This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Dick Gregory is an African American comedian, political activist, humanitarian, and nutritional consultant. His political comedy was groundbreaking for its take on race relations and other social injustices during the civil rights movements of the 1960s….
The centerpiece of Houghton’s current exhibition, Shakespeare: His Collected Works, is a life-size poster from the 1943 Broadway production of Othello starring Paul Robeson. Paul Robeson was the son of an escaped slave who became his generation’s most outspoken defender of civil liberties. A graduate of Rutgers and Columbia Law School, he was a distinguished athlete,…
In the aughts and teens of the 20th century, a few female vaudeville performers, British and American, had great success with male impersonation acts. In performance, they sang romantic love songs (as boys or young men), comic songs and bragging songs. Here are a few examples of their songs as published sheet music. Florence (or…
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Manual medico-legal des poisons… is a curious French text that appears to be primarily about the legal aspects of poisoning. It also includes instructions on how to treat snakebites, the bites of rabid animals, as well…
Last summer we hosted the first three Houghton Library undergraduate fellows in their work as they wrote an opera, recorded podcasts, and filled gaps in the literature with archival research. Now, in partnership with the Harvard Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships and their Summer Humanities and Arts Research Program (SHARP), we are looking forward to a new cohort…
The Historical Sheet Music Collections have plenty of love songs – songs about flirting, courtship and weddings. But there are also songwriters who understand the opposite end of the romance spectrum, from the perspectives of the ones done wrong. Here are six amusing examples just in time for Valentine’s Day. Never introduce your bloke, to…
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Tuli Kupferberg’s 1001 Ways to Live Without Working is a handbook, political satire, and collage all-in-one. Nestled between the actual 1005 point list are newspaper advertisements, photographs of protest, slave sale notices, and other pieces of…
Houghton’s latest exhibition, Shakespeare: His Collected Works, marks the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death. Here is a closer look at one object on display. Actress and royal mistress Nell Gwyn began her career in the theatre selling oranges for sixpence. By 1676 she had retired from the stage and born Charles II two sons, yet she…
In honor of Black History Month, here are some pieces from the Historical Sheet Music Collections of 19th and 20th century music celebrating the work of Harry Davis, Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, Jerry Mills and Lottie Grady. Images of African American composers and performers in 18th, 19th and early 20th century sheet music were…
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. The Gypsy’s first issue was published in London in 1915 and contained short stories, essays, poems, illustrations, sonnets, and prose. In their foreword the editors of the magazine acknowledged that many people would criticize their endeavor in…
