Past Exhibit

In May, when the greenery of Gwanak is at its most vibrant, the Central Library is hosting a special exhibition to showcase the academic achievements and donated collection of Professor Shin Yong-Ha. Established in 2017, the Shin Yong-Ha Collection, along with the Sang-baek Collection, represents the donated collections of Korea’s first-generation sociologists and serves as a vital documentary resource for understanding the intellectual foundations upon which Korean sociology was formed and developed. This exhibition brings together previously unpublished Western rare books from the Shin Yong-Ha Collection, offering a comprehensive view of the collection in one place, and provides a multidimensional exploration of the academic journey that drove the collection through charts and documents. Furthermore, by showcasing for the first time the old maps—empirical evidence of the Dokdo issue that he painstakingly uncovered—this exhibition will provide an opportunity to gain a fresh perspective on Shin Yong-Ha as both a master of empirical scholarship and a bibliophile. We invite you to join us for this exhibition, which celebrates the beautiful tradition of private collections at the Central Library.

To mark the opening of the Seoul National University Heritage Library and the Daishin Financial Group–Seoul National University Heritage Lounge, we are presenting the Inaugural Exhibition of Park Wansuh Archive 〈Something So Wondrous and Beautiful〉 to celebrate the establishment of the Park Wansuh Archive. According to an analysis of book lending statistics over the past decade, Park Wansuh is the Seoul National University alumnus whose works have been read by the largest number of readers across the widest range of academic disciplines. Consequently, the Park Wansuh Archive has been designated as the first SNU People Archive. Following the signing of the archive establishment agreement in 2023, the Inaugural Exhibition of Park Wansuh Archive 〈Something So Wondrous and Beautiful〉, unveiled after 1,000 days of effort, features a space recreating the study and garden of “Archul Yellow House”—the home where the author wrote her works during her lifetime. The exhibition showcases everyday artifacts the author personally used, such as a sewing machine, cameras, seafood bowls, and handmade clothes, as well as precious handwritten materials such as original manuscripts, diaries, and letters. By carefully selecting and presenting approximately 470 items from the 6,000-plus donated items for the first time, the exhibition is designed to offer a multidimensional experience not only of Park Wansuh’s literary world but also of the trajectory of her life and the traces of her thoughts.

As the largest repository of documentary cultural heritage among university libraries in Korea, Seoul National University Central Library has established a viewing repository to make the valuable documents—collected from the forefront of Korean book culture to support the academic research of the SNU community—accessible not only to researchers but also to the general public. To commemorate this, the Inaugural Exhibition of the Visible Storage 〈SNU Library, The Library of Us All〉 aims to revive the “shared memories” contained within the Central Library’s cultural heritage collection. Using bookplates as a medium to evoke the past owners of these documents and imagine their personal libraries, the exhibition reconstructs the narrative of how the Central Library’s cultural heritage collection has been formed through the hands of countless people who have lived on the Korean Peninsula from the 15th century to the present. Of the total 214 documents formerly held by 21 institutions and 134 individuals from premodern, modern, and contemporary Korea, 94 are on display.

Seoul National University Central Library, as the largest repository of Western Rare Books in Korea, is hosting the exhibition "An Invitation to Western Rare Books: From Plato to Goethe" to showcase valuable Western classical works to a wide audience and share their significance. The exhibition will be held from February 10 to May 6, 2025, in front of the Kwanjeong Gallery on the first floor of the Kwanjeong Building. It is open to both SNU members and the general public. Notably, this exhibition is the first special exhibition exclusively dedicated to Western Rare Books at Seoul National University, making it a highly significant event.

The year 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Simak Collection. In this meaningful year, Seoul National University Central Library is hosting "As High and Steadfast as a Mountain: Memorial Exhibition on the Eminent Korean Linguist, Lee Sung-nyong" to showcase the vastness and significance of the Simak Collection. The exhibition features over 120 carefully selected treasures, including rare books, handwritten manuscripts, maps, paintings, calligraphy, and wooden plaques. Notably, it includes the Lotus Sutra (묘법연화경), for which a national treasure designation has been requested this year. Through this exhibition, which highlights the essence of the Simak Collection, we aim to celebrate the academic traditions of Gwanak and share the beauty of the documentary heritage housed in the Central Library.

To commemorate the 90th anniversary of Yi Sang's Ogamdo (烏瞰圖), Seoul National University Central Library held an exhibition on rare books related to Yi Sang from December 9, 2024, to January 31, 2025. The exhibition, held in the Rare and Old Book Collection on the 6th floor of the Central Library’s main building, featured various materials showcasing different aspects of Yi Sang. These included his early poems written in Japanese, Joseon Art Exhibition Catalog (조선미술전람회도록) which highlights his artistic side, Joseon and Architecture (조선과 건축) for which he designed the cover, and Keijō High Technical School Yearbook (경성고등공업학교 일람) which provides insights into his high school years.

Seoul National University Central Library held the "Freshman Ascent Exhibition (飛上展) - Poems and Novels We Love, The Literature of SNU" from March 14 to May 19, 2023, at the Kwanjeong Maru (1F Kwanjeong Building). This exhibition aimed to support the university life of new students and to widely promote the value of the library's collection.

The year 2023 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Individual Collections at the Seoul National University Central Library. In this meaningful year, the library received a donation of 1,654 volumes meticulously collected over a lifetime by Professor Kwon Young-min. To commemorate this occasion and to highlight the bibliographic significance of both the 70-year history of personal collections and the Kwon Young-min Collection, Seoul National University Central Library organized this exhibition.