Events

Exhibition Opening Celebration

Posters for Taming Waters, Transforming Worlds and Edgar Allan Poe exhibitions. Left poster features details from a map and a botanical illustration of a strawberry plant. Right poster features a depiction of Poe at a candlelit desk holding a stack of books, with Thomas Jefferson and the UVA Rotunda in the background.

Join the University of Virginia Library on October 13, 2026 @ 5:30-7:30pm for the opening celebration of Taming Waters, Transforming Worlds: Land, Law, and Belonging in Seventeenth Century England and Virginia, a sweeping look at how drainage, dispossession, and "improvement" reshaped a landscape on both sides of the Atlantic—and our first major exhibition curated by a graduate student, Stacey Crystal LeClair of the Corcoran Department of History.

Alongside it, Edgar Allan Poe at the University of Virginia: 1826 | 2026 marks the bicentennial of Poe's brief, formative time on the Lawn (before he was famous, he was a Wahoo!), presented in collaboration with UVA's 2026–2027 NEA Big Read grant.

Four hundred years of history, two brand-new exhibitions, and one evening to celebrate them both. We hope you'll join us!

Hourly event parking available at the Central Grounds Garage.

Request a Guided Tour

To request a guided tour of Taming Waters, Transforming Worlds, please submit a request at least three days in advance for consideration.

We will work to match your tour request with one of our curators or staff members. Please be mindful of the hours of operation for the Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections Library. 

To request an exhibition tour for a UVA class, please submit a Special Collections Class Visit and Instruction request.