HOLLIS ClassicFrom the Collections of Harvard College Library, Events and Exhibitions 2009-2010
Members of the renowned Angkor Dance Troupe performed a traditional Cambodian dance during The Living Magazine. The Angkor Dance Troupe was
formed in 1986 by Cambodian refugees of the Khmer Rouge holocaust living in Lowell, Massachusetts.
May 7 - May 31, 2012
The Living Magazine: Cambodia
This exhibition memorializes The Living Magazine: Cambodia, an international literary and cultural event that explored issues surrounding writing, publishing, and free expression in Cambodia. This year's event (the second of its kind at Harvard) featured the work of writers Samkhann Khoeun and Chanbo Keo; rap artist and activist praCh ly; and current Scholars at Risk fellow Tararith Kho; and included contributions from the Angkor Dance Troupe and members of the Harvard community, including Steven Pinker, Stephen Greenblatt, and undergraduate students. Together, the participants created a living sanctuary for a culture of resistance that is severely threatened in Cambodia. The event, which took place on April 24, 2012, from 6-8 p.m. in Harvard's Barker Center, was broadcast live by Voice of America, one of the most prominent news sources in Cambodia. This exhibition, curated by Scott Roben '12 and Nicolas Jofre '13, includes photographs of the event itself, as well as personal objects contributed by The Living Magazine participants.
Third floor display cases, Lamont Library
Hours
For details, contact Lynn Sayers at 617-495-2455
Edward Lear, Study of an Indigo Macaw, now known as Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari), watercolor on paper (Houghton Library, MS Typ 55.9 (22))
April 2 - August 18, 2012
The Natural History of Edward Lear
Although he is best remembered today as a whimsical nonsense poet, adventurous traveler, and painter of luminous landscapes, Edward Lear is revered in scientific circles as one of the greatest natural history painters of all time. During his brief immersion in the world of science, he created a body of work that continues to inform, delight, and astonish us with its remarkable blend of scientific rigor and artistic finesse.
Thanks to the generosity of two discerning Harvard University benefactors, Philip Hofer and William B. Osgood Field, Houghton Library holds the largest and most complete collection of Edward Lear’s original paintings in the world. Among the thousands of items in this collection are some two hundred sketches, studies, and finished paintings devoted to natural history. This exhibition, commemorating the bicentennial of Lear’s birth, is the first devoted to this important aspect of his career.
Guest curator for the exhibition is Robert McCracken Peck, Senior Fellow at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (Drexel University).
Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
Hours
For further information, contact Hope Mayo at 617-495-2444
Louisa May Alcott. Carte-de-visite, undated. Photographer unknown. Portrait file, bequest of Evert Jansen Wendell, 1918.
April 2 - May 26, 2012
Louisa May Alcott: Family Life & Publishing Ventures
In May 1868, when beginning Little Women, Louisa May Alcott wrote, “Never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters, but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt.” Surrounded by her parents and three sisters, Louisa May lived in a remarkable family, evidence of which lies in the voluminous letters and journals they left behind. This exhibition displays material relating to the Alcott family and the publication of Little Women.
Amy Lowell Room, Houghton Library
Hours
For further information, contact Heather Cole at 617-495-2449
Lyonel Feininger. (Untitled) Men’s shop with full-length dummies. Gelatin silver print, 1932. MS Ger 146.4 (479). Gift of T. Lux Feininger, 1987.
March 12 - June 2, 2012
Lyonel Feininger’s Early Photographs
Already a highly-respected Expressionist painter, Bauhaus master Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) acquired a Voigtländer Bergheil camera in 1928, and found the new medium inspired and enhanced his paintings. Coinciding with the exhibition “Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928-1939,” on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, this exhibition offers a selection of Feininger’s early photographs, an album depicting the Feininger family’s favorite hobbies, and two of Feininger’s letters to his wife Julia.
Chaucer Case, Houghton Library
Hours
For further information, contact Heather Cole at 617-495-2449
Bowles, Carington. Bowles's new pocket map of the United States of America. London, 1784.
