By Sarah Lindenbaum In the introduction of Marks in Books, Roger Stoddard’s catalogue of his 1984 exhibit on marginalia and other book traces, he writes, “As anthropologists have discovered, traces of wear can tell us how artifacts were used by human beings. Books no less than tools, apparel, and habits can show signs of wear,…
Translated for Action: Gabriel Harvey’s Grammar-Drama
This post was written by Andrew S. Keener, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Santa Clara University. A recipient of the Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography, Keener was a 2016–2017 Houghton Library Visiting Fellow. The sixteenth-century scholar Gabriel Harvey has fascinated researchers of early modern reading and handwriting for decades, but an investigation…
Announcing Houghton Library Visiting Fellows 2018-2019
Each year, Houghton Library awards visiting fellowships to support scholars whose research requires extensive use of the library’s collections. We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2018-2019 awards, including two inaugural fellowships: the Maryette Charlton Fellowship for the Performing Arts, and Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for Research in Early Modern Black Lives, including…
On “On Pornography”
Here at Harvard we recently concluded Sex Week, an annual week of events focused on issues of sex, sexual health, sexuality, gender, gender identity, relationships, and more. In my capacity as 75th Anniversary Fellow here at Houghton, I brought a Sex Week focus into my work with Houghton and examined the collection for materials related…
The Houghton Gradual and the Choir Books in Malta
Dr Theresa Zammit Lupi, Katharine F. Pantzer Jr Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography 2016-2017, Houghton Library MS Lat 186 at the Houghton Library is one of a set of four surviving French graduals that were illuminated by Jean Pichore (d. 1521) and his workshop in the first quarter of the 16th century. The manuscript was recently…
The one-pull press and printing on half sheets
By David Shaw One of the first things fledging historical bibliographers are taught is to identify formats: take a sheet of paper and fold it once to give folio format, fold again to make a quarto gathering, and once again for an octavo. Then they need to know about chain lines, wire lines and where…
Houghton 2016-2017 Fellows Announced
Each year, Houghton Library awards grants to defray the costs of travel and lodging for scholars using our collections. We are pleased to announce the following 21 fellowship awards for the 2016-2017 cycle….
Houghton Offers Fellowship for Visiting Librarian/Archivist
This year we are pleased to be one of the sites selected to participate in Harvard’s Administrative Fellowship Program. Now in its 26th year, the program “seeks to attract talented professionals, and in particular, members of historically underrepresented groups, to promote leadership opportunities and careers in higher education.” This full-time position, which includes salary and…
Houghton Library Fellowships for Harvard Undergraduates
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…
“It was a glorious flowering”
When I arrived at the Houghton Library, it was to do research for a project I am pursuing on Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, and World War II. While naturally the main site of interest for any researcher studying the career of Eleanor Roosevelt is the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde…