Museums & Collections

Discover treasures from Harvard’s museums and special collections, from ancient artifacts to modern art.

Nineteenth-century prison ruins with brick guardhouse surrounded by forest.

This Connecticut Mine Was Once a Prison

The underground Old New-Gate Prison quickly became “a school for crime.”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Bronze weight shaped as a bust of an empress, featuring intricate details and a hook for hanging.

David Gordon Mitten, Harvard Classicist, Professor, and Curator

An archaeologist/curator/hands-on humanist, and an artifact from the era of typewritten term papers

by Primus VI

Barbara Lawrence seated, wearing a textured blouse, in a portrait from the late 1930s.

Harvard Pioneering Mammalogist Barbara Lawrence

Brief life of an intrepid mammalogist: 1909-1997

by Jonathan Shaw

Farlow Herbarium

Celebrating the Farlow Herbarium’s Centennial

Harvard’s Farlow Herbarium at 100

by Jonathan Shaw

Made in Germany

German national identity at the Harvard Art Museums

by Olivia Farrar

A collage featuring, from left: a young Ogden Codman Jr. in a sepia-toned portrait; items from the Codman Estate displayed in a museum; a close-up of a chair reflecting the English Arts and Crafts movement style; and a sample of the “Brother Rabbit” textile pattern, popular between 1882-90.

Men and Their Castles

Historic New England explores the “bachelor decorators”

by Nell Porter-Brown

A boy in period military dress

Boston’s USS Constitution and its Museum

USS Constitution—for all ages

by Max J. Krupnick

Beau McCall, at left, wearing Button Jacket: Born in Philly, Made in Harlem, circa 1988, and his partner, Souleo, wearing Button Jacket: Stacked Sleeves, circa early 1990s-2021

Art Made Out of Buttons

Works by Harlem-based artist Beau McCall at Brockton's Fuller Craft Museum

by Nell Porter-Brown

Fairfield Porter's “Self-Portrait in the Studio,” painted in 1948

An Underknown Twentieth Century Realist Artist

Brief life of an American realist artist and critic: 1907-1975

by Jane Borthwick

Botanical works from Houghton’s collections displayed in the renovated lobby’s display cases for a summer exhibition

Botanical illustrations on display at Harvard

Botanical illustrations on display at Harvard’s rare book library

by Jack R. Trapanick

Painting of bold purple tones reflecting experience of music

MASS MoCA Exhibition on the Experience of Jazz

Works by Jason Moran at MASS MoCA

by Nell Porter-Brown