The passing of Valerie Eliot last Friday evoked sadness for the loss of a good friend to the Houghton Library, and marked the breaking of our the last living link with the life and legacy of T.S. Eliot, a poet inextricably linked to Harvard University. Mrs. Eliot’s dedication to protecting and promoting Eliot’s literary legacy Read More

“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

Finding aids for 8 newly cataloged collections, and a preliminary box list for one recent acquisition, have been added to the OASIS database this month, including sheet music relating to animals, caricatures of Gilbert & Sullivan, and William Dean Howells memorabilia.     Processed by Irina Klyagin with the assistance of Andrea Cawelti: Pauline Viardot-Garcia Read More

The process of campaigning for the position of U.S. president can be an arduous one. For Theodore Roosevelt, the 1912 presidential campaign very nearly turned deadly. TR had already served two presidential terms, from 1901-1908. Despite claiming he would never again seek that office, TR was not terribly eager to retire from public life. His Read More