential talking points in orchestral music right now. The Maestro gives us a lot to reflect on when thinking about both.

Dixon hints in some of his public remarks at frustration with the notion that an artist interested in a sustainable performance career must invest a certain amount of energy in what we today call their “personal brand.” Even though he had a New York Philharmonic conductor on proverbial speed dial, Dixon’s aversion to “selling himself,” cultivating the type of public following we now measure with social media accounts and the like, limited both the number and prestige of performance positions available to him. At the same time, orchestras were not an abstract public good to him. He operated at all times with a tangible vision of what his ensembles contributed to their respective communities and could speak very clearly and effectively about that.

Q: What has curating this exhibit meant to you as both a scholar and musician?
A: At its most personal to me, the exhibit is an ode to what I fear can get lost in conservatory-style music education. Long hours alone in a practice room can make it hard to feel enmeshed in a larger musical ecosystem. The rigors of this type of musical training can undermine a performer’s relationship with prospective listeners, and/or make attending a live performance as part of an audience into a chore.

Q: How did you approach your research in the archives?
A: Throughout, I have organized my research for the exhibit around two core objectives: firstly, to introduce the broader public to the breadth of what is available in Dixon’s collected papers; and secondly, to trace the depth of Dixon’s roots in the local community. This often meant working in multiple directions simultaneously.

To be able to accomplish the first objective, I had to understand what was in the collection, and the only way to do that was to explore what I could while it was being processed. Work towards the second objective looked a lot like storyboarding. As I got to know the collection a bit better, I collected what fragments I could of the stories waiting to be told with the materials. I built up a holistic view of Dixion’s life and work as it relates to the lesser-known history of regional orchestras.

Q: Why is it important to have this exhibit in the Main Library Gallery?
A: If the exhibit were not in the gallery, I wouldn’t have had the chance to collaborate with the amazing team that works there. I have learned more from Sara, Lauren, and the rest about public-facing scholarly work than I have from any number of papers, conference presentations, and seminars on the topic.

Q: What are some of the most surprising things you learned during your research for this project?
A: I learned a lot about what a tragedy it is to lose local news. Papers in small communities like Guthrie Center had so many subtle yet significant ways of maintaining strong bonds among close-knit residents. For instance, a lot of the local newspaper announcements I found for concerts on the University of Iowa campus included the names of students who had grown up in the place of publication.

Q: What is your favorite object in the exhibit?
A: “The Conductor’s Study,” which is more of a built environment than a singular object. It’s this element that allowed me to fully experience what the medium of exhibitions can accomplish that scholarly publication cannot.

Q: What do you hope visitors will take away from their time in Orchestrating Community?
A: I expect the pictures of Dixon’s return to Guthrie Center with the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra to personally resonate with a lot of visitors. If they weren’t a member of an ensemble performing in a gymnasium like the one pictured, or a guest at the type of school reception pictured, they likely know someone who was. I hope visitors take a moment as they enjoy all the exhibit has to offer to think about all the people and places they are connected to because of such community music experiences.

Iowa conductor James Dixon honored in new Main Library Gallery exhibition

The Main Library Gallery at the University of Iowa Libraries welcomes visitors to go “behind the podium” in its new exhibition about local orchestra conductor James Dixon (1928–2007). Free and open to the public, Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon opened on Jan. 20 and will be on display through June 26, 2026.

Dixon was an Iowa native, and a longtime director of the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Curated by Assistant Professor of Instruction Sarah Suhadolnik from the UI School of Music and Rita Benton Music Library Director Katie Buehner, this exhibition explores Dixon’s adventurous international conducting career as well as his important impact on orchestras and musicians at home in Iowa.

The exhibition includes personal correspondences, photographs, artifacts, music scores, audio clips, and much more from the UI Libraries Special Collections and Archives and the Rita Benton Music Library that help tell the story of Dixon’s life and work. These materials and the stories shared by the curators also celebrate the ways in which orchestras of all sizes connect with their local communities.

