Abstract
This essay examines the pedagogical value of academic collections of fine art, artifacts, and archival papers often collectively referred to as Special Collections. It is imperative that original source materials play a stronger role in the university curriculum by moving beyond digital surrogates and teaching from the work itself. Specific acquisitions are then examined in order to illustrate how the University of the South sought to fill voids in their collections to better serve the curricular needs of faculty and students. In addition, the care of the collections themselves is shown to provide benefit to the student in terms of processional development. Finally, an interdisciplinary research project focusing on a particular work of art from special collections illustrates the multiple benefits to be derived from utilizing such objects in the classroom.
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