The silence of Point Loma Nazarene University’s Ryan Library was broken by the sounds of three posters being installed on the first floor last month. The works are a mere glimpse of PLNU’s Carolyn W. Thomas Memorial Olympic Poster Collection — an archive of nearly 250 posters of iconic Olympic posters dating back to 1896.
David Carlson, assistant dean of the Department of Art and Design and co-director of the Keller Gallery, spearheaded the selection of the Italian Olympic posters for display. Other posters were chosen by Carlson for showcase at the university’s sister campus, the Balboa Regional Center.
With his background in art and design, Carlson was brought in when PLNU first acquired the extensive work nearly a decade ago under James Daichendt, the previous dean.
“We were reached out to by Paul Thomas, a collector of history who has had this ongoing collection of Olympic posters,” Carlson said. “He was interested in donating it to an organization that could continue the legacy of this collection.”
Due to the wide breadth of posters in the archive, with countless eras, locations, artists and historical events surrounding the context of each piece, Carlson finds the most joy in the research aspect of art cultivation.
“It’s really fun to investigate these artifacts and seeing the bigger conversations that are representing culture as well as sport on a global stage,” Carlson said.
The director of Ryan Library, Denise Nelson, said it is rare for PLNU to have the opportunity to showcase art.
“One of the privileges that comes with welcoming between 5,000 and 6,000 people through the library’s front doors each week is the opportunity to help a wide variety of students encounter the great material we’re able to display,” Nelson said.
The satellite campus in Balboa serves as a bridge between the arts and sciences.
“There’s no better environment, apart from a gallery, to house the collection visually in a space where its primary focus is on health, the human body and the science of that,” Carlson said. “Here’s this elite event that encapsulates the sort of heightened experience day to day in class.”
Merrie Monteagudo, the university archivist, helps make art more accessible, with Olympic pop-ups that allow students to encounter rare and meaningful works outside traditional gallery spaces.
“Well, they’re beautiful,” she said. “But it also connects Point Loma to the global community and the world wide Olympics movement, which stands for a lot of good things. That extraordinary achievement.”
Students like Bronson Fees, a fourth-year biology major and visual art minor, have taken notice of the new additions to the library.
“It’s really cool that we have a collection and we’re spending time and effort to preserve the past and keep honoring the tradition of physical media,” he said. “That is so unique that you could only get a poster in that place, at that time, every four years.”
Monteagudo researched the history of the pieces, compiled informative captions for viewers and collected more pieces by a certain artist.
The biggest challenge Monteagudo and Carlson face is not finding the pieces themselves, but securing space to showcase them to the public.
“If it’s sitting on a shelf, we simply don’t have the display space,” Monteagudo said.
Carlson said he hopes that, despite these limitations, a new space can be reserved just in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The installation doesn’t have a firm end date, according to Monteagudo.
Grace Chaves