New exhibits
Explore new, rotating exhibits featuring the extensive collection of milestone assets - including books, articles, maps, reports and photographs - all central to the Organization's mission.
February 2026
A Century of Legume Design
This exhibit traces the visual evolution of book covers on the topic of legumes, from the artistic craftsmanship of the early 20th-century IIA collection to FAO’s bold, mission-driven visual identity. By blending social realism, botanical drawings, and bold contemporary design, these covers transform technical research into a compelling narrative for food security.
The art of ornithology
FAO Library inherited the collections of the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA) in 1946, which comprised over 400,000 volumes of agricultural knowledge. On display is a selection of books documenting the richness of bird species from the Amazonian forests to Indian and French gardens. The breathtakingly beautiful colored illustrations of new and rare species required artists who were also expert ornithologists.
October 2025
FAO’s founding history
The display highlights the crucial documents that established FAO. It begins with the 1943 Final Act of the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture signed in Hot Springs, Virginia, by 44 nations. This led to the work of the Interim Commission, which drafted the Constitution. The signing of the 1945 FAO Constitution at the First Session of the Conference in Quebec formally brought the Organization into existence.
The beginnings of forestry science
The FAO Library inherited the collection of the Centre International de Sylviculture (CIS), the world's first international forestry organization (Berlin, 1939). To protect its 150,000 volumes, including 4,200 rare books dating to 1577, a part of the collection was moved from Berlin to Salzburg during WWII. Today, the FAO Library preserves 11,000 of these documents, which map the evolution of forestry as a science.