“This is a story about Iowa and Iowans,” says co-curator Katie Buehner. “While many of the characters in the exhibit travel a great deal to other locations, their roots stay firmly in this community. This is also a story about music and how it brings people together.”

“Dixon operated at all times with a tangible vision of what his ensembles contributed to their respective communities,” says co-curator Sarah Suhadolnik. “I hope visitors will leave the exhibit with a better appreciation for the arts of all sorts as fundamentally collaborative undertakings.”

Photo of a long exhibit case filled with paper ephemera like letters, photos, newspaper clippings, and concert programs. — From the Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Conductor James Dixon exhibition in the Main Library Gallery. Photo: Krista Hershberger.

The James Dixon Papers were recently donated to the UI Libraries by Carey Bostian and Miera Kim, close friends of Dixon. They are also leaders of and core musicians in local nonprofit organization Red Cedar Chamber Music.

Learn more about the exhibition, related events, and visiting hours at lib.uiowa.edu/gallery.

Curator Q&A with Giselle Simón

Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education, the fall 2025 exhibition in the Main Library Gallery, features an array of unique items from University of Iowa Libraries collections that share the history of paper technologies and movable books. Giselle Simón, university conservator and director of Conservation and Collections Care at the Libraries, co-curated the exhibition with Damien Ihrig and Elizabeth Yale. Her expertise in paper conservation and experience as an artist both contributed to her vision for the exhibition.

In the following questions and answers, Giselle shares her thoughts on curating for the Main Library Gallery and some of her favorite discoveries.

Giselle sits at a table and carefully opens a historic psalter book. — University Conservator and Director of Conservation and Collections Care Giselle Simón. Photo: Sara Pinkham.

Question: What inspired you to co-curate this exhibition?
Answer: My initial interest in researching materials for a paper engineering exhibit was quite simple: I thought these things were cool! This one-sided view led me to realize I needed some expertise and thoughtful perspectives. Co-curators Beth Yale, associate professor of history and at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, and Damien Ihrig, curator of the John Martin Rare Book Room, brought this in spades.

Q: As a conservator, what does this exhibit mean to you personally?
A: As a book conservator and sometimes visual artist, I’ve always been in love with paper. So much so I’ve recently learned how to make it. It’s a constant in my work, whether through conservation treatment or my own art investigations. As with any craft, there are layers of history, science, and skill. The technical aspects of understanding paper—down to the actual forming of sheets—reinforce and inform my conservation treatment decisions. Beauty, strength, translucency, and flexibility are all qualities I look for in both conservation and art making.

Giselle stands in the library's gallery and places boxes onto a cart. — Giselle Simón prepares a cart of collections materials in the Main Library Gallery during installation for *Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education*. Photo: Sara Pinkham

Q: What do you like about having this exhibit in the Main Library Gallery on campus?
A: The initial inspiration for this exhibition was the anatomical and medical flap books in the John Martin Rare Book Room (JMRBR) at Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. This treasure trove of unique and fantastic printed materials immediately caught my attention when I first arrived at the UI Libraries in 2012. I was also on the team that helped design and open the Main Library Gallery in 2016. So it’s terrific to see a project featuring the JMRBR’s flap books materialize in this space. It’s the exhibit I envisioned in my own mind when we were brainstorming about the future of our library exhibitions.

Q: What are some of the most surprising things you learned during your research for the exhibit?
A: One of the surprising things to me was the fact that the different objects we were interested in made sense together, and that there was ease in choosing. Thanks to Damien and his knowledge of the collection of the JMRBR’s medical flap books—which I feel are at the core of the show—everything came together easily. It seems like the content and connections we found grew from those selections.

