Exhibits

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

Featured Exhibits

Harvard Lives

People. Discoveries. Change. History.
Through Wednesday, Dec 31, 2025

Marks in Books

Edison and Newman Room, Spring 2024
Through Friday, Apr 19, 2024

Dragons and Door Gods

Harvard-Yenching Library Lunar New Year Exhibit
Through Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Hand-drawn daisies, thistles, and honeybees surrounding a poem titled "Haymaking."

Marks in Books

Through Friday, Apr 19, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
title page of an illustrated Moby Dick

Virtual: The Nearest Way Home—Literature and the Travel-book

Through Sunday, Apr 21, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
Charter with illuminated letter "W" in the word 'Whereas", dated May 31, 1650, framed. Engrossed on sheepskin. Signed by Thomas Dudley.

A Moment of Possibility

Through Tuesday, Apr 30, 2024
Location: Harvard University Archives
Dancer Merce Cunningham in silhouette, standing with right arm extended and right knee slightly bent.

Recent Acquisitions

Through Friday, May 3, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
Detail of an illuminated folio with intricate vine and geometric designs in gold, dusty red, and powder blue followed by eloquent taʻlīq script that fills the bottom half of the page.

Central Asian Chronicles

Through Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
Woman wearing a satin gown and hairpiece sits in front of a globe and decorative figurines and next to a plant with a butterfly perched on it.

Wondrous Transformations: The Science and Art of Maria Sibylla Merian

Through Thursday, May 9, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
Sino-Islamic poster of vases and censors embellished with Basmalah and Kalimat al-tawhid

Virtual: Footsteps of the Past

Through Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Location: Harvard-Yenching Library
Stylized red dragon

Dragons and Door Gods

Through Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Location: Harvard-Yenching Library
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 Sunday, Jun 30, 2024
Location: Loeb Music Library
Black-and-white flyer advertising a performance by the band Lower East Side. Text reads: "Lower East Side bail-fund freek out with Octopus, David Peel + Lower East Side _ more. March 5th 8 p.m. Dance, rap. Free to freeks. Contributions for bail fund. Eisner-Loeb Auditorium, N.Y.U., Washington St. South, Loeb Student Center, March 5th 8 p.m. Wed. Free to the Lower East Side. Mother-fuckers. IWCW.

Musicians, Inc.

Through Monday, Jul 1, 2024
Location: Loeb Music Library
Fragments photocopied from the pages of books in black and white layered with black shapes and handwriting that frequently verges on abstraction.

Big Books, Tiny Tomes

Opens Friday, May 3, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
Because of post-glacial crust rebound, the northern border is moving toward the southern border. It's less than an inch a decade, but I still don't like it. Minnesota shouldn't be squishy.

Minnesota Shouldn't Be Squishy

Through Thursday, Aug 15, 2024
Location: Harvard Map Collection
Album opening displaying two watercolor illustrations of pale pink cherry blossoms, one on each page.

The Beauty and Science of Plants

Opens Monday, May 13, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
Sketch of Vesuvius’s volcanic activity with a colored print of it erupting attached to the bottom left corner of the page.

Vesuvius in the Romantic Era

Opens Monday, May 13, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
The 51st X-ray diffraction image of crystallized DNA taken.

Genetics: The Code of Life

Opens Monday, May 13, 2024
Location: Houghton Library
a man sits reading a newspaper in front of a statue of a devil holding a bow

Virtual: Collecting Along an Ellipse: Art and Ephemera from Eastern Europe

Through Wednesday, Jan 1, 2025
Location: Houghton Library
Widener Library lobby image from above

Inside Widener Library

Through Saturday, Feb 15, 2025
Location: Widener Library
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
78rpm disc with an illustrated label showing factory workers.

Virtual: Treasures of the Loeb Music Library

Through Wednesday, Jun 30, 2027
Location: Online