"No Fear for the Future"
Student Voices, Student Visions
Story by Jason Stone | Photos from UO Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives
Celebrating the University of Oregon’s sesquicentennial, a new exhibit in Knight Library explores 150 years of student experience and perspectives
The University of Oregon Libraries is proud to announce “No Fear for the Future:” Student Voices, Student Visions—a yearlong exhibition exploring the history of those who’ve called the UO their alma mater and helped guide its progress in the century-and-a-half since its founding.
Curated by Corrigan Solari University Archivist and Historian Ben Murphy, Athletics Archivist Lauren Goss and Institutional History Research Assistant Marisol Peters ’27, the materials on display reflect many generations of students’ creativity, activism, leadership and community building.
In celebration of the university's sesquicentennial, the exhibit will be on display in Knight Library and open to the public throughout the 2026–27 academic year. A selection of related materials will be concurrently exhibited in the UO Portland Library.
Drawing on the extensive holdings in the library’s Special Collections and University Archives, "No Fear for the Future" showcases photography, documents, correspondence, serial publications and video content—much of it recently digitized and presented to the public for the first time in many decades.
Murphy, the university historian, explained that the “fearless” exhibit title was directly inspired by the opening editorial published in the first issue of the Oregon Emerald in 1909.
“The editors were expressing their ambitious plan to change from a weekly newspaper to one published twice per week,” he said.
“The editors wrote: ‘Only be tolerant with the first few issues and we will have no fear for the future.’ We felt this quote exemplifies the spirit of optimism and resilience that students have collectively embodied over the course of 150 years.”
From the university’s founding and across the subsequent decades, students have made lasting contributions while also building meaningful communities and balancing coursework, recreation and creative pursuits. “No Fear for the Future” aims to encompass all these threads of experience.
Goss noted that many campus landmarks, from the library's book collections to the Hayward Field grandstands, have foundations in student initiatives.
“Since forming the first student organizations in 1877, one year after the university opened, students have petitioned for facilities like the first campus gymnasium, organized a student government, and voted to collectively raise funds for buildings that would outlast the individual histories of those who contributed to them,” she said.
For Peters, who aspires to a career in archives, working on the exhibit was more than just a way to engage her peers and celebrate their accomplishments; it was also an opportunity to gain hands-on professional experience.
“As a student-curator, working with these materials made me proud to be a student at the University of Oregon who is a part of this legacy of students creating the spaces and communities they wanted to see on campus,” she said.
The exhibit was initially conceived as a celebration of the university’s sesquicentennial. But the curators soon agreed that its intent should evolve from storytelling about the past, to drawing historic connections with today’s student experiences.
“Rather than attempting to provide a comprehensive history of the university or its student body, we’ve designed the exhibit to inspire reflections and dialogue by current students,” Murphy said. “We hope they’ll draw parallels between their lives and the experiences of those who came before them.”
Exhibit Curators: Ben Murphy, Lauren Goss and Marisol Peters
Exhibit Team: Mandi Garcia, Jason Stone, Emily Moore, Emily Young, Victoria Wong and Katarina Stiller
Acknowledgements: Sammie Morris, Evey Lennon, Alicia Salaz, Amy Lake and Doug Hodson
Installed on both the first floor of the Knight Library (east and west hallways) and the Paulson Reading Room (second floor, Special Collections and University Archives), “No Fear for the Future”: Student Voices, Student Visions is on display through June 2027.
Admission is free to the public. Check Knight Library Hours and Special Collections Hours when planning your visit.
There will be a celebration of the exhibit with a panel discussion on Wednesday, December 2, 4:00-6:00 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room. More details are forthcoming about this event, but please save the date!
Access and share exhibit worksheets designed to engage students and visitors of all types (links to PDFs):
Questions about the exhibit? Contact Ben Murphy: murphybp@uoregon.edu | Media inquiries? Contact Jason Stone: jastone@uoregon.edu
Featured in the West Hallway, Knight Library:
“Recreation, Amusement, Body and Brain Building Exercises”
From the beginning, UO students advanced ambitious visions for campus life through recreation, athletics and governance.
Historic documents reveal students’ grassroots efforts to build, expand and refurbish campus athletics facilities from the university’s first gymnasium to Hayward Field and McArthur Court. Spanning more than a century of time and 19 feet of exhibit wall space, a photo collage depicts sports, fitness and leisure activities across several generations of Ducks.
“The Aura of Pride and Solidarity”
Explore the history of diverse student organizations and their groundbreaking efforts to create belonging and share their cultures with the campus community.
The UO has welcomed international students almost from its founding. Our earliest international students hailed from Europe, China, Japan and the Philippines. In the interwar years of the 1920s-30s, they established social organizations and residential communities such as the Cosmopolitan Club and the International House. The rise of identity-based student organizations dramatically increased in the 1960s.
Featured in the East Hallway, Knight Library:
“Hail the Youngest of the Press”
Extra, extra! Get the historic scoop on the Emerald.
The university’s longest-running student publication, this newspaper has gone through many permutations since its founding as the Oregon Weekly in 1900—see our decades-spanning display of the evolving masthead nameplates. A vital outlet for student reporting and opinion, the Emerald also plays an important, ongoing role in introducing new students to life on and around campus.
“Buoyantly Young, Thoughtful and Modern”
Over the years, enterprising student journalists have launched everything from art and literary magazines to political broadsides and satirical papers.
One of the earliest titles, the Midnight Doughnut announced its intentions to expose "interesting and entertaining" aspects of the university. Flip through the deep history of student publications at the UO, including the richly illustrated Webfoot and Lemon Punch, the partisan, provocative Oregon Commentator and Oregon Voice, and the first iteration of storied literary journal Northwest Review.
Featured in the Special Collections and University Archives:
“No One is Free until Everyone is Free”
Students have always been willing to challenge prevailing policies of the university and the nation.
While “no fear for the future” captures the spirit of hope and resilience that UO students typically embody, at times they’ve also pushed back on the status quo. While no exhibit could encompass the entire story of student activism and protest, the materials selected for display convey themes that have resonated through the decades and continue to inspire collective action.