Tucked away on the fourth floor of Mary Church Terrell Main Library lies Special Collections and the Oberlin College Archives. The two separate departments, connected by a reading room and a shared mission of preserving history, are generally only visited by students when their classes require them to sort through rare materials. But a new exhibit, launched Feb. 14, invites visitors into the Goodrich Reading Room to celebrate love. The exhibit, titled “From ‘Her smile so soft, her heart so kind’ to ‘Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians’: Three centuries of love from the Oberlin College Archives and Special Collections,” showcases various Valentine’s- and courtship-related objects.

Spanning between four glass cases arranged in chronological order with artifacts from the 19th to the 21st century, the exhibit displays a broad view of love. While some of the love stories associated with the exchange of these objects are largely unknown, one of the cases includes the courtship correspondence between Mary Church Terrell, OC 1884, and her husband, Robert H. Terrell. 

“We were specifically asked to include the Mary Church Terrell courtship correspondence, which is why it’s centrally featured in its own case,” Associate Archivist Emily Rebmann wrote in an email to the Review. “I think that was popular last time it was on exhibit.”

Other objects — such as a lock of hair with a slip of paper that had been included in a 19th-century proposal letter that reads, “When this you see, remember Charles” — have less happy endings. 

“In the earliest case, I love the hair and hand-drawn sketch that accompanied the proposal letter,” Rebmann wrote. “Although we don’t know Charles’ last name (yet), we do know that his proposal was turned down, so apparently neither [the hair nor the hand-drawn sketch] were convincing enough.”

In the middle of these cases, viewers can find a TV screen that plays a silent version of the College-made film A Date with Sally, a 1950s dating etiquette guide  — a predecessor to consent training — that sports a preppy cast often shown riding bikes around campus or twirling the cords of rotary phones as they prepare for the senior prom. 

Yuji Kono, a fourth-year student in the College, visited the exhibit and watched clips of the highlighted film.

“I thought it was fascinating to see the material culture of old Oberlin,” Kono said. “It’s kind of crazy how Oberlin in the ’50s mostly matches with my perception of the ’50s. It’s like, very America-normcore.”

As the displays move into the 20th century, there are objects ranging from Valentine’s cut-outs from a 2018 edition of the Review containing sayings such as “I’d wait in line with you at DeCafé <3” and “Stevie pizza has nothing on you!” to a book of erotica made to be read in the bath. 

“The waterproof book of erotica was a fun addition we made at the very end,” Special Collections and Preservation Assistant Gena Reynolds wrote in an email to the Review. “It’s an object that we’ve never displayed before, and the broad themes of this exhibit allowed us to pull from a number of areas.”

Also displayed in the 20th–21st century case is a pin with a titular phrase of the exhibit, “Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians,” and other records of LGBT romantic culture such as posters for the “Lesbitante Ball” and a lesbian poetry book. 

“I’m also really pleased to have a chance to put some of the College Archives’ LGBT Union materials on view, because I’ve been working with another student assistant to make that collection more accessible,” Rebmann wrote. 

While the exhibit is on par with many other curations that Special Collections and the College Archives have put up, the turnaround time was much quicker than for other exhibits. Visual Resources Collection Curator Heath Patten proposed the idea mere weeks ago. 

“In late January, the College Archives was asked to create an exhibit for Valentine’s Day,” Rebmann wrote. “The Libraries have an exhibit proposal form that is typically used to schedule our exhibits, but this was a more unusual case. The Libraries have been able to host exhibits based on ideas or requests from faculty, staff, and students.”

With just a few weeks to gather materials, the main focus in curation was finding a mix of materials touching on the topic of love in different forms and different time periods.

“There is a general separation between the Archives collecting materials related to the College and Special Collections collecting rare materials and research collections that can support the curriculum,” Reynolds wrote. “This exhibit had to happen pretty quickly, so we were mostly trying to find a good variety of materials that dealt with the idea of love in many different forms, and at different times.”

Consequently, the two departments — College Archives and Special Collections — collaborated in the name of love. 

“In the College Archives, two of our student assistants proposed materials related to Valentine’s Day, and Emily, the associate archivist, augmented those selections with some additional items when we adjusted the exhibit theme,” Rebmann wrote. “When Gena mentioned that Special Collections had several valentines in its collection, we decided to collaborate on a more generally-themed exhibit about love. We had fewer Valentine’s-specific materials than we had hoped, but that provided an opportunity to exhibit many items that have never been on view before.”

For those interested in catching a glimpse of historical love preserved by the College libraries, the exhibit is open until March 21. Aside from this display, future curations are in the works.

“Three of the cases used for this exhibit are new this year, and we plan to curate rotating exhibits to showcase more of our materials,” Rebmann wrote. “Students typically interact with Archives and Special Collections in classes, so it’s nice to be able to have additional items for them to see while they’re in our reading room.”

The exhibit on Valentines and love is open to visitors weekdays 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Mondays until 7 p.m. 

“We hope people will stop by to see the exhibit, or just feel generally invited into our space to request materials,” Reynolds wrote. “We have some great collections and are excited to share them with students and the broader community.”