Since the dedication of the Harry Wallace Kamin Exhibition Gallery in 1987, this warm and welcoming space has become a major campus exhibition center, adding significantly to the riches of the University and contributing to the ongoing education of students, alumni and visitors. Here students and faculty encounter books and objects they might otherwise never see, and learn of the lives and careers of figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Marian Anderson, authors Theodore Dreiser and Howard Fast, and artists such as Tom Phillips.
The Gallery pays tribute to Harry Kamin, C'27, and is a gift of his wife Dorothy and his sons, Daniel, C'64, and Robert, C'66. The exhibition area links the Van Pelt and the Lippincott Library of the Wharton School and is, by far, the most visible area of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Unique, built-in wall cases constructed of white oak with sliding glass doors are designed with movable modules that permit the exhibition of such diverse materials as fifteenth-century books, Henry Moore prints, kelim carpets and Eugene Smith photographs.
The Kamin Gallery was dedicated on February 4, 1998 with the Kamin Family in attendance. The first exhibition was Studying the Holy Land, a joint exhibition with the Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania and The National Museum of American Jewish History.
