Humanities

Explore the intellectual and creative pursuits within philosophy, history, literature, and the fine arts at Harvard.

Ken Burns on America’s Unfinished Revolution

At Radcliffe, the filmmaker joined Harvard historians to discuss what the nation’s founding means today.

by Lydialyle Gibson

The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, explored by Adam Kirsch

Adam Kirsch reads the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library—the latest stage in the “American conquest of the Middle Ages”

by Adam Kirsch

Sackler exhibition reveals artistic discovery in Renaissance Europe

An exhibition at the Sackler reveals the connections among Renaissance art, invention, and the evolution of science.

by Jennifer Carling , Jonathan Shaw

Photographs of early modern printed-paper sundials

Photographs of early modern printed-paper sundials

Jan Sadeler’s engravings of The Seven Liberal Arts

Jan Sadeler’s engravings of The Seven Liberal Arts

Inventions in Early Modern Europe

Images from Stradanus’s "Nova reperta," a series of engravings representing technological innovations of the modern age from the perspective of a practicing artist

Peter Der Manuelian is Harvard's resident Egyptologist

Meet Harvard's resident Egyptologist.

Stephen Greenblatt traces how Lucretius in "De Rerum Natura" shaped the present

Stephen Greenblatt traces the influence of Lucretius, through De Rerum Natura, on modern thought.

by Christian Flow

Bin Laden death echoes in Drew Faust's Jefferson Lecture, "Telling War Stories"

President Drew Faust's Jefferson Lecture takes on an unexpected timeliness.

Sean Dorrance Kelly’s "All Things Shining" and the pursuit of a meaningful life

In a new book, All Things Shining, philosopher Sean Dorrance Kelly confronts modern nihilism with a guide for learning how to live a meaningful life.

by Jonathan Shaw

Jill Lepore on Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride"

The historian reexamines the poet.