Olin Library is Washington University’s main library, offering exceptional resources and research ­assistance. Nine school or departmental libraries also dot the Danforth ­Campus, and collections abound at the West Campus Library and the Bernard Becker Medical Library at the School of Medicine. (Joe Angeles)

Working drafts of “The Consent,” by the late Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Howard ­Nemerov, can be found in Olin Library’s Special Collections. (Joe Angeles)

Albrecht Dürer carved Siege of a Fortress in 1527 to demonstrate his ideas about proper fortification. The drawing on how to ­survive an attack can be found in Olin Library Rare Books. (Joe Angeles)

The Gaylord Music Library collects unusual materials that might be considered outside of the “normal” boundaries of a traditional music collection, such as Fur Music (1971), by Nelson Howe. (Joe Angeles)

Rehabbers and model train enthusiasts delve deep into the publicity materials, mechanical drawings and photo ­collection of the St. Louis Car Company (1887–1973). The collection can be accessed at University Archives. (Joe Angeles)

Film music is an emerging area of study at the university. Among the compositions found at the Gaylord Music Library are several from the late Ronald Stein, AB ’51 ­(music), who was a composer, conductor, pianist and author. (Joe Angeles)

The Law Library holds a court filing submitted by the firm of Logan & Lincoln Esq., in Abraham Lincoln’s hand, dated July 11, 1843. (Joe Angeles)

The leading members of the surrealist community — including Dali, Ray, Miro and Picasso — created this 21-postcard series in 1937, which can be viewed in Olin Library Rare Books. (Joe Angeles)

Di yi cai zi shu, also called San guo zhi yan yi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), is one of the rare Chinese historical novels in the East Asian Library’s ­special collection. The above edition, published in the Qing Dynasty around the 17th century, is a mixture of historical fact and fiction. (Joe Angeles)

The Bernard Becker Medical Library holds the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or ­Medicine medals awarded to Carl F. Cori, MD, and Gerty T. Cori, MD, “for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen.” (Joe Angeles)

The Art & Architecture Library offers such findings as Das Plakat, a German ­illustrated periodical published between 1910 and 1921 featuring modern posters. It was the official publication of the Verein der Plakat Freunde (The Society for Friends of the Poster). (Joe Angeles)

The Bernard Becker Medical Library holds the cathode ray tube oscillograph that Joseph Erlanger, MD, and Herbert Gasser, MD, made in 1922 to use in their nerve fiber differentiation studies for which they would go on to win the 1944 Nobel Prize. (Joe Angeles)

Various iterations of “Falling Man” and other works by Ernest Trova are held at West Campus Library’s Modern Graphic History Library. Pictured is Ernest Trova, Study for ­Falling Man, 1970; eight-color silkscreen. (Joe Angeles)