Q: What are some of your favorite objects in the exhibit?
A: There are so many favorites. I’d like to point out Shawn Sheehy’s A Pop-Up Culinary Herbal [N7433.4.S5355 P82 2013] from the Szathmary Collection in Special Collections and Archives. His expertise can be seen in this delightful romp through the garden. The genius is in the paper engineering and the subtle and simple movements that identify each plant. The paper comes alive. We were fortunate to partner with the University of Iowa Center for the Book (UICB) this fall to bring Shawn to campus as the Nadia Sophie Seiler Visiting Artist in November 2025. Shawn presented a public lecture, conducted demonstrations for students, and worked on his own project in the UICB studios.

Q: Is there anything especially unique about the juxtapositions you have made?
A: The historical examples of the medical flap books in the exhibit gave way to the inclusion of 19th- and 20th-century mass printed “toy” movable books, so certainly there was a lot of content to explore across many time periods. Being a historian, Beth had a knack for pairing seemingly unrelated objects. She found the visual connections from one century to the next, even if the intention of the objects were very different. To place a modern photographic pop up next to a 1688 flap book never would have occurred to me! What a pleasure to have that perspective in this exhibit.

Q: What do you hope visitors will take away from their time in the exhibit?
A: Beth, Damien, and I are grateful to the many modern book and paper artists represented in the exhibition, and especially those who have shared their thoughts about process and inspiration. I hope this illuminates the fact that many contemporary artists are utilizing paper engineering in their work and that it has a rich history of artists and craftspeople figuring out inventive ways to express ideas through paper. Indeed, there are many more works of paper to explore in the UI Libraries collections and beyond.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share?
A: We were all very much inspired by the work of Suzanne Karr Schmidt, curator of rare books and manuscripts at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Suzanne has done extensive research into Renaissance movable book elements, such as volvelles and other early paper mechanisms. She supported our research and had some wonderful insights for us when she visited our Remmelin flap book on campus in 2024. Suzanne invited us to present virtually at a Movable Book Society meeting last year, and the reactions from the group were reassuring: there were others out in the world excited about flaps and movable paper parts!

Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education invites visitors to explore paper dolls, flap books, pop-ups, tunnel books, volvelles, and books that use paper to make sounds while learning about their historical and contemporary significance. It is open to the public through Dec. 19, 2025.

Students investigate: eye-catching color in early children’s books

This series features the work and research of UI students. The following was written by Cecil Campbell, exhibition and engagement student lead for the Main Library Gallery.

There are a number of hallmarks that we look for when identifying children’s media: big pictures, bold and eye-catching colors, large fonts. Children’s books especially are known for these traits, and have been since the 19th century, when they first became their own market and genre. Much like kid’s television shows today, stories often included a moral, or lesson, that extolled virtues like selflessness, patience, and kindness.

Orbis Pictus by Johannes Amos Comenius was published in 1658. As one of the first instructional picture books for children, Comenius’s approach leaned heavily on visual learning and the use of instructional pictures and drawings. The goal was to teach learning comprehension through association: pairing words with images by placing them next to each other, until reading the given word independently recalled the corresponding image. Scholar Andrea Korda, in their journal article “Thinking with Pictures: Memory, Imagination, and Colour Illustration in Victorian Teaching and Learning,” writes that pictures were essential to Comenius’s methods not only because of their familiarity as iconic representations, but also because, according to Comenius, “children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with pictures.”

An important and equally iconic aspect of early children’s books was the chromolithograph. The process of the chromolithograph involved drawing a picture using an oil or grease-based ink and transferring that image to stone or metal plates and then printing over that image multiple times using differently colored versions of the same image. When put together fully, the colors of the different layers would produce a fully colored and detailed image that evoked the feeling of an oil painting, but at a fraction of the cost. Depending on how much detail a chromolithographer wanted in their picture, they might use anywhere from as little as eight plates to as many as forty to complete an image. Though used many times in children’s books, the chromolithograph was also used in collectible trading cards, Christmas cards, and calendars.

