[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…
“The Universe’s hash” Settled: The William James Lecture
The Houghton Library and the Harvard Divinity School join in commemorating the centenary of the death of Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James. Linda Simon, biographer of William James, will deliver the annual William James Lecture on Wednesday, October 27th, at 5.15 P.M. in the Lamont Forum Room. Simon’s talk, “William James’s Transitions,” looks at…
A Sign of Things to Come
One of the newly announced 2010 MacArthur Fellows, Nicholas Benson, has a special connection to Houghton Library: he created the beautiful slate sign that hangs over the entrance to the Edison and Newman Room, for its dedication in 2005. Benson is a third-generation stone carver, and his father carved the sign marking Blodgett Court, just…
Life is in the Transitions
On the 100th anniversary of his death, Houghton celebrates the life and work of William James with a major physical and online exhibition, “Life is in the Transitions”: William James, 1842-1910, guest curated by Linda Simon, Professor of English at Skidmore College. Houghton was also host to one day of a four-day symposium entitled “In…
Eliot at Harvard
The new Harvard Gazette has a full story on our exhibition on T.S. Eliot’s time at Harvard, mentioned here previously. The exhibition will be up through June 26th….
Hours of labor
[Thanks to Lake Conservator Mary Oey for contributing this post.] This is a first edition copy of Lord Byron’s Hours of Idleness, owned by Byron’s friend John Cam Hobhouse. Hobhouse bought the book and had it rebound with alternating blank interleaves, which he energetically filled with editorializing remarks and other — often snarky — comments…
Most Likely to Succeed
A new exhibition in Houghton’s Chaucer Case celebrates the 100th anniversary of T.S. Eliot’s graduation from Harvard. See the Houghton Modern blog for more details on Class Notes: The Centenary of T.S. Eliot at Harvard 1910-2010….
William James symposium registration opens
This fall, Houghton will present an exhibition “Life is in the Transitions”: William James, 1842-1910 in commemoration of the centenary of James’s death. The exhibition opening coincides with a conference organized by the William James Society, co-sponsored by the Houghton Library, and the Chocorua Community Association, “In the Footsteps of William James: a Symposium on…
Telescopes are prudent / In an emergency
For the next two weeks, the Woodberry Poetry Room will be home to an art installation that celebrates the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Created by Adams House art tutor Zachary Sifuentes, “Fugitive Sparrows” literally offers a number of new ways of looking at Dickinson’s poems, including small placards placed in the yard below, viewable through…
Books in Books
Books on Books: Reflections on Reading and Writing in the Middle Ages is a new online exhibition that features medieval images of books in the process of being made, presented, exchanged, written or read. A joint project of the Houghton Library and Jeffrey Hamburger, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture, and Chair, Medieval…