Treasure

Perspective view of a train on tracks lined by trees, surrounded by colorfully dressed onlookers.

Treasure | May-June 2025

Miniature Worlds

How “paper peepshows” brought distant realms to life

by Nina Pasquini

Borders from family Christmas letters, in Christmas seasonal motifs and colors

Treasure | November-December 2021

Family Newsletters of Holidays Past

Origins of a beloved, bemoaned Yuletide tradition

by Nancy Walecki

A brown grandfather clock

Treasure | September-October 2021

How Harvard Profited On Keeping Time

Harvard’s clocks and the standardization of time

by Jacob Sweet

The front and back of a die-cut trade card shaped like a donkey that was used to advertise coffee. When the card is flipped over, the viewer can see that there is a boy riding on the donkey's back.

Treasure | July-August 2021

Trade Cards in the Age of Invention

A nineteenth-century advertising medium traces the rise of consumer culture.

by Jonathan Shaw

a hat made of jaguar pelt

Treasure | May-June 2021

Clothes Overboard!

Two explorers strip to stay aloft.

by Jacob Sweet

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

Treasure | March-April 2021

Cartography Animated

The era of imaginative mapmaking

by Marina N. Bolotnikova

An historic photograph from Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library archives shows the 1936 exhibition on women scientists—in this case, folders of their published scholarship.

Treasure | January-February 2021

Conservative Curation

“Women in Science” on display

by Alona Bach

Photograph of Edo era fan depicting Mount Fuji and Mount Tsukuba on alternate sides

Treasure | November-December 2020

An Auspicious View

This folding fan enfolds two sacred mountains.

by Lydialyle Gibson

A drawing of students rebelling in a dining hall.

Treasure | September-October 2020

Rebelling and Expelling

The Class of 1823 goes rogue and gets booted.

by Jacob Sweet

Envelope of an old letter

Treasure | July-August 2020

Air Mail

A wartime life together—cut short

by Blythe Grossberg

Margaret Mee painting of yellow trumpet tree

Treasure | May-June 2020

An Amazon Artist

Botanical bounty at Dumbarton Oaks

by John S. Rosenberg