Exhibit: Moby-Dick, or, The Plurality of the Whale

"Call me Ishmael." Even if you have never read Moby-Dick, chances are you know the first line and something about Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the white whale. The plot and key characters have become part of our popular culture and are referred to by people who couldn't tell you if Ahab survives his final encounter with the beast that took his leg.

One reason the novel has so thoroughly entered our popular imagination is because it is not really just one novel. Moby-Dick has been repackaged time and time again to serve multiple purposes and satisfy different audiences. It has been a muse for artists, a dry meditation on the human condition for students to suffer through, an exciting story of the sea, and an action story befitting of comic book heroes.

We invite you to "read" Moby-Dick through the lens offered by editions from Rauner Library's Melville Collection. The story told is rarely the same.

The exhibit was curated by Bay ByrneSim '15 and Jay Satterfield and will be on display in the Class of 1965 Galleries (Mezzanine Level of Webster Hall) from September 4 - November 15, 2015.

Check out our blog entry<http://raunerlibrary.blogspot.com/2015/09/moby-dick-or-plurality-of-whale.html> on a few versions of Moby-Dick that didn't make it into the exhibition.