Museums & Collections

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

Radcliffe Acquires a Black Feminist’s Archive

An architect of Black women’s studies, Barbara Smith introduced the concepts of “identity politics” and “intersectionality.”

by Lydialyle Gibson

Rare Titan Arum "Carrion Flower" Set To Bloom in a Harvard Greenhouse

An exotic Indonesian plant may well bloom into a flower more than six feet tall in the next few days.

Brief biography of Native American basket-maker Clara Darden

Brief life of an overlooked artist: c. 1829-1910. With images of Darden's masterpieces of river-cane basketry.

by Ivan Gaskell

American business embraces photography in the 1930s

Corporate culture embraces photography.

by Christopher Reed

Updike papers at Houghton Library

Taking a look at the Houghton Library holdings

When print advertising shifted from black and white to color

As consumer products grew more colorful, so did the ads. View an image gallery.

Tasmanian crocoite at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

What lead, chromium, and oxygen can do

by Christopher Reed

Mineralogical Marvels

Rocky treasures from the Harvard Museum of Natural History

Nineteenth-century dancing lessons

A professor's passion reveals how one learned to dance in Jane Austen's day.

by Christopher Reed

War and peace in Memorial Hall's stained glass

A stained-glass window in Harvard's Memorial Hall

by Christopher Reed

Reconstructed Sassetta altarpiece

Investigators construct a virtual Italian Renaissance altarpiece.

by Christopher Reed