{"id":13439,"date":"2026-01-28T09:55:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=13439"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:21:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:21:43","slug":"from-rare-books-to-floppy-disks-forms-and-functions-exhibition-on-display-at-purdue-university-archives-and-special-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/28\/from-rare-books-to-floppy-disks-forms-and-functions-exhibition-on-display-at-purdue-university-archives-and-special-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"From rare books to floppy disks: \u201cForms and Functions\u201d exhibition on display at Purdue University Archives and Special Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Purdue University Archives and Special Collections (ASC) is excited to announce a new exhibition, \u201cForms and Functions: A Selection of Materials within Purdue University Archives and Special Collections.\u201d The exhibition showcases the wide variety of items found in archives and explains how archivists classify these materials. It also explores common questions about historical formats and technologies, such as how older media were used and preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cForms and Functions\u201d was co-curated by Clinical Assistant Professor and Barron Hilton Archivist for Flight and Space Exploration Jo Otremba, seven archivists, and 11 student employees. The exhibition features materials from more than 40 collections dating from the 15th century to the present day. Items on display are connected to notable individuals such as John Purdue, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, Nobel Prize recipient Herbert Brown, William Henry Harrison, Orville Redenbacher, and illustrators Harold Gray (creator of Little Orphan Annie) and George Wildman (illustrator for Popeye comics), among others. The exhibition provides an overview of the types of materials preserved and made accessible by ASC and reflects the kinds of items archivists and student employees work with daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central focus of \u201cForms and Functions\u201d is to demonstrate the diversity of archival materials and includes materials from all of ASC\u2019s special collecting areas.<\/a> Each item on display represents a different collection and a distinct type of material. Exhibit labels use standardized form and genre terms from the Getty Research Institute\u2019s Art & Architecture Thesaurus,<\/a> which archivists use to describe materials consistently and support discovery and access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These descriptive terms help researchers explore questions such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n