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Houghton Library
Showcasing the digital collections of Harvard's Houghton Library, including illustrations, photographs, bookbindings and more.
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April is National Decoration Month.
Art et décoration was first published in 1897. The publication was suspended during the two World Wars from August 1914 – April 1919, and from 1939 through 1945. The Fine Arts Library has the original volumes if you want to see them. Request to view them in the Special Collections Study Room!
Art et décoration : revue mensuelle d'art moderne
Cover title: Art et décoration et l'architecture 1936-37
Paris : Librairie Centrale des Beaux Arts,
Frequency note: Monthly
French
HOLLIS number: 990062486850203941
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Tarot deck to accompany: Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, 1854-1918. Fortune-telling card; the Tarot, its occult signification, use in fortune-telling, and method of play. London: G. Redway, 1888.
24282.1*
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Troubridge, Una Vincenzo, Lady, 1887-1963. Waslaw Nijinsky as Faun in Afternoon of a Faun, 1913.
MS Thr 414.1, (80)
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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One week from today, stop by Houghton for a popup exhibition showcasing our collection of eclipse material, then pick up a free pair of eclipse glasses (while supplies last) and head outside to see the real thing! https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/calendar/main/eclipse-exhibition
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Marginal illustrations from a medieval breviary.
Ordo breviarii secundum consuetudinem Romane curie : manuscript, [ca. 1480]
MS Typ 219
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Mystic Monday: Jakob Böhme in America
We've posted before about Jakob Böhme (1575-1624), a Lutheran theologian who experienced a direct revelation from God. Though most popular in Germany, this early 19th century printing shows that his books were also read in America. As with earlier editions, the work is heavily illustrated with symbols and diagrams to help the reader (or so it is hoped).
Böhme, Jakob. Christosophia. oder Der weg zu Christo. Verfasset in neun büchlein, nun in acht zusammen gezogen... Die 1. americanische aufl. Ephrata in Pennsylvanien, Gedruckt bey J. Ruth, 1811-12.
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A true and perfect relation of that most sad and terrible earthquake, at Port-Royal in Jamaica, which happened on Tuesday the 7th. of June, 1692. London: Printed by R. Smith, 1692.
EB65 A100 B675b v.4
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Theodore Roosevelt's son Archie holding Josiah, a pet badger TR was given by a 12-year-old girl in Sharon Springs, Kansas while on a whistlestop tour of the Western U.S. Perhaps predictably, Josiah made for an increasingly bitey pet and eventually had to be relocated to the Bronx Zoo.
W376664_1
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Wow, our 11th birthday! Hi, all, this is John Overholt, curator at Houghton Library, making a possibly unprecedented first-person post to reflect on this milestone.
No one has ever guessed correctly when I ask what our most-followed account on social media is--at more than 64,000 followers, it's the Houghton Library Tumblr, which I started as a way to share the richness of our digitized collections. I was lucky when I started the site that Tumblr itself was very interested in promoting the work of special collections libraries, and helped us reach a wider audience than we could have otherwise.
Obviously Tumblr is a different site in 2024 than it was in 2013, but I'm proud of the record I've built up here over the years and I think our archive of more than 2300 posts makes a great introduction to Houghton's collections and to the amazing things you can find in the world of rare book and manuscript libraries like ours.
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Marginal animals from a medieval breviary.
Ordo breviarii secundum consuetudinem Romane curie : manuscript, [ca. 1480]
MS Typ 219
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Marginal grotesques from a medieval English chronicle.
Here bygynneth a boke in englysche tonge that Þat ys called Brute of ynglonde : manuscript, [ca. 1430]
MS Richardson 35
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Music a millennium old
Fragment of a missal, a book containing the texts for celebrating Mass, from approximately 1000 CE. The smaller text is a passage of Gregorian chant with neumes, an early form of musical notation.
MS Typ 773
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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February is also National Embroidery Month, and we’re excited to show you some cool items we have in the Special Collections. The first one is a hand-embroidered canvas book made by Candace Hicks who collects coincidences from the books she reads and gathers them in her artists’ books and installations.
Hicks created a variant series of hand-embroidered books, copying the form and design of dime-store "composition" books. In this volume, Hicks kept a record of coincidences in the books she was reading and noted every time the word “coincidence” occurred.
Common threads : Volume 28
Hicks, Candace
[Austin, Tex. : C. Hicks,] 2011.
English
HOLLIS number: 990128839780203941
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Bookception: This manuscript presented to Pope Gregory XIII and bound with his arms includes an illustration of Pope Gregory XIII being presented with a book bound with his arms.
MS Typ 262
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Aznar de Polanco, Juan Claudio, 1663-1734. Arte nuevo de escribir, 1719.
TypW 760.19.184 (A)
Houghton Library, Harvard University
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He's not the only superhero in early modern England.
Looks like Peter Parker is both Spiderman and bookseller!
Found in A treatise of the scurvy, examining the different opinions and practice, of the most solid and grave writers... by Everhard Marynwaringe (1672).
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Framed
We found a glittering surprise when we opened this volume from 1501/02. The book contains the Latin text of the biblical book of Ezekiel, along with commentary by the 13th century Dominican priest, Hugh of St. Cher.
The decorated letter here (the only one found in this volume) has a frame border which itself echoes the framing of the biblical text by its commentary.
Biblia latina cum postillis Hugonis de s. Charo.
[Basel : Johann Amerbach for Anton Koberger, 1498-1502]. (v.5)
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