Selma, Lahore, Warsaw, Santiago…Records of Resistance: Documenting Global Activism captures continuity and change in practices of protest and activism in diverse geographic contexts and around issues that may be particular to an area or of universal concern.

The images you are about to see range from sacred Passover Haggadot that embody Jews’ spiritual resistance to their oppressors during and immediately after the Holocaust, to dramatic photographs of marchers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, to vibrant posters and pamphlets created by protesters taking to the streets of Santiago, Chile and Lahore, Pakistan only a few years ago.

Here you will find familiar and trusted technologies of resistance – posters, pamphlets, and flyers – and at the same time, you will encounter new ways of disseminating dissent as activists harness the power of the internet and social media to make their voices heard. Records of Resistance invites you to consider how issues of perennial concern including indigenous, gender, and LGBTQIA+ rights, social inequality, antisemitism, and systemic racism manifest in resistance over time and across the globe.

This exhibition presents just a small sample of the thousands of images found in the Digital Princeton University Library (DPUL). The site currently houses over 60 digital collections, exhibitions, and essays, a number of which focus specifically on historical moments of activism. DPUL is designed to make the extraordinary collections of Princeton University Library accessible worldwide. They are made available for everyone to explore.

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Image depicts multi-color graffiti and ephemeral posters and handouts pasted to a wall. December 18. Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (GAM), Avenida Alameda, Santiago. This photograph documents the multiple forms of visual resistance that emerged during the early months of protest (roughly from October to December 2019), from graffiti to larger-scale interventions, many of which were subsequently modified or destroyed.
Click to view Colección Archivo Fotográfico de la Protesta en Chile 2019
Black and white photo of John Lewis (in tan trench coat), Hosea Williams, Bob Mants, and Albert Turner leading marchers on “Bloody Sunday”
Click to view John Lewis and the Selma to Montgomery Marches of 1965
This poster is a colorful illustration of three women's profiles from the neck up in various dress. The women face to the left together, and appear unified in voice. The poster is just one of many posters in the collection that were made by a community of activist-artists and were produced for the Aurat March in Lahore, Pakistan.
Click to view the Aurat March Ephemera
This is the front cover of the memoir "Getto walczy", written by the last surviving leader of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The front cover is a black-ink illustration of grumbling buildings behind a wall. The title, "Getto" is in block print, and "walczy" is in a black cursive.
Click to view Jewish Resistance, 1933-1945