The University of the South's Permanent Collection is a rich source of historical and contemporary fine and decorative arts.  It is comprised of works from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries ranging from oil and watercolor paintings, to prints, illuminated manuscript pages, photographs, sculpture, and decorative objects.

The majority of oil paintings owned by the University date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and are portraits of the founders of the University of the South, trustees, faculty, and other persons associated with the institution and the town of Sewanee. The most extensive holdings on paper are prints, which exemplify a variety of printmaking processes, namely wood and steel engraving, etching, and lithography, with examples from the seventeenth century to the present.  In the medium of watercolor, there are nearly 150 works dating from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century by American, Asian, and European artists. The collection of photographs is largely twentieth and twenty-first century. Sculpture in the Permanent Collection dates primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and includes works in bronze, marble, and plaster.  The Permanent Collection also includes furniture, ceramics, glassware, and metal objects made in the United States and Europe.

Many of the works that are held as part of the Collection can be viewed via Artstor Digital Library (University ID and password required for off-campus access).