Children’s books such as A Party of Six: A Movable Toybook by notable 19^th-century author and bookmaker Lothar Meggendorfer also boasted interactive elements. These took the shape of flaps, pull tabs, and pop-up pictures that gave the book a feeling as though it were alive, as though it were a small puppet theatre instead of a book. These types of books enchanted children. Due to the significant amount of effort and detail they took to produce, these books typically were affordable only to richer and more affluent families.

As both time and the children’s book industry progressed, chromolithography fell out of style, making way for modern machine color printing, which made color printing both cheaper and easier. Because of this, brightly colored children’s books, trading cards, calendars, and the like became much cheaper and accessible to people outside of the upper classes.

A Party of Six is on display in the Main Library Gallery’s Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education exhibition, which showcases the fascinating world of paper technologies. Curated by Giselle Simón, Damien Ihrig, and Elizabeth Yale, this interactive exhibition invites visitors to explore paper dolls, flap books, pop-ups, tunnel books, volvelles, and books that use paper to make sounds while learning about their historical and contemporary significance. It is open to the public through Dec. 19, 2025.

Further reading:

Korda, Andrea. 2020. “Thinking with Pictures: Memory, Imagination, and Colour Illustration in Victorian Teaching and Learning.” Paedagogica Historica 56 (3): 269–92. doi:10.1080/00309230.2018.1550520.

Visit the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections and Archives to view editions of Orbis Pictus and other historic children’s books.

Curator Q&A with Damien Ihrig

Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education, the fall 2025 exhibition in the Main Library Gallery, features an array of unique items from University of Iowa Libraries collections that share the history of paper technologies and movable books. A significant number of books on display are from the John Martin Rare Book Room at Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. Damien Ihrig, curator of the John Martin Rare Book Room, co-curated the exhibition with Giselle Simón and Elizabeth Yale.

In the following questions and answers, Damien shares his thoughts on curating for the Main Library Gallery and some of his favorite discoveries.

Question: What inspired you to co-curate this exhibition?
Answer: Our anatomical flap books from the John Martin Rare Book Room (JMRBR) engage with users in ways that other illustrated books in the collection do not. They have been used in isolated exhibits, but never in an exhibit of this size and scope. I jumped at the chance when Giselle approached me with the proposal to include some of our flap books in a Main Library Gallery exhibit.

Q: As a curator, what does this exhibit mean to you personally?
A: I really get a kick out of folks interacting with the JMRBR books, especially if it’s for the first time. I’m excited that this exhibit has allowed more folks to see these amazing books and to make historical and thematic connections with so many other great items from the UI Libraries collections. It was also an incredibly rewarding experience working on the exhibit with Beth and Giselle. We had a lot of fun researching and selecting items for the exhibit. It’s been a great experience and I look forward to the next exhibit I have the opportunity to collaborate on.

Q: What are some of the most surprising things you learned during your research?
A: Some of the most surprising things for me while putting the exhibit together involved the ways items spoke to each other—even across time and genre—such that we could put more modern, glossy items next to items from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries and draw functional or thematic parallels.

Q: What are some of your favorite objects in the exhibit?
A: Catoptrum microcosmicum [German], by Johann Remmelin. Ulm: Printed by Johann Schultes Buchtrucker, published by Johann Görlin Buchhandlers, 1661. [FOLIO QM21 .R45 1661], John Martin Rare Book Room.

This book by Johann Remmelin is one of my, admittedly many, favorites in the JMRBR collection and this exhibit. Earlier works had incorporated flaps of various kinds to demonstrate layers of anatomy; however, Remmelin was interested in creating a complete anatomy using flaps. His Catoptrum microcosmicum was originally published in 1619 (also in the JMRBR collection) and included nearly 120 flaps (although a version of this book was initially published in 1613 by a printer friend of his, even though Remmelin did not think the book was ready). Interestingly, Catoptrum microcosmicum demonstrates a moral conflict with the presentation of bodies, adding modesty flaps, sometimes in multiple layers, over genitalia.

De vrouw: haar bouw en haar inwendige organen (The Woman: Her Build and Internal Organs), by Aletta H. Jacobs. Deventer: Æ.E. Kluwer, 1900. [RG121 .J3 1900], John Martin Rare Book Room.

