John Lithgow: Actor as Artist, a look at the actor’s talents for drawing as well as drama, has been extended through Thursday, September 7, due to popular demand. While on campus this spring, Lithgow stopped by to take in the display and to pose with a caricature of himself by Al Hirschfeld from the 1988 Broadway…
Ortelius’ World
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the exhibition Open House 75: Houghton Staff Select on display in the Edison and Newman Room from May 8 – August 19, 2017. First published in 1570, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is generally regarded as the first modern atlas, being a comprehensive suite of…
Edison Bulb in the Spotlight
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the exhibition Open House 75: Houghton Staff Select on display in the Edison and Newman Room from May 8 – August 19, 2017. Theater visionary Edward Gordon Craig foretold a future when all the elements of performance—including lights—would play their parts as well as…
Beyond Beyond Words
In the fall of 2016, the major exhibition Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections dazzled the press and the public alike. Divided across three venues, 260 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and early printed books from nineteen Boston-area collections shone on gorgeous display. It was the largest exhibition of its kind ever held in North America and…
Byron’s Corsair: A Triptych
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the exhibition Open House 75: Houghton Staff Select on display in the Edison and Newman Room from May 8 – August 19, 2017. The British Romantic poet Lord Byron (1788-1824) followed up his successful Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812) with a series of popular Oriental Tales,…
Spending Time with Tennessee
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the exhibition Open House 75: Houghton Staff Select on display in the Edison and Newman Room from May 8 – August 19, 2017. In the fall of 1954 Tennessee Williams was desperate for a hit. After the meteoric successes of The Glass Menagerie and…
Join Us for Houghton Library’s 75th Anniversary Symposium: Who Cares?
October 5-6, 2017 Cambridge, Massachusetts Free to register The symposium is limited to 200 participants to encourage productive and dynamic dialogue in a more intimate setting. We expect demand to exceed our supply of seats, so please register early to secure your spot. This year Houghton Library, Harvard College’s primary rare books and manuscripts library,…
The Start of Something Big
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the exhibition Open House 75: Houghton Staff Select on display in the Edison and Newman Room from May 8 – August 19, 2017. In 1746, a consortium of London publishers approached Samuel Johnson, a rising star in the literary world, with a proposal: write…
Collections Now Available for Research: June 2017
Houghton Library is pleased to announce that the following collections now have descriptive finding aids and are available for research in the library’s reading room. American Repertory Theatre Records, 1979-2012 (MS Thr 1605) – processed by Adrien Hilton, Jennifer Lyons, and Dale Stinchcomb Fredric Woodbridge Wilson Collection of Costume Designs for Theater, Musical Comedy, Pantomime…