Everyone knows the story of Frankenstein. Or do they? One of
the most enduring myths of the Western world-Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the
focus of an exciting traveling exhibition that will begin a six-week visit at the Library
“Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature” was organized by the National
Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md., and the American Library Association (ALA)
Public Programs Office. The traveling exhibition was originally made possible
through major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
National Library of Medicine.
“We are delighted to have been selected as a site for this exhibition,” said Gennice
King, Associate Director of the Xavier University of Louisiana, Library Resource
Center. “Frankenstein is truly a story for twenty-first century America. It is not
simply a story about an out-of-control scientist. It is a human interest tale of
ambition, idealism, revenge and forgiveness. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein to show society what happens when power is abused, knowledge is hidden and members of a
community do not take responsibility for one another.”
The tragic story of Victor Frankenstein and the living monster he creates in his
laboratory has gripped our imagination since it was first published in 1818. Mary
Shelley was only 18 years old when she began writing Frankenstein.
