Each year, Houghton awards visiting fellowships to support scholars whose research requires the use of Houghton collections. We are pleased to announce the awarding of 26 fellowships for the 2011-12 fiscal year:…
Dear Diary
A new story in the Harvard Gazette recounts how a massive 155 volume, 17 million word diary held at Houghton is serving as the inspiration for a film currently in development, appropriately named “Hypergraphia.”…
New on OASIS in March
Finding aids for six newly cataloged collections have been added to the OASIS database this month, including letters of David Garrick and George Gershwin and a hand-decorated photo album of theatrical performers….
The Bible in Type
Houghton’s current exhibition, “The Bible in Type, from Gutenberg to Rogers”, marks the 400th anniversary of the publishing of the King James Bible by looking at the history of the Bible as a designed book. It offers viewers the rare opportunity to see such landmarks of printing as the Gutenberg Bible (ca. 1455), the Plantin…
Theodore Roosevelt, digitized
[Thanks to Alison Harris, Roosevelt Project Cataloger/Metadata Specialist, for contributing this post] As part of a collaborative project with Dickinson State University in North Dakota, material from the Theodore Roosevelt Collection is currently being digitized and linked to online finding aids. Particularly interesting is the correspondence between Theodore Roosevelt and his family, as it provides…
Newly digitized items for February
Manuscripts by Melville and Mozart, and drawings by Thackeray and Vizetelly, are among this month’s newly digitized items. [Thanks to Emilie Hardman, Public Services/Metadata Assistant, and Susan Pyzynski, Associate Librarian for Technical Services, for contributing this post.]…
A Revolution in publishing
[Thanks to Project Music Cataloger Christina Linklater for contributing this post.] In 1794, a governmental decree led to the foundation of a new music publishing firm in Paris. The company’s full name, Magasin de musique à l’usage des fêtes nationales, indicates that this was a practical enterprise, one of many new initiatives brought forth as…
At the ballet, wish you were here
[Thanks to Project Music Cataloger Christina Linklater for contributing this post] Several sets of Russian postcards on ballet and operatic themes were recently added to the John Milton and Ruth Neils Ward Collection. These tiny cards, numbering 217 in all, were produced between 1905 and 1982. Their subjects are specific performers (a set of 18…
19th-Century Showstoppers
[Thanks to Andrea Cawelti, Ward Project Music Cataloger, for contributing this post.] Cadenzas can be one of the most thrilling parts of an opera performance. Sometimes added by the composer, but more often created by singers (or their advisors) to showcase their particular talents, cadenzas today are rarely improvised on the spot, but carefully practiced…
New on OASIS in January
Finding aids for six newly cataloged collections have been added to the OASIS database this month, including the papers of Love Story author Erich Segal and 18th-century paintings of actors in the Comédie-Française….