The Poetry Room is home to a wide range of poetry-related collections, including a landmark collection of literary recordings (1933–present) and a browsable collection of contemporary English-language monographs and magazines (accessible at our Lamont Library location). Our collection of rare books, broadsides, typescripts, and fragile media can be accessed via Houghton Library.
Note: The Poetry Room is not the library of record for poetry at Harvard. For a more comprehensive collection, we suggest Harvard Library’s flagship location Widener Library.
Lamont Library Collections
The Poetry Room’s collections at Lamont Library include over 5,000 circulating books and 100 lit mags (which patrons are welcome to browse), as well as our commercial LP collection (which is available for listening on the Aalto turntables by appointment).
Houghton Library Collections
The Poetry Room’s rare materials — including the Blue Star collection of rare books, broadsides, photographs, and typescripts, and the Frederick C. Packard, Jr. sound recordings — are accessible via Houghton’s Reading Room. Some AV formats (including duplicate cassettes and vinyl records) may be accessed at our Lamont location.
Woodberry Poetry Room Blue Star Collection
Frederick C. Packard, Jr. Sound Recordings
Woodberry Poetry Room Blue Star Collection
Frederick C. Packard, Jr. Sound Recordings
Galway Kinnell Recordings
Stephen B. Fassett Collection
Fanny Howe Notebooks, 1967-2021
Woodberry Poetry Room Visual Collection
Digital Collections
The Poetry Room provides streaming access to a selection of recordings from its landmark audio-visual archive via the Listening Booth.
The Listening Booth
Access
The Woodberry Poetry Room, located at Lamont Library, is open to the public. Please inform Lamont security that you're “visiting the Poetry Room.” A form of photo ID is required.
Non-Harvard affiliates interested in borrowing our Circulating materials can apply for a borrower’s card.
Our Blue Star collection (and some of our more fragile recording-related materials) can be requested for viewing at Houghton Library.
Location
Lamont Library, Room 330
11 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States