I really like the story behind De vrouw. Aletta Jacobs was a pioneering 19th-century Dutch physician and social activist. Born in 1854 in the Netherlands, Jacobs chafed at the status quo and the limited educational opportunities for women in the Netherlands. From a young age, Jacobs was determined to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor like her father. At the time, though, women were barred from higher education. In 1871, she learned of a male student who had been granted admission to the University of Groningen based on his pharmacy diploma. Because she also had earned a pharmacy diploma, she was granted approval to attend medical school and became the first woman to enroll at Groningen. Despite many obstacles, she graduated in 1879, earning her medical degree.

Jacobs was also an unwavering campaigner for the health of women and children, as well as for suffrage and international peace. She wrote many articles and books, including De Vrouw, a short book about female anatomy. She was interested in making medical information easily accessible to laypeople, especially women who wanted to know more about their own anatomy. The flaps included in De vrouw are easy to manipulate and straightforward to use, but densely packed with information.

Fragmentos de Lluvia: A Graphic Score (Fragments of Rain), by María Carolina Ceballos. Iowa City: Canto Press, 2021. x-Collection Oblong [FOLIO N7433.4.C3966 F73x 2021], Special Collections and Archives.

I believe Fragmentos de Lluvia embodies everything this exhibit represents. Ceballos has crafted a multisensory experience by manipulating paper into a multitude of forms, all of which are meant to be physically interacted with by the reader. Sound, visual, tactile, nature, memory, and even smell are all dimensions of information that Fragmentos elicits for the user. All with the same material, expertly crafted into a variety of forms, each of which can be manipulated in different ways to inform, delight, surprise, and inspire. Truly a paper engineering marvel!

Q: Is there anything especially unique about the juxtapositions you have made within the exhibit?
A: Seeing Catoptrum microcosmicum, a 17th-century work that helped establish flap technology in the anatomical sciences, paired with Visionaire. 55, Surprise, a glossy pop-up, is really fun. Pairing Obstetric Tables, a 19th-century obstetric book, with paper dolls is also interesting. Both of these demonstrate technological throughlines. They also inspire conversations about bodies and how our views of them have evolved over time.

Q: What do you hope visitors will take away from their time in the exhibit?
A: Paper is much more than just a ream you buy from an office supply store. It is a technology that has supported, and continues to support, the communication of information in a rich variety of forms for centuries. And, anatomical flap books exist and are super cool!

Curators Damien Ihrig, Beth Yale, and Giselle Simon stand in the Main Library Gallery. They are in front of the introduction panel for the exhibit, which is in vibrant pink, green, and blue hues. — Damien Ihrig, Elizabeth Yale, and Giselle Simón in the Main Library Gallery during the Sept. 2025 opening celebration for their exhibition, *Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education*. Photo: Krista Hershberger.

Students investigate: a brief history of cards

A card game box and three playing cards.

This series features the work and research of UI students. The following was written by Cecil Campbell, exhibition and engagement student lead for the Main Library Gallery.

Cards are found in many games, across time and place. They can be adapted to appeal to different ages, different playing styles, and even different commercial franchises. The history of card games is very much one of evolution and innovation. Though the 52-card deck has existed since the 15thcentury, thought to originate in France, the oldest playing cards are thought to date back to the Tang Dynasty during the first millennium. Though the cards that we’re familiar with today are made of plastic-coated cardstock, Tang Dynasty playing cards were made of paper, printed with woodcuts, and doubled as a form of currency.

In his History of Playing Cards, Rodney P. Carlisle talks about the rise in popularity of playing cards across Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries:

“Writings from this period document card games being played in Spain by 1371, and in France and Switzerland by 1377. The early decks were handmade works of art available only to the rich, but the introduction of the mass production of paper around 1400, coupled with the popularity of woodcut printing, quickly led to the creation of inexpensive decks for the general public.”

