“I am having a great time down hear in the city” -Joe Last week’s Superstorm Sandy has the New York metropolitan region on the minds and in the hearts of many these days. Thus, a little trip down memory lane to times that – at least on the surface – appeared rosier. Houghton has in Read More

On Wednesday, November 14th, at 5.30 P.M., Houghton will host a mind-altering experience: Carl Williams, head of the Counterculture Department at the venerable firm of Maggs Bros in London (By appointment, purveyors of rare books and manuscripts to Her Majesty the Queen) will talk on a topic the Queen doesn’t collect: the Counterculture. The term Read More

The mid-19th century saw a surge of immigration from Sweden to the United States. Many were farmers looking for new opportunities for land to work, and many were more well-off than typical immigrants from other European countries who were displaced by famine or poverty. Because they could afford to buy land and livestock, these Swedes Read More

The excitement of this week’s transit of Venus was somewhat dampened in Boston by cloudy skies and rain. To make up for this, we offer a bit of astronomical history from the time of the first widely viewed transits of Venus in the 18th century. Though we’ll never see it transiting the sun, William Herschel’s Read More

With Modern Painters (1843-60), The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), and The Stones of Venice (1851-53), John Ruskin (1819-1900) established his credentials as Victorian England’s most influential art critic. His standing in artistic circles was enhanced by his own talent as an artist and draughtsman. For a number of years he offered drawing lessons at Read More