March 8 - July 3, 2012
A Border Line Case:
Harvard's Maps and the Northeast Boundary Dispute
In 1828, the United States and Great Britain agreed to let the King of the Netherlands settle the long-standing dispute over the Northeast Boundary (Maine’s borders with New Brunswick and Quebec). To support American territorial claims with topographical evidence, Albert Gallatin (who represented the US government’s interests) requested the loan of 22 maps from the Harvard College Library, and these maps accompanied Gallatin’s retinue to the Hague. When arbitration failed, the maps made their second transatlantic voyage, but this was only the first stage in a journey that spanned more than two decades. Long after the boundary was settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, Harvard continued to press for the return of its cartographic loan. This exhibit explores the complex history of this unusual transaction—why these particular maps were chosen, how they were used to support American claims, and why it took 25 years for Harvard to get its maps back. Among the cast of characters who played roles in this story were: three Harvard presidents (Quincy, Everett, and Sparks), several Secretaries of State (including Daniel Webster and James Buchanan), and President Millard Fillmore.
Map Gallery Hall, Pusey Library
Hours
For further information, contact Joseph Garver at 617-496-3670
Middle Babylonian Tablet. Regarding the deity
Shamash (replica).
February 7 - August 10, 2012
The Semitic Museum: From the Nile to the Euphrates
The Semitic Museum curates and exhibits artifacts garnered from the broad geographic region encompassing the countries of the Middle East. The exhibit represents both the current museum displays and parts of its collection regularly studied by students and scholars of the ancient world.
Cabot Science Library
Hours
For further information, contact Reed Lowrie at 617-496-5534
Textiles, by Bowie Aleah. 1st Prize for Sense of Place and Best in Show.
December 15, 2011 - November 15, 2012
Harvard College
Annual International Photo Contest
Photos taken by Harvard students who have studied, worked, interned, or done research abroad during the past year are on exhibit. For more information on the contest, see the contest and exhibition page.
Level B, first and third floor display cases, Lamont Library
Hours
For details contact Lynn Sayers at 617-495-2455
Theodore Roosevelt as a freshman, December 1876. Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library (520.12-001)
October 17, 2011 - August 31, 2012
The Harvard Years: Theodore Roosevelt, Class of 1880
Documents and photographs from Harvard College Library's Theodore Roosevelt Collection trace the career of this eminent graduate as student, alumnus, and overseer. The exhibition is reprised in honor of Harvard's 375th anniversity.
Theodore Roosevelt Gallery, Pusey Library
Hours are 9am - 5pm on weekdays, excluding holidays.
For details contact Wallace Dailey at 617-384-7938
Kuwabara Shigeo 桑原茂夫, ed. Gendaishi techō: Bessatsu: Izumi Kyōka: Yōjo to gensō no majutsushi 現代詩手帳：別冊：泉鏡花：妖女と幻想の魔術師. Tōkyō: Shichōsha, 1972.
June 3, 2011 - May 15, 2012
2011 Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize
Established in 1977, the Visiting Committee Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting recognizes and encourages book collecting by undergraduates at Harvard. Students competing for the annual prize submit an annotated bibliography and an essay on their collecting efforts, the influence of mentors, the experience of searching for, organizing and caring for items, and the future direction of the collection.
Second and third floor display cases, Lamont Library
Hours
For details, contact Lynn Sayers at 617-495-2455
"Deer Tipi of Mary and John Mountain Chief" by Olga Hannon and Jessie Wilber. Peigan Blackfeet (tipi owners). Plate 10, Blackfeet Indian Tipis: Design and Legend, 1976. (Tozzer SPEC.COLL. MUS.120.27.200.3 PFOLIO)
May 4, 2011 - May 11, 2012
Native Life in the Americas: Artists' Views
This exhibition
showcases the work of important though not well-known artists who focused on Native American life and culture.
On display are selected prints and books from the Tozzer Library collection, looking beyond the familiar 19th-century white male painters to include women artists, Native artists, and even one living artist. The exhibition also includes artists who were primarily illustrators, designers, and printmakers rather than painters.
Tozzer Library Gallery
Hours
For details contact Janet Steins at 617-495-1481
Permanent exhibition
Mercator Globes
Exhibition includes Gerard Mercator's terrestrial (1541) and celestial (1551) globes that reflect new discoveries in world geography and cosmography as well as new techniques in charting, printing, and globe making. Only 22 matched pairs survive, Harvard's being the only matched pair in America.
Mercator Case, Map Gallery Hall
Hours
For details call the Map Collection at 617-495-2417
