Exhibit: Houghton Library Lobby Gallery, Fall 2022

Open to the public.

Curious about Houghton's Collections?

Houghton Library is world renowned for its rich collection of rare books, manuscripts, and archives, but it also holds a surprising number of curious objects. This fall, the lobby gallery presents a selection of objects with stories of the cultures and individuals that produced them, including:  

• An epigraphical impression (called a squeeze) from Augustus Caesar’s Res Gestae
• A 17th century hornbook and a 19th century craft kit used for teaching children
• A wood carved griffin from a 17th century printer’s shop
• Sculptor Eric Kennington’s bronze maquette for his effigy of T.E. Lawrence
• A 17th century brass astrolabe made in Persia (Iran)
• A key to Napoleon’s bedroom during his exile on St. Helena
• A bundle of graphite pencils made by Henry David Thoreau’s father
• A sample of Sea Island cotton grown by a formerly enslaved man on his own land during the Civil War
• Ribbons worn by guests in honor of Hawaii’s Queen Kapi‘olani on her 1887 visit to Boston
• A bronze statuette presented by magician Harry Houdini to the French actress Sarah Bernhardt

More Information: https://library.harvard.edu/exhibits/houghton-library-lobby-gallery-0