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Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

March-April 2021

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Letters

Acupuncture, climate change, renaming

President Bacow on speech on campus

What Ivy institutions’ diverging paths reveal

The College Pump

Photograph of architect H.H. Richardson’s house

Photograph courtesy of the Brookline Preservation Commission

Classy masks, dapper archaeologist, saving H.H. Richardson’s house

Treasure

A detailed 1598 map of Iceland, with monstrous sea creatures in the surrounding waters and polar bears on ice flows.

Click on arrow at right to view full map

Image courtesy of the Harvard Map Collection

The era of imaginative mapmaking

In this Issue

Stephen Gray stands on city sidewalk with street car passing by on right

Photograph by Aaron Conway/aaconn studio

Back in his hometown: Stephen Gray in downtown Cincinnati

Stephen Gray pioneers equitable urban design.

Portrait of Jeannie Suk Gersen, an elegantly dressed Korean American woman leaning against a stone archway.

Jeannie Suk Gersen

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Jeannie Suk Gersen on the law, trauma, and “the rhetoric of believing”

Photograph of a stout middle-aged woman seated at her desk, writing

Bryant at work, captured in an undated photograph.

Image courtesy of the Museum of Comparative Zoology/Harvard University

Brief life of an underappreciated arachnologist

Purple spruce cones

Photograph by William (Ned) Friedman

Re-engaging with nature alongside the director of the Arnold Arboretum

Letters

Acupuncture, climate change, renaming

President Bacow on speech on campus

What Ivy institutions’ diverging paths reveal

Right Now

A collage of emblematic figures in American history set against the Stars and Stripes

Illustration by Alex Williamson.

In a new book, Louis Menand probes the cultural currents of postwar America.

A close-up photograph of Jupiter, including its Great Red Spot

The persistence of a giant storm on Jupiter—the planet’s iconic red spot—has perplexed scientists for generations.

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

The gas giant’s storms could be driven by processes thousands of kilometers below the surface.

An evocative illustration that incorporates musical notation into the familiar double helix of DNA

Illustration by Traci Daberko

Compact and persistent, DNA could one day compress all human knowledge into a 15-gallon drum.

Harvard Squared

Photo of the exterior of Coolidge Corner Theater, with its vertical red neon sign.

Coolidge Corner Theater offers small-group rentals.

Photograph courtesy of Coolidge Corner Theater

Greater Boston’s small cinemas strive to engage film-goers during the pandemic.

Artist Shen Wei in his studio amid his large-scale abstract paintings

Shen Wei in his New York studio, 2014

Photograph by Jeffrey Sturges

“Shen Wei: Painting in Motion,” at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Zoom-like grid of colorful portraits of people in pandemic-era face masks.

Nielsen's portraits reflect the early experiences of real people striving to protect themselves from COVID-19 and respond to the new pandemic-era.

Photograph courtesy of MASS MoCA

Richard Nielsen: “This is Not a Gag,” at MASS MoCA

Hands typing on a computer keyboard.

Join other aspiring and established writers for The Muse & The Marketplace conference in April.
Photograph by iStock

This Boston conference offers a virtual writing retreat.

Two hanging bird feeders plus a hanging nesting basket dangle from a tree branch.

Photo courtesy of Didriks.com

Turning your al fresco space into a springtime oasis

John Harvard's Journal

Solomon Gate in an open position.

Solomon Gate in its typical open position

 

At Houghton and Lamont libraries, a creative new entry into the Yard

Photograph of Nancy Coleman, dean of continuing education

Nancy Coleman, dean of continuing education

Photograph by Michelle dunham Photography

Pandemic-driven virtual learning booms—and perhaps promises improved residential education, too.

Photograph of Roxanne Guenette

Roxanne Guenette

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Seeking answers to science’s biggest questions

Mark Steele illustration of Lowell House’s bells being rung for the first time by a giant hand stretching from a cloud to swing the detached belfry.

Illustration by Mark Steele

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Prospective candidates and their diverse views of Harvard’s future and the Board’s role

Photograph of Patrick Chung

Patrick Chung

Photograph courtesy of Patrick Chung

The Xfund helps young entrepreneurs launch companies and careers.

Judith and Sean Palfrey

Photograph courtesy of Judith and Sean Palfrey

Adams House changing of rhe guard, Institute of Politics controversy, an avalanche of applications, and more

Photograph of posters displaying coronavirus rules at the entrance to Adams House dining hall.

Pandemic precautions: safety procedures prevail as students return for spring term.

Photograph by Meena Venkataramanan

Reports on the pandemic spring semester, policing reform, Allston enlargement, and cell-manufacturing

Photograph of the Tucson, Arizona, skyline and downtown taken at sunset.

Tucson, Arizona

Photograph by Sean Pavone/istock

The Undergraduate balances childhood and maturity.

A man runs around the perimeter of Harvard Stadium

David Melly rounds Harvard Stadium. Running the loop counterclockwise, he acknowledges, is controversial.

Photograph by Molly Malone

A legendary route’s disputed distance

Montage

Head and torso of a man painted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

(Click on arrow at right to view additonal images)
(1of 4) Details from The Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo’s ceiling

Photograph © Vatican Museum

Nicholas Callaway publishes the Sistine Chapel in closeup.

Historic photograph of heap of fabric scraps

The heap: a mound of scrap fabric documents an industry, and a term.

Photograph courtesy of Hanna Rose Shell

“From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags”—a surprising account of scrap

An illustration showing a human head in profile, suggesting the elements of distinctive Western psychology

Illustration by Matt Chase, from the book

Reinterpreting the distinctive psychology of the human West

Photograph of author Justin Deabler

Justin Deabler

Photograph Courtesy of Justin Deabler

Fiction about “the power that comes to us when we uncloset ourselves”

Historic images of Francis Drake and Elizabeth I, who feature in a new book by Laurence Bergreen

Francis Drake and Elizabeth I, the stars of Laurence Bergreen’s new seafaring epic

Public Domain

Recent books with Harvard connections

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Photo of a cheerleader group composed of elderly women, all in red tops and white skirts, with pompoms

A senior cheer group

Photograph courtesy of Lance Oppenheim

Documentarian Lance Oppenheim explores life in The Villages.

Alumni

Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones poses stylishly in a studio

Radhika Jones

Photograph by Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times/Contour RA/Getty Images

Radhika Jones at the helm of Vanity Fair

Highlighting leaders at clubs and SIGs 

The College Pump

Photograph of architect H.H. Richardson’s house

Photograph courtesy of the Brookline Preservation Commission

Classy masks, dapper archaeologist, saving H.H. Richardson’s house

Treasure

A detailed 1598 map of Iceland, with monstrous sea creatures in the surrounding waters and polar bears on ice flows.

Click on arrow at right to view full map

Image courtesy of the Harvard Map Collection

The era of imaginative mapmaking