September 22, 2024 ALL

Today: Library Pop-up Exhibition: Book Bans Aren’t New

In conjunction with Grasselli Library and Breen Learning Center’s observation of Banned Books Week, September 22–28, JCU’s Rare Books and Special Collections is happy to announce our latest pop-up exhibition! “Book Bans Aren’t New: Censorship and Prohibited Books, from JCU Special Collections, 1563–1922” highlights items owned by John Carroll University that demonstrate the long history of creative and intellectual suppression. All are invited to view the free exhibition, located in the display cases on the main and third floor of Grasselli, now through October 1.

Items on view include:
* political cartoons regarding the Presidential election of 1904
* a copy of Oscar Wilde’s Salome with an orange suede bookbinding
* satirical cartoon drawn to mock a Pennsylvania Governor, who banned caricatures of himself
* Pope Leo XIII’s list of prohibited books (from 1922)
* Index of books deemed prohibited and to be “expurgated” by Spain’s King Carlos IV
* List of books prohibited by the Council of Trent (1545–1563)

Questions? Interested in viewing any of these items up close? Contact Diane Dias De Fazio, Special Collections Associate, at ddiasdefazio@jcu.edu.

Banned Books Week is an annual event, spearheaded by the American Library Association (ALA), that “celebrates the freedom to read and draws attention to the harms of censorship.”