We invite you to take a walk on the wild side with the new exhibition, “Paper Tigers & Biblio-Beasts: Creatures in the Collections,” now open through September 16th at Hill Memorial Library. Featuring a wide variety of rare books, historical documents, and photographs, “Paper Tigers & Biblio-Beasts” showcases many of the strange and magnificent beasts that figuratively slither and prowl among our collections.

For thousands of years, living creatures have provided us with clothing and sustenance; filled our dreams -- and nightmares -- with vivid imagery; infested and consumed our food and belongings; entertained, comforted, and inspired us; spread disease; made medical breakthroughs possible and prodded our minds to question our place in the world.  Human fascination with our companions on the planet is well documented among the materials on display.

From thoroughbreds to unicorns, it’s a veritable zoo in here!

Images:

The Thoroughbred Horse General Morgan broadside, 1872.

Unicorn from Johann Zahn’s Specula physico-mathemtico-historica notabilium, 1696.