Exhibition from March 21, 2014 through May 30, 2014. Violet Oakley was one of Drexel’s first students in the field of illustration and one of its most successful. With her training and drive Oakley broke into the predominantly male world of illustration and mural painting, with commissions that were many and varied.

Exhibition from January 10, 2014 through March 14, 2014. Every painter begins with a blank canvas, but not this one. The featured artist of the exhibition — “Simulated Fijnschilderij: Where Old Masters and Technology Meet” — began with a digital print and some very old recipes.

Exhibition from October 15, 2013 through December 13, 2013. A skull of conjoined calves, a 19th century medical amputation kit and a misassembled “Frankensquid” are mysterious on their own, but what’s even more puzzling is that these objects somehow ended up at Drexel University. Originally hailing from all around the world, thirty of Drexel’s most atypical items were featured in “Cabinet of Curiosity: Drexel’s Rare and Unusual Collections.”

Exhibition from August 5, 2013 through September 30, 2013. From the 14th century onward, as paper became more available, we find drawings to be indispensable to artists in preparation for their paintings or for the drawings themselves. Etchings and engravings were appreciated in their own right but also allowed artists to replicate works of other artists.

Exhibition from June 3, 2013 through July 26, 2013. Chairs were in existence since the Early Dynasty Period in Egypt (3100 – 2686 BCE) and in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). It was not until the 16th century that the chair became common. Prior to that time, the chest, the bench and the stool were the ordinary seats. In Europe, it was during the Renaissance period that the chair ceased to be a privilege and became a standard item of furniture for anyone who could afford to purchase them. Once the idea of privilege faded, the chair came into general use. The chair began to change every few years to reflect the fashions of the times. In the 1880’s, chairs became more common in America and typically there was a chair provided for every family member to sit down to dinner.

Exhibition from April 12, 2013 through May 31, 2013. For the first time in Drexel University’s history, the best examples of art from various departments were exhibited together. The exhibition included pieces from The Drexel Collection, Drexel’s Historic Costume Collection, Drexel University Archives, Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design Polish poster collection and Sigma Sound archives, Drexel University’s College of Medicine and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Exhibition from April 1, 2013 through May 17, 2013. Artist Tokujiro Nishi studied with the Japanese artist Masao Hato, founder of the Sakujitsu-kai artists, a group created to continue the tradition of oil painting in Japan introduced by the art historian Ernest Fenollosa. Mr. Nishi’s paintings are thick with impasto and rich in color.

Exhibition from January 28, 2013 through March 22, 2013. The exhibition was curated by Drexel University student, Eric Selman ’14.

Exhibition from April 12, 2012 through May 11, 2012. The dragon is the logo for Drexel University and was first used in 1928 for athletics. It was chosen primarily for alliteration – the Drexel Dragons – and it is still used today. Given the history of the Dragon at Drexel, and the celebration of the Year of the Dragon in 2012, The Drexel Collection was pleased to exhibit dragons from lending museums including the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the private collection of John O’Hara and photographs from The Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Andrew W. Mellon Collection of the National Gallery, Washington, DC and the Rosenbach Museum & Library.