 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Houghton Library | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts,United States |
| Type | University library |
| Established | 28 February 1942 |
| Branch of | Harvard University Library |
| Other information | |
| Website | https://library.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton |
Houghton Library, on the south side ofHarvard Yard adjacent toWidener Library,Lamont Library, and Loeb House, isHarvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts.[1] It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system ofHarvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The collections of Houghton Library include the Harvard Theatre Collection and theWoodberry Poetry Room, as well as the personal papers and archives of major American and English writers.
Harvard's first special collections library began as the Treasure Room ofGore Hall in 1908.[2] The Treasure Room moved to the newly builtWidener Library in 1915. In 1938, looking to supply Harvard's most valuable holdings with more space and improved storage conditions, Harvard College LibrarianKeyes DeWitt Metcalf made a series of proposals which eventually led to the creation of Houghton Library,Lamont Library, and theNew England Deposit Library. Funding for Houghton was raised privately, with the largest portion coming fromArthur A. Houghton Jr., in the form of stock inCorning Glass Works. Construction was largely completed by the fall of 1941, and the library opened on February 28, 1942.[citation needed]
Along with much else, Houghton holds collections of papers ofSamuel Johnson,Emily Dickinson,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,Margaret Fuller,John Keats,Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family,Amos Bronson Alcott and his daughterLouisa May Alcott, along with the papers of other notabletranscendentalists. Significant collections include those relating toTheodore Roosevelt,T.S. Eliot,E.E. Cummings,Henry James,William James,James Joyce,John Updike,Jamaica Kincaid,Tennessee Williams,The Cockettes,John Lithgow,Gore Vidal, and many others.[citation needed]Houghton also holds the letters ofColonelRobert Gould Shaw, who commanded the54th Massachusetts during the Civil War, and was killed during the assault onFort Wagner.[citation needed]
Houghton mounts periodic exhibitions, open to the public, of various of its holdings.
Houghton has five main curatorial departments:
| Arts and Sciences |
| ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business | |||||||||||||||
| Design | |||||||||||||||
| Divinity |
| ||||||||||||||
| Education | |||||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||||
| Law | |||||||||||||||
| Medicine | |||||||||||||||
| Public Health | |||||||||||||||
| Museums and arboretum | |||||||||||||||
| Cambridge campus | |||||||||||||||
| Centers and institutes | |||||||||||||||
| People | |||||||||||||||
| Athletics |
| ||||||||||||||
| Miscellaneous | |||||||||||||||
42°22′23.5″N71°06′57.4″W / 42.373194°N 71.115944°W /42.373194; -71.115944
