History

2023 Sep 27

Curator-Led Exhibition Tour: At the Limits of the Book

12:30pm to 1:15pm

Location: 

Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge

Join exhibition curator and Houghton librarian Molly Schwartzburg for a special guided tour of At the Limits of the Book: Bindings from the Houghton Library Collections. This 45-minute tour will include discussion of the themes of the exhibition, highlights from the materials on display, and ample time for participant questions.

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2023 Sep 01

Tour of Houghton Library

Repeats every week every Friday until Fri Dec 15 2023 except Fri Sep 29 2023, Fri Nov 10 2023, Fri Nov 24 2023.
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Location: 

Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge

Join an introduction to Houghton Library, Harvard’s primary rare book and manuscript library. The tour includes visits to exhibition spaces and display rooms dedicated to the English writer Samuel Johnson and his circle, Romantic poet John Keats, American poets Emily Dickinson and Amy Lowell, as well as the library of Harvard collector William King Richardson. A history of the building and an overview of services available to library patrons will also be provided.

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2023 Aug 24

Her Luminous Distance: Legacies of Women Astronomical Computers at Harvard

Repeats every week on Sunday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday until Sun Oct 22 2023 .
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Location: 

The Great Refractor, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden St., Cambridge

The Harvard Plate Stacks is presenting a special exhibition, Her Luminous Distance: The Legacies of Women Astronomical Computers at Harvard, in the rotunda and dome of the Great Refractor at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. See Aura Satz's installation artwork installed in the historic telescope dome. Free and open to the public, the exhibition celebrates the legacy of the Women Astronomical Computers and will illuminate to audiences the various disciplines and fields of study that have been inspired by these women and the astronomical photographs that...

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2023 Sep 10

Spotlight Tour: Food for Thought, with Hannah Gadway ’25

2:00pm to 2:50pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

On this tour, Hannah Gadway ’25 will explore food-inspired works of art from the past to reflect on our attitudes about food today. Among the works discussed will be a gourd-shaped ewer made in Korea in the 12th century, The Breakfast Table (1883–84), an oil painting made in Paris by John Singer Sargent, and Pear Tree (1903), an oil painting made in Austria by Gustav Klimt.

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2023 Sep 10

Spotlight Tour: Women’s Health and Art, with Eve Crompton ’24

11:00am to 11:50am

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

In this tour, Eve Crompton ’24 will analyze historical social attitudes toward female health and illness as she examines a selection of representations of women in art. She will look at an Attic grave stele, Woman dying in childbirth (c. 330 BCE); the painting Mother and Child (c. 1901), which Pablo Picasso was inspired to make after visiting a French prison hospital; and Erich Heckel’s painting To the Convalescent Woman (Triptych) (1912–13).

An integrative biology student, Crompton aims to address the health inequalities perpetuated by structural...

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2023 Sep 09

Spotlight Tour: Paths to Abstraction, with Isa Haro ’24

2:00pm to 2:50pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

On this tour, Isa Haro ’24 will explore how abstraction in art has been practiced, viewed, and enjoyed over time, with three very different examples. She will look at a group of Ming dynasty garden rocks (16th–17th century), which served as focal elements in traditional gardens; Paul Cézanne’s Study of Trees (c. 1904), a radically austere painting that contributed to Cézanne’s renown as a pivotal figure in the history of abstraction; and Alberto Burri’s Legno e rosso 3 (1956), a painting made with lacquered bark and a blowtorch. An art, film, and visual studies student, Haro...

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2023 Sep 09

Spotlight Tour: Deconstructing Disorientation, with Emily Feng ’25

11:00am to 11:50am

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

On this tour, Emily Feng ’25 will explore how certain works of art provoke a sense of disorientation. A student of philosophy and economics, Feng will look closely at three works: Saxon Motif (1964), an oil painting made in West Germany by Georg Baselitz; Zhan Wang’s Sculpture in the Form of a Nine-Hole Scholar’s Rock, made in China in 2001; and The End of the World (1936), a painting by David Alfaro Siqueiros, which he produced in New York City.

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2023 Sep 02

Any Number Can Win. All-Night Movie Marathon

6:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge

The Harvard Film Archive annual movie marathon returns with a series of fascinating films from around the globe that unfold in the lonely and fittingly nocturnal world of high-stakes gambling. From the seedy Reno of Robert Altman’s California Split to the decadent Monte Carlo of Jacques Demy’s Bay of Angels, from underworld Tokyo (where gambling is illegal) in Shinoda Masahiro’s Pale Flower to the glittering Cannes of Henri Verneuil’s Any Number Can Win, together these films vividly conjure up the strange floating world of the gambling den and the dark...

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2023 Sep 17

¡Celebremos El Salvador!

12:00pm to 3:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

Celebrate the vibrant culture and natural history of El Salvador. Enjoy captivating folk dances by Grupo Torogoz and try hands-on activities including corn grinding and painting with cochineal insects. Go on a scavenger hunt and discover the rich heritage of animals, minerals, and artifacts from the region. Join an archaeologist for a live-streamed tour of Joya de Cerén, the Pompeii of Latin America. Take a break with Spanish Story Time, enjoy traditional Salvadoran cuisine (available for purchase), and enter a raffle to win a museum gift basket.

All are welcome to explore,...

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2023 Oct 05

Seeing in Art and Medicine: A Conversation

6:00pm to 7:15pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Join us for a lively conversation about the exhibition Seeing in Art and Medicine and the museums’ medical humanities program that inspired it. Presenters include the program’s founders, Hyewon Hyun and David Odo, and exhibition curator Jen Thum. The talk will also include interactive segments based on the work of the program.

Learn more and RSVP.

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2023 Sep 24

Objects of Addiction: Perspectives on the Opioid Crisis in New England

2:00pm to 3:30pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

In conjunction with the exhibition Objects of Addiction: Opium, Empire, and the Chinese Art Trade, join the Harvard Art Museums for a discussion about the opioid crisis, featuring specialists in addiction medicine, harm reduction, and public health policy.

Learn more and RSVP.

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2023 Sep 16

U.S. Citizenship Course

10:30am to 12:30pm

Location: 

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Prepare for the U.S. citizenship exam with art at the Harvard Art Museums!

In partnership with the St. Mark Community Education Program, the Harvard Art Museums are pleased to offer a free 10-week course that will prepare students to answer the exam’s 100 civics questions and offer instruction to improve their English language skills.

Learn more and sign up.

To be eligible for...

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