About Us: Founded in 1957 at The University of Texas at Austin, the Harry Ransom Center advances the study of the arts and humanities by acquiring, preserving, and making accessible original cultural materials. With extensive collections of rare books, manuscripts, photography, film, art, and the performing arts, the Center supports research through symposia and fellowships and provides education and enrichment for scholars, students, and the public through exhibitions and programs.

The Ransom Center is free and open to the public.

Reading Room/Viewing Hours: Located on the second floor, the Hazel H. Ransom Reading Room and David Douglas Duncan-Cain Foundation Viewing Room serve visitors using manuscripts, rare books, and visual materials.
9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday
9 a.m.-noon Saturday

Current Exhibitions:

Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty
February 3-August 2, 2009
This retrospective exhibition celebrates the art of freelance American photographer Fritz Henle (1909-1993). A contributor to such magazines as Life and Harper's Bazaar, Henle's distinctive style was characterized by a unique combination of the realistic and the romantic. This exhibition features a broad range of Henle's work including images of 1930s New York City, Mexico, and Paris; innovative nudes; and portraits of famous personalities.

The Persian Sensation: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the West
February 3-August 2, 2009
2009 marks the 150th anniversary of Edward Fitzgerald's landmark translation of the poetry of the medieval Persian astronomer Omar Khayyám. Fitzgerald's work became an unprecedented popular phenomenon in England and America: by the 1930s, the Rubáiyát was by some accounts the most published and translated text in English after Shakespeare and the Bible.
This exhibition draws on the Center's expansive Rubáiyát collections, ranging from Persian manuscripts and miniature editions to parodies and playing cards, to reveal how the Rubáiyát phenomenon constructed an idealized Orient even as Omar Khayyám and his poems helped readers understand their own lives.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

Frida Kahlo's "Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird"
May 5, 2009 - January 3, 2010
The Ransom Center celebrates the homecoming of one of its most famous and frequently borrowed art works, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo's Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940). Since 1990 the painting has been on almost continuous loan, featured in exhibitions at 28 museums in the U. S. and around the world, including Australia, Canada, France, and Spain.

"From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe"
September 8, 2009 - January 3, 2010
This exhibition commemorates the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe, the great American poet, critic, and inventor of the detective story. One of the most comprehensive exhibitions ever devoted to Poe, this collaborative project draws upon the extensive holdings of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, with additional materials from the Free Library of Philadelphia and other museums. Poe is one of the most widely read American author of the nineteenth century, and the exhibition investigates the enduring influence of his works as well as his tragic life. From Out That Shadow features manuscripts, books, art, and personal effects documenting Poe's career as a hard-working writer, his romantic relationships and mysterious death, the decline and rehabilitation of his literary reputation, and his profound influence on mystery and detective fiction and other genres. Among the exhibition's highlights are Poe's writing desk, letters by and about the author, records of his student days at the University of Virginia, manuscripts of landmark works such as "The Raven," and the original art for Arthur Rackham's illustrated edition of Tales of Mystery and Imagination.

"Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works"
September 8, 2009 - January 3, 2010
In conjunction with the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, the Ransom Center presents an exhibition that features items from the Center's science collections relating to early astronomy. Highlights include the Coronelli celestial globe (1688); two copies of Copernicus De Revolutionibus; first editions by Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and others; papers of the Herschel family of English astronomers; and the Cassini moon map.