Collections Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) Reel Container with Handwritten Liner Notes (Boston, Mass., 1959)  What interests me most about this object is the intimacy one experiences between an otherwise abstract technological entity (a reel-to reel recording) and the human anatomy—in this case, the embodied voice of the poet and her written

Technical Services Titus (reigned 79-81 AD) Denarius, Rome, 80 AD Words, ideas, and images mix as they tumble through the ages, confronting me with a modest object’s power to inspire. Romans celebrated the opening of the Coliseum with this little silver denarius, picturing the emperor Titus on the obverse, with

Technical Services John Foster (1648-1681) Portrait of Richard Mather Boston, Mass., ca. 1675 This is the first woodcut made in New England, and probably the earliest of the five impressions of the portrait that survive. The image was reproduced in a college textbook I used for a course on print

Public Services e e cummings (1894-1962) “i like my body when it is with your,” undated Erotic, intimate, and romantic, Cummings’ sonnet “i like my body” illustrates the unconventional capitalization, syntax, and form that characterizes the poet’s work. While his style was experimental, his poems often invoked traditional themes such

Office of the Librarian Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Le Bestiare, ou, Cortège d’Orphée (Paris, 1911) Woodcut bestiaries have enjoyed a long tradition in France. Many of Houghton’s finest examples were acquired by Philip Hofer, founding curator of the library’s Printing and Graphic Arts Department. This twentieth century exemplar belonged to the

Office of the Librarian Jacopo del Giallo (d. 1543) The Last Judgment Rome, 1530–1534 I first visited Houghton Library to study this Italian Renaissance picture of Christ dividing the blessed and the damned on Judgment Day. The trip was the culmination of my doctoral project to write the first biography

Public Services John Leech (1817-1864) Sketches for Punch’s Pocket-Book A product of the minds behind the satirical British magazine Punch, Punch’s Pocket-Book was an annual publication containing an almanac and useful business information, as well as short stories, poetry, and Punch’s characteristic wit. I was immediately taken by the charming

Harvard Review Richard Wright (1908-1960) Native Son (New York, 1940) This copy of Wright’s Native Son belonged to the poet Amiri Baraka, née LeRoi Jones, when he was a teenager in New Jersey. On 17 October 2013, the book was re-presented to him on the occasion of his reading for

Collections Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) Harvard Vocarium Sound Recording (Cambridge, Mass., 1947) This lacquer disc containing a direct recording of Elizabeth Bishop reading her famous poem “The Fish” is, like many discs in the Frederick C. Packard, Jr. Collection, sparsely labeled, with an economy of language the poet herself might have

Public Services The Black Panther (San Francisco, 6 April 1970) Following a shootout between the Oakland Police Department and the Black Panthers, “Lil” Bobby James Hutton, the organization’s treasurer, was shot and killed as he surrendered unarmed. This graphic account of the shooting represents an early call against law enforcement’s