Subjects and Objects: A curated view of the changing world of Slavic studies

The exhibition Subjects and Objects: Slavic Collections at Yale, 1896–2022 surveys the changing history, politics, and people of the vast territories now known as Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

The library’s collection had its early focus on Russian- and Polish-language literatures, the topics most germane to university curricula at the time and the materials most readily available to acquire. The collection has since grown to include objects, photographs, and artifacts from 29 countries that share a language family and a fraught political history. 

Subjects and Objects—co-curated by Anna Arays, librarian for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies and Liliya Dashevski, PhD candidate in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures—explores the region’s imperial past, its historical and political shifts, and the many forces that shaped and influenced the formation of Slavic collections at Yale.

The exhibition is on view at Sterling Memorial Library’s Hanke Exhibition Gallery through Feb. 5. Read more about Subjects and Objects in Yale News.

—Deborah Cannarella

Image: Souvenir postcard and discount ticket for “Le Caucase” Russian mountain (rollercoaster) at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, 1900. Collection of coupons for Exposition universelle internationale de 1900 attractions, with souvenir postcards attached. (2006 944) Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library