Features

Caricature of a young man in front of red doors, wearing a green striped sweater.

The Year a Beat Poet Squatted at Harvard

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

by Constantine Archimedes Valhouli

For 15 years, William Francis Gibbs greeted the SS <i>United States</i> every time the liner he had designed arrived in New York City.

Naval architect William Francis Gibbs, designer of the SS United States

Brief life of America’s greatest naval architect: 1886-1967

by Steven Ujifusa

Study of a Red and Yellow Macaw <i>(Macrocercus aracanga),</i> now known as Scarlet Macaw <i>(Ara macao).</i> Watercolor over graphite on paper.

Harvard exhibits bicentennial Edward Lear animal art

A bicentennial exhibition features the little-known, masterful animal artistry of Edward Lear.

by Christopher Reed

African Americans vote in Alabama in 1966, in the wake of the Voting Rights Act.

Harvard's Alexandar Keyssar analyzes voter suppression measures

Voting rights and partisan practices in a highly contested election year

by Alexander Keyssar

Illustration by Dan Page

Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson urge compromise in U.S. politics

Continuous campaigning and gridlocked governing in American politics

by Amy Gutmann , Dennis Thompson

Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig explains how money corrupts Congress

Lawrence Lessig thinks American democracy requires a constitutional overhaul to counter the “economy of influence.”

by Jonathan Shaw

The human urge to create art appears magnificently in the Paleolithic paintings from roughly 30,000 years ago at Chauvet Cave, in southern France. Here, the Panel of the Horses.

Harvard sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the origins of the arts

Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the evolution of culture

Rahul Mehrotra at the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad. The earliest structures of the palace complex were built in a Palladian Neoclassical style; as the rulers gained in confidence, they adopted the Islamic Revivalist style shown here.

Architect Rahul Mehrotra balances teaching at Harvard and practice in India

Rahul Mehrotra's architecture spans eras and cultural divides.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

<i>The Vision of Saint Gertrude the Great with Saint Augustine and the Holy Trinity</i> (c.1673-1712). Attributed to Isidoro Arredondo

Gertrude of Helfta, female visionary, by Caroline W. Bynum

Brief life of a female visionary: 1256-c. 1302

by Caroline W. Bynum

Peter Der Manuelian with a 3-D projection of the subterranean chapel of Queen Meresankh III, discovered and excavated at Giza in 1927 by the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. This immersive computer model, based on the actual archaeological documentation, uses software powered by Dassault Systèmes, Paris.

The Humanities, Digitized

Reconceiving the study of culture

by Jonathan Shaw

Fanny Bullock Workman

Fanny Bullock Workman, feisty mountaineer

Brief life of a feisty mountaineer: 1859-1925