Library Exhibitions

Also of Interest: Archives & Special Collections Exhibitions

The following is a listing of artwork on permanent display in the Robert Frost Library. Works on permanent display in Frost are drawn from the collections of the Archives & Special Collections and the Mead Art Museum. Rotating exhibitions of artworks not owned by the college can be viewed on the second floor of the library in the Mezzanine Gallery and the Beyond Words Gallery. Offers of fine art to the college should be directed to the Mead Art Musuem; Frost Library does not collect fine art.

Level A

Archives and Special Collections

More information on exhibitions in the Archives & Special Collections: Exhibitions and Blog

Your House is Mine, A Book and Street Project

by Bullet Space, 1991Mixed Media (diapositive slides mounted in a wooden silkscreen frame; volume of ca. 33 silkscreen prints bound in metal; newspaper)
Archives & Special Collections.
Albert E. Barnett '52 Reading Room
For more information on this installation, see the artists' collective website.

John William Ward

by Robert T. Sweeney, 1997
Oil portrait.
Archives & Special Collections.
Ward Exhibition Room

Kenneth P. Higgins (AC 1927)

Photographic portrait.
Archives & Special Collections. 
Higgins College History Room

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Amherst College in 1908

by Richard Rummel
Engraving.
Archives & Special Collections.
Higgins College History Room.

"Letter to the World" (Emily Dickinson and Martha Graham)

by Michael de Lisio, 1977
Bronze sculpture in two units, each on a wooden base.
Archives & Special Collections.
Albert E. Barnett '52 Reading Room

Level 1

Moose

Sculpture, ca. 2014
Cast aluminum, paint
Anonymous donor.
Archives & Special Collections.
Alfred Friendly Reading Room, southeast corner

See an article from December 2014 reporting the appearance of this sculpture in Frost Library.

 

Noah Webster

American, after Samuel F.B. Morse
Oil on canvas. Mead Art Museum. 
East Wall

 

Robert Frost

by Walker Hancock
Bronze bust. Robert Frost Collection. 
new books alcove

Kanzo Uchimura (AC 1887)

by Mituya Isiko
Oil on canvas. Mead Art Museum. 
northeast wall

Robert Frost

by James Chapin, 1929
Oil on canvas. Mead Art Museum. 
Friendly Reading Room

Untitled

by Lloyd Schermer (AC 1950), 2003
mixed metal and antique wood type
gift of Lloyd and Betty Schermer.
Archives & Special Collections.
Frost Cafe

An article about Schermer's work appeared in Amherst (Vol. 59, no.3, Spring 2007, pp. 38-39).

A Puzzle for a Poet

by Lloyd Schermer (AC 1950), 2010
mixed metal and antique wood type
gift of the Class of 1950.
Archives & Special Collections. 
south wall, near entrance

This sculpture by renowned artist Lloyd Schermer ’50 was installed in May 2010 as part of the Class of 1950's 60th reunion celebration. At its installation, Schermer noted: “I chose the title A Puzzle for a Poet for this 5-foot by 7-foot sculpture because it is made from the building blocks of letters Robert Frost used to construct his poems: antique wood type letters some of which are well over 200 years old. They are rare.”

Schermer’s sculptures are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Newseum in Washington, DC; the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson; the Figge Museum in Davenport, Iowa, and the McCormick Freedom Museum in Chicago, as well as in corporate and private collections. A video of his work can be seen on his website .

Poetry Display

The poetry display is a permanent installation in the new book area.  Inspired by John F. Kennedy’s historic speech about Robert Frost at the ground breaking of the Frost Library in 1963 – particularly Kennedy’s statement "When power corrupts, poetry cleanses" - and believing that "the Amherst College community is not sufficiently exposed to the efficacy of poetic cleansing," former Board of Trustees President Charles Longsworth conceived of and funded the project to display poetry by poets associated with Amherst College or the Amherst area. You may nominate your own poetry for consideration in this video display by submitting a copy of the Poetry Consent Form .

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Level 2

Nobel Prize Winners
Mezzanine stairway, east wall

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Note:

A portrait of Joseph Hardy Neesima, the first Japanese graduate of Amherst (Class of 1870) and the founder of Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, hangs in Johnson Chapel.

A portrait of Charles Hamilton Houston (AC 1915), by Richard Yarde, 1977, now hangs in Johnson Chapel.