This exhibition conceives of passports as the ruins of a modern dream now in terminal crisis – the dream of a globalized world. Drawing on the collections of Harvard Library, Passports: Lives in Transit addresses this major contemporary issue through the lens of passports, visa applications, and other documents associated with noteworthy nineteenth- and twentieth-century travelers, émigrés and refugees. Also on view, items of personal significance to a Harvard student telling a story of Latino immigration to the U.S., as well as a site-specific multimedia art installation of used passports purchased on e-commerce sites, further underscore the exhibition’s engagement with current geopolitics and activism.

This exhibition was co-curated by Rodrigo del Rio and Lucas Mertehikian, both doctoral students in Harvard University’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Co-sponsored by Houghton Library and Harvard University’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.