Exhibits

Exhibits tell the unique stories of our diverse collections. Visit one today.

Featured Exhibits

Renaissance Treasures of the Harvard Map Collection

Through Monday, Jun 30, 2025

Illuminate

Contextualizing Asian American Women’s Stories through the Archives
Through Friday, Jan 23, 2026

Archives Inside Out

Through Wednesday, Apr 30, 2025
Photo of eight women and one man in a classroom. Maury is seated in profile, third from left, peering into a magnifying glass.

Recent Acquisitions

Through Friday, Apr 25, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
Archival box top reading "Archives Inside Out" with various documents, objects, and media surrounding it.

Archives Inside Out

Through Wednesday, Apr 30, 2025
Location: Harvard University Archives
Frontispiece of a woman seated and holding a quill pen, captioned, “Phillis Wheatley Servant to Mr. John Wheatley of Boston.”

Classical Antiquity and the Legacy of Slavery at Harvard

Through Thursday, May 1, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
Frontispiece showing the legend of Archimedes using a parabolic mirror to set Roman ships on fire by focusing the sun’s rays.

Islamic Science in Early Modern Europe

Through Thursday, May 1, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
Illuminated manuscript page with floral decorative border framing the Annunciation scene with Gabriel, Mary, and an open book.

Incipit

Through Friday, May 9, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
A page from a book with text and a diagram explaining the use of a punched-card machine to compute numbers.

The Punched Card from the Industrial Revolution to the Information Age

Opens Monday, May 5, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
Old Japanese manuscript, ink brush calligraphy next to ink and watercolor painting.

From the Ephemeral to the Extraordinary

Through Sunday, Jun 1, 2025
Location: Harvard Law School Library
Colorful and detailed map of Cambridge, England with individual buildings, people and animals

Renaissance Treasures of the Harvard Map Collection

Through Monday, Jun 30, 2025
Location: Harvard Map Collection
A sepia photograph of Elsa Rahr dressed in equestrian gear mid-dive on a horse from a steel pier high above the ocean water.

All Stars

Opens Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
A smiling woman wearing a white top and long red-and-yellow skirt dances on a beach with ocean and sky in the background.

The Caribbean

Opens Monday, May 5, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
Camera Patent

From Concept to Product

Through Friday, Dec 19, 2025
Location: Baker Library and Special Collections
A Woman stands in front of an astronomy exhibition, looking up at a model of Saturn and other planets.

Harvard Lives

Through Wednesday, Dec 31, 2025
Location: Harvard University Archives
detail of an illustration of two men with Arabic text

Virtual: Picturing the Sultan

Through Wednesday, Dec 31, 2025
Location: Fine Arts Library
Welcome the public

Transformations

Through Wednesday, Dec 31, 2025
Location: Widener Library
A black and white photograph of the members of a Chinese American girls basketball team, gathered togehter for a team photograph. The three girls in the front row are seated with the center girl holding a basketball. The other five girls are standing behind them. The girls are in their basketball unifroms, dark skirts and white blouses with a ribbon draped aroud their shoulders. Two teachers or coaches are in the back row center.

Illuminate

Through Friday, Jan 23, 2026
Location: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
A montage of 6 images of Indian women, including a group of women in saris sit outside sifting grain, and others posing by themselves or in pairs.

Virtual: Singing the Story of Dhrangadhra

Through Wednesday, Jun 30, 2027
Location: Loeb Music Library
78rpm disc with an illustrated label showing factory workers.

Virtual: Treasures of the Loeb Music Library

Through Wednesday, Jun 30, 2027
Location: Online