Jaila Mabry and Yasmin Salerno, both class of 2027, stood in front of a hundred-year-old portable printing press and pulled the handle down to ink and hand-print Valentine cards for each other. They had plans for the evening, but first the first-year students, who met for the first time at Pre-Orientation, were enjoying Lamont Library’s Valentine’s Day party.
This was Lamont’s first Valentine’s Day event, and V-day signs and festive decorations brightened the lobby — the marble bust of Thomas Lamont wore a Valentine necklace and heart-shaped glasses, and the library security gates were festooned with pink ribbons.
Along with raffles, candy, balloons, Harvard swag, and cupcakes, the main attraction of the event was the tabletop Chandler and Price Pilot press brought over from Houghton Library.
Guided by Houghton staff, students hand-printed Valentine Day’s cards featuring Remy, the Harvard cat, which said, “Remy and I think you’re PURRRFFECT.” For many students, it was their first time using a printing press. The cards were a big hit, and students compared Remy sightings. Discussing the cat’s celebrity on and off campus, one student pointed out, “Remy’s got 11,000 followers on Instagram.”
Molly Schwarzburg, Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts at Houghton, who designed the Remy-inspired Valentine, said, “We figured we couldn’t go wrong with the unofficial mascot of Lamont. Everybody loves Remy.”
The students clearly agreed, as they customized their Valentine cards with envelopes, pens, markers, and stickers.
“It’s a nice chance to see the students in a different way,” said Susan Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Writing Programs, who organized the event. She greeted students, making sure they signed up for the raffle. “This was a chance to do something for the students and to make this a welcoming place for the undergraduates. We are doing whatever we can to foster community.”
Research Librarian Steve Kuehler, another organizer, said, “As the semester has gotten about a month old, and people are starting to get stressed, we wanted to do something to celebrate the fact that Lamont is a community space that people enjoy coming to and being with their friends. I have never seen so much smiling in this lobby all at one time. I am sure it’s the sugar!” He presided over a bountiful candy table with different packets of candy — for students who wanted to “Start the Conversation” or “End the Conversation.”
Andrea Hernandez loved the decorations because her favorite color is pink: “I walked in and saw the pink balloons. They’re so cute!” She and her friend Michelle Merchan, both first-year students, were big fans of the Valentine’s Day event. Merchan loves Valentine’s Day in general. She laughed, “I think it’s so fun! My friends and I have a tradition where we say funny pickup lines to each other. So that’s what I did today. They’re stupid, like, ‘Are you a bank loan? Because you’ve got my interest!’”
Sue Gilroy was very happy with how the event had gone. “It’s a fun Valentine’s Day event, but there’s an element here that’s about the collections, about the availability of librarians. So we wanted to sneak that in too. We wanted to tell the students, these are amazing libraries, so own them!”
Afterwards, she received a text from a student saying, “My friends and I had the best time in Lamont today!! Happy V-Day!”