Houghton Library Exhibition: 75th anniversary open-house-inspired showcase

Date: 

Saturday, July 15, 2017, 9:00am to 5:00pm

Repeats every week on Monday, Friday, Saturday until Thu Aug 10 2017

Location: 

Houghton Library, Edison and Newman Room, Harvard Yard

Houghton Library staff celebrate the library’s 75th anniversary with an open-house-inspired showcase of its outstanding collections.

Fifty archivists, conservators, curators, librarians, specialists, and student workers who make up “Team Houghton” share memorable items encountered during careers at the library that range from four months to over 40 years. Gained through providing access to over 600,000 printed books and six miles of manuscript and archival materials that comprise the Houghton collection, the staff’s encyclopedic knowledge of the library comes to the fore in this exhibition.

A microcosm of Houghton in breadth and depth, highlights from Open House 75 range from a Renaissance letter written by Michelangelo and a missive stained by Hemingway’s sweat, to a moving instance of gay fandom and women writers on domesticity and revolution. Among the notable “firsts” represented are the diary of the first American meteorologist and an Edison lightbulb that illuminated America’s first electrified theater. Cultural treasures from Liberia and Japan are presented alongside everyday objects such as a Roman coin and a Panama hat; taken together, these and other objects in the exhibition suggest the rich variety of human experience housed within Houghton’s walls.

Visit Open House 75 at Houghton or online to discover the library Houghton Library through the eyes of the people who know it best. Open House 75 is open through August 19, 2017 and is free and open to the public. Click here for library hours
Also see:houghton75.org