Mobility, Identity, Security: The Evolution of the Modern Passport
October 2026 through February 2027
Special Collections and Charles Marvin Fairchild Memorial Galleries
5th Floor, Lauinger Library
Few documents are as iconic and recognizable as the passport in its current form, a small booklet with our personal information and pages to record our comings and goings. Despite its familiarity, the present version emerged out of the anxieties and necessities of the first World War and the fraught century that followed. In the United States the booklet format was introduced 100 years ago in 1926, bringing America in line with developments in Europe and replacing the large diploma-style documents that had been previously commonplace.
Drawing on the passports of diplomats, journalists, and Jesuits housed in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Mobility, Identity, and Security traces the evolution of the modern passport. By placing these travel documents with related artifacts, this exhibit highlights the travel that passports enable as well as the bureaucracies that emerged to monitor and control it.