Houghton Library
{{short description|Library of Harvard University}}
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{{Infobox library
| library_name = Houghton Library
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| country = United States
| type = University library
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| established = 28 February 1942
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| location = Cambridge, Massachusetts
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| branch_of = Harvard University Library
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| website = https://library.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton
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File:Europe a Prophecy copy H 1795 Houghton Library object 1.jpg in Europe a Prophecy by William Blake, 1795, copy H]]
Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, Lamont Library, and Loeb House, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts.{{cite web |url=https://www.annumarchitects.com/projects/harvard-university-houghton-library/ |title=Harvard University Houghton Library |website=www.annumarchitects.com |date=2022}} It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The collections of Houghton Library include the Harvard Theatre Collection and the Woodberry Poetry Room, as well as the personal papers and archives of major American and English writers.
History
File:NicholasLynde bookplate.jpg
File:ElishaCooke bookplate.jpg
Harvard's first special collections library began as the Treasure Room of Gore Hall in 1908.{{cite web |url=https://preservation.library.harvard.edu/1905-1911 |title=Preservation Services: 1905-1911 |website=Harvard Library |access-date=July 2, 2022}} The Treasure Room moved to the newly built Widener Library in 1915. In 1938, looking to supply Harvard's most valuable holdings with more space and improved storage conditions, Harvard College Librarian Keyes DeWitt Metcalf made a series of proposals which eventually led to the creation of Houghton Library, Lamont Library, and the New England Deposit Library. Funding for Houghton was raised privately, with the largest portion coming from Arthur A. Houghton Jr., in the form of stock in Corning Glass Works. Construction was largely completed by the fall of 1941, and the library opened on February 28, 1942.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}
Along with much else, Houghton holds collections of papers of Samuel Johnson, Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Margaret Fuller, John Keats, Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family, Amos Bronson Alcott and his daughter Louisa May Alcott, along with the papers of other notable transcendentalists. Significant collections include those relating to Theodore Roosevelt, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings, Henry James, William James, James Joyce, John Updike, Jamaica Kincaid, Tennessee Williams, The Cockettes, John Lithgow, Gore Vidal, and many others.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}
Houghton also holds the letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the 54th Massachusetts during the Civil War, and was killed during the assault on Fort Wagner.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}
Houghton mounts periodic exhibitions, open to the public, of various of its holdings.
Collections
File:Houghton Edison & Newman Room.jpg
Houghton has five main curatorial departments:
- [http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/early.html Early Books and Manuscripts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606213517/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/early.html |date=2007-06-06 }}, which includes a large collection of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and over 2,500 incunabula.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070609211114/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/hyde.html Early Modern Books and Manuscripts], featuring the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of the largest collections of books and manuscripts relating to Samuel Johnson and his circle.
- [http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/modern.html Modern Books and Manuscripts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609211127/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/modern.html |date=2007-06-09 }}, which collects material from 1800 to the present, including the papers and libraries of Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Leon Trotsky, Gore Vidal, John Updike, Amy Lowell, and collector Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Jr., among many others.
- Modern Books & Manuscripts [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern/ New Acquisitions Blog]
- [http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/printing.html Printing & Graphic Arts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609210133/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/printing.html |date=2007-06-09 }} which documents the history and art of book production. It was founded in 1938 by Philip Hofer.Jackson, William A. (1960). "Philip Hofer" The Book Collector 9, no 2 (summer): 151-164.Jackson, William A. (1960). "Philip Hofer" The Book Collector 9, no.3 (autumn): 292-300.
- [http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/htc.html The Harvard Theatre Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701194021/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/htc.html |date=2007-07-01 }} covering the history of the performing arts.
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{cite book | title=A Houghton Library Chronicle, 1942–1992 | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts | publisher=Harvard College Library | year=1992 | oclc=26633110}}
- {{cite book | title=Centuries of books & manuscripts : collectors and friends, scholars and librarians build the Harvard College Library : an exhibition on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Houghton Library, 1942–1992 | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts | publisher=Harvard College Library | year=1992 | oclc=26024581}}
External links
{{commons category|Houghton Library, Harvard University|Houghton Library}}
- [http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/#houghton Houghton Library home page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715200121/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/#houghton |date=2007-07-15 }}
- [http://houghton75.org/ Houghton 75: Celebrating Houghton Library's 75th Anniversary]
- Online exhibition: [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/longfellow/index.html Public Poet, Private Man: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at 200] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123014153/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/longfellow/index.html |date=2008-11-23 }}
- Online exhibition: [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/books_in_books/ Books in Books: Reflections on Reading and Writing in the Middle Ages]
- Online exhibition: [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/lincoln/ Harvard's Lincoln] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626000824/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/lincoln/ |date=2010-06-26 }}
- Online exhibition: [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/johnson/ A Monument More Durable Than Brass: The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626025709/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/johnson/ |date=2010-06-26 }}
- Online exhibition: [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/widener/ History of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502001821/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/widener/ |date=2014-05-02 }}
- Online exhibition: [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/keats/ "I shall ever be your dearest love": John Keats and Fanny Brawne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130417155908/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/keats/ |date=2013-04-17 }}
- Online exhibition: [http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/alice/introduction/ "Such a Curious Dream!: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at 150]
- [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghton/ Houghton Library Blog]
- [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/houghtonmodern Department of Modern Books & Manuscripts new acquisitions blog]
{{Harvard}}
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Category:Research libraries in the United States
Category:Literary archives in the United States
Category:Archives in the United States
Category:Harvard University buildings
Category:1938 establishments in Massachusetts
Category:Libraries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Category:Libraries established in 1938
Category:Library buildings completed in 1941
Category:Rare book libraries in the United States