Harvard's Houghton Library Exhibit: 1820: Keats, Shelley & Their World
Date and Time
Location
In 1820, two key volumes for British Romanticism were published: John Keats’s Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. . .with Other Poems. This exhibition celebrates the bicentenary of these two poetic achievements.
Highlights include:
- Percy Shelley’s draft of “To a skylark” from one of his working notebooks.
- John Keats’s working draft for the ode “To autumn.”
- Peterloo Massacre penny pamphlet distributed to protest armed militia’s brutal suppression of a peaceful protest by men, women, and children seeking political representation.
- Work by contemporaries such as Olaudah Equiano, José María Heredia, and Melesina Trench.
1820: Keats, Shelley & Their World was curated by Leslie A. Morris, Gore Vidal Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts, Houghton Library. The exhibition is held in conjunction with the Stuart Curran Symposium, sponsored by the Keats-Shelley Association of America, October 29, 2021.
Access and open hours
Please note that Houghton is open to Harvard students, faculty and staff only through October 3. From October 4, the library will be open to external researchers, visitors and the general public.
For the fall semester the library will be open Mon-Fri; 9—5 for exhibitions; 10-5 for reading room.