This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the exhibition Open House 75: Houghton Staff Select on display in the Edison and Newman Room from May 8 – August 19, 2017. The British Romantic poet Lord Byron (1788-1824) followed up his successful Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812) with a series of popular Oriental Tales, Read More
Dale Stinchcomb
Most Creative: John Lithgow’s Harvard Years
It’s been a year of milestones for actor and Harvard alum John Lithgow, who this week celebrates his 50th class reunion. Last April, he was fêted with the 2017 Harvard Arts Medal at the kick-off of Arts First, the annual festival of student creativity he helped launch 25 years ago. Self-portrait as Winston Churchill in Read More
John Lithgow: Actor as Artist
Exhibit opens showcasing ‘Trial & Error’ star’s talent for drawing as well as drama. Halfway through his freshman year, John Lithgow set his sights on a summer residency at the artist colony in Skowhegan, Maine. Hoping to give his son’s application an edge, John’s father arranged a private interview with the painter Ben Shahn, a formidable Read More
“A Harbinger of Those Peaceful Times to Come”: A Gift from the People of Great Britain
The brief ceremony that marked the opening of Houghton Library on 28 February 1942 took place only months after the United States had entered World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Professor Charles K. Webster of the University of London was one of three speakers along with Harvard University President James Conant Read More
John Adams on Shakespeare, or As You Dislike It
Another year of Shakespeare has drawn to a close. This week on Broadway the curtain came down on the hit show Something Rotten! whose song “I Hate Shakespeare” offered the closest thing to a respite from the past year’s tempest of fulsome tributes. Those weary of the much ado can take heart: the next anniversary Read More