This past spring, Houghton Library collaborated with the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst and the North Bennet Street School in Boston to create exact reproductions of the writing desk and bureau originally in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom in the Homestead. Since 1950, the two iconic pieces have been part of the Emily Dickinson Collection at the…
Auspicious Debuts: Dear Liar
On July 31, 1957, a thin crowd at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge, Mass. listened as Jerome Kilty (Harvard ’41) and Cavada Humphrey read—or pretended to read—from the correspondence of George Bernard Shaw, “the well-known vegetarian,” and famed English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Campbell. Perhaps some day, if you are very good and behave properly…
New Digitization Roundup, Part VI
With this post we’ve now caught up on Houghton’s digitization for the 2012-2013 fiscal year; look for future updates coming soon, and remember that you can click on the Digitization tag for all our blog posts on the subject. Highlights in this post include an expose of the 19th century impostor known as Princess Caraboo,…
Gigantic Bats in Space!
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Voyage dans la lune avant 1900 is an extraordinary French children’s book that is composed primarily of color lithographs by Herold & Cie., which are based on the original designs of A. de Ville d’Avray’s. Almost nothing about…
Myths debunked: Sadly, Theodore Roosevelt never rode a moose
Many of Theodore Roosevelt’s adventures seem like something out of a tall tale: he survived an assassination attempt; nearly died while exploring the Amazonian jungle; and became the first president to drive a car and fly in a plane; among many others. Despite having been a larger-than-life figure, this is one thing that TR never…
New Digitization Roundup, Part V
Another batch of new digitization has us nearly caught up! This week’s highlights include an illuminated medieval manuscript, early printed music, and the biography of a 19th century tattooed sideshow performer….
New Digitization Roundup, Part IV
Highlights in this installment of newly digitized works include a manuscript J.E. Bach sonata, the original drawings for woodcuts in a 1550 book, a 1785 treatise on ballooning, and a detailed 16th century map of Constantinople….
New Digitization Roundup, Part III
More newly digitized complete works and substantial collections. Highlights this week include a 1485 hunting manuscript with beautiful miniatures, compositions by Pauline Viardot-García, and biographies of sideshow performers….
Emily Dickinson’s Music Book (EDR 469)
In her formative years, the American poet Emily Dickinson’s interests centered on the study of voice and especially piano, for which she displayed considerable accomplishment and ambition. Her correspondence supplies the background for these activities while the contents of her music book provides a revealing perspective on just how assiduously and enthusiastically she collected, listened…
New on OASIS in September
Finding aids for seven newly cataloged collections, and a preliminary box list for one recent acquisition, have been added to the OASIS database this month, including a scrapbook of Theodore Roosevelt’s time at Harvard, a collection of playbills for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the recordings of the Phone-A-Poem project. Processed by Michael W. Austin: Christophe…