Cards have a wide range of uses. Historically, they’ve been used as collection items, to tell fortunes, for currency, and of course, for gambling, having been associated with gambling for as long as they’ve been around. Card players from the Tang Dynasty would have used the cards themselves as betting money, raising the stakes by literally gambling away the hands they played with. As card playing spread across Europe, some governments found themselves more troubled by this new pastime than they’d expected. Carlisle wrote that “[in 1397] the prévôt of Paris declared a workday ban on recreations that could distract workers; in addition to cards, dice, tennis, and all forms of bowling were named in the decree.”

Possibly the only use for cards as famous as gambling is fortune telling. Tarot cards are a popular form of fortune telling, along with oracle decks, though fortune tellers have also been known to use regular card decks to tell fortunes. Le Livre du Destin, or The Book of Fate, is a French 32-card oracle deck from 1900. It features a wide variety of different archetypes of people, in typical fortune telling fashion, all meant to relate to some potential aspect of a person’s life.

Examples of cards in the card game Livre du Destin. Two illustrated cards are in the foreground. One features a weeping willow and says "trouble." The other features a young woman with brown hair wearing a pink Georgian-style dress. The caption for this card says "a dark maiden." — *The Book of Fate, or, Livre du destin*, by B.P. Grimaud. Paris: Chartier Marteau & Boudin, 1900. x-Collection [GV1295.B66 B6 1900], Special Collections and Archives, University of Iowa Libraries. Photo: Sara Pinkham.

Before we can understand how to use The Book of Fate, we must first understand how tarot and oracle decks work. Tarot is more universally known and also follows a more rigid system of rules than oracle decks. Tarot decks are made up of 78 cards, the most well-known of which are the Major Arcana. Major Arcana take the form of archetypes, such as “The Empress,” “The Fool,” “The Hermit,” or “The Hanged Man.” These cards represent broad life lessons and challenges that we may face, like going through a loss, a change in direction, or new beginnings. Sound vague? They’re meant to be! The answers that tarot gives are broad and are accepted to not take shape for days to weeks or even months after a reading.

So, what’s the difference between tarot and oracle reading? Oracle decks are much more freeform, with no standard number of cards and no consistent imagery from deck to deck. Typically, oracle cards rely on our immediate intuition for interpretation, and are better suited to answer more specific, “yes/no” type questions. While a tarot reading invites the reader to meditate on what the answers could mean, oracle cards require a good deal less overthinking. So, since The Book of Fate is an oracle deck, we should ask questions that are less vague and more to-the-point than what we’d ask if we were reading tarot. Additionally, the types of cards in the deck will let us know what types of answers we’ll get. The cards in The Book of Fate are based mostly on common social roles, characters, or themes seen among English or French society in the late Victorian era, such as “a soldier,” “a man of law,” “a fair-haired girl,” or “a business letter.”

A display case in the gallery showcases three different card games, two small books, and a set of bone dice. This overview demonstrates that the case is filled with many small things made primarily of paper. — Three card games and two small books on display in *Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education* in the Main Library Gallery. Photo: Tim Schoon, University of Iowa Office of Strategic Communication.

Of course, while their use might be more straightforward than tarot, oracle readings do still take a little interpretive work from the user. After all, the point of fortune telling decks is that they can be applied to and interpreted by just about anyone, regardless of circumstance or background!

The Book of Fate is on display in the Main Library Gallery’s Paper Engineering in Art, Science, and Education exhibition, which showcases the fascinating world of paper technologies. Curated by Giselle Simón, Damien Ihrig, and Elizabeth Yale, this interactive exhibition invites visitors to explore paper dolls, flap books, pop-ups, tunnel books, volvelles, and books that use paper to make sounds while learning about their historical and contemporary significance. It is open to the public through Dec. 19, 2025.

Further reading:

“History of Playing Cards.” In Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s Society, edited by Carlisle, Rodney P., 289-93. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2009. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412971935.n170.