Houghton Library

06/01/2026

Declaring independence was just the first step towards forming the United States. After more than a year of debate, the Second Continental Congress, meeting west of Philadelphia due to the British occupation, adopted the Articles of Confederation as the first form of government for the fledgling U.S. To win the support of wary smaller states, the powers of the central government were minimized, and each state received an equal vote in Congress.

On view in the Houghton Library Lobby Gallery through August 27, 2026.



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Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Lancaster, PA: Francis Bailey, 1777. AC7 Un33C 777a. Friends of the Library Fund, 1941.

05/28/2026

In honor today, we’re taking a moment to celebrate two of our graduating student workers and the important work they do to support Houghton!

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT (2/2): Moqadas Rasul is completing her Master of Theological Studies at the Harvard Divinity School, with a concentration in Islamic Studies. She started working at Houghton in Fall of 2024.

📝 Most memorable experience of working at Houghton?
My most memorable experience has been working with Arabic manuscripts while assisting with digitization projects. As someone concentrating in Islamic Studies, it was fascinating for me to see manuscripts connected to the early Islamic period, including old hadith texts, works by early Islamic scholars, and Qur’an manuscripts. Being able to personally see these centuries-old manuscripts has been the most memorable experience for me, so I have attached a few photos of it as well.

📚 Favorite collection?
My favorite object was a Qur’an manuscript that I came across while paging in the stacks at Pusey (MS Arab SM6025). It looked very old and appeared to be written on parchment or animal skin. I was struck by how fragile, beautiful, and historically rich it felt. Seeing it so closely was a very special experience.

05/28/2026

In honor of today, we’re taking a moment to celebrate two of our graduating student workers and the important work they do to support Houghton!

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT (1/2): Michelle Jean-Louis is a senior concentrating in History and Science and started working at Houghton in October of 2025.

📝 Most memorable experience of working at Houghton?
During my time in Houghton, I have read historical documents, paged them, and organized them. Working in Houghton Library and the Harvard University Archives has helped me be privy to the roles of museums in giving everyone a sense of agency over what stories are preserved and told. During training at HUA I got to see W.E.B Du Bois’s handwritten dissertation as a vault item—that is probably my favorite item I have engaged with. As president of the Harvard Caribbean Club, I also loved collaborating with [Houghton librarian] Emily Walhout on the Emily Dickinson cake party!

📚 Favorite collection?
Pierre Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1746?-1803). Autograph letter to Tobias Lear, February 20, 1801. Autograph File, T. Evert Jansen Wendell Bequest, 1918.

Révision de la Constitution haïtienne de 1806. Port-au-Prince, 1816. AC8.H1277C.816r. Gift of John B. Stetson, Jr., 1925.

As a Haitian immigrant it’s been my pride to bring my family’s legacy to Harvard and having the chance to engage with archived materials regarding the Haitian revolution here at Houghton has also been such a source of pride.

🎓 What’s next?
For post-grad, I’ll be coming back to Harvard for a bit conducting research on the Convention Against Torture and country conditions in Haiti under Professor Hoffnung-Garskof.

05/22/2026

Houghton Library will be closed Monday, May 25 for Memorial Day and Thursday, May 28 for Commencement.

In addition to those dates, our reading room will also be closed Wednesday, May 27 for Class Day and Friday, June 5 for Alumni Day.

05/11/2026

From the first protests against British taxation to the treaty that ended the war, "War of Words: A Citizen’s Eye View of the Revolution" brings together the posters, pamphlets, newspapers, and images that brought news of the American Revolution to those who lived through it 📜✒️🇺🇸.

Open May 18–August 7, 2026
Edison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
Curated by John Overholt, Curator of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson and Early Books and Manuscripts.
https://library.harvard.edu/exhibits/war-words

05/06/2026

This year marks the centenary of Winnie-the-Pooh, the beloved children’s book by author A. A. Milne based on his son Christopher Robin’s actual stuffed toys. Since 1985, Pooh and his plushie friends have lived at NYPL The New York Public Library —except for Roo, who was lost. Last week, Her Majesty Queen Camilla brought to the library a bespoke replica of Roo, reuniting him with the other denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood. Here, we share an opening from the extra limited edition of only 20 copies signed by Milne and illustrator Ernest Shepard, of which Houghon’s copy is no.1.



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A. A. Milne (1882–1956) and Ernest H. Shepard (1879–1976). Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1926. EC9 M6357 926wa. Gift of William B. Osgood, 1944.

05/01/2026

Back in September of 2024, Ukrainian First Lady, Olena Zelenska, visited Harvard and gave Harvard Library three war-damaged books: a children’s book by Oleksandr (Sashko) Dermanskyi; a novel translated from English to Ukrainian by Heather Gudenkauf; and an autobiography by Pavlo Belianskyi. The books were rescued from a ruined warehouse of the Faktor Druk printing house in Kharkiv, which was struck by a missile in May 2024.

They’ve recently come back from Preservation Services and will be available to researchers in the reading room (as specimens only).

In honor of , Christine Jacobson, Associate Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts, discusses their importance to our collection, and Katherine Beaty, Book Conservator for Special Collections at Harvard Preservation, shares about her work on the books.

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/I7n5nfUincs



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Pavel Pashtet Belianskyi (b. 1977), Sashko Dermanskyi (b. 1976), Heather Gudenkauf, and Vivat Publishing. Books salvaged from Factor-Druk printing house, 2023–2024. MS Ukrainian 1. Gift of the Embassy of Ukraine to the United States of America, 2026.

New Acquisition | Books Salvaged from Ukraine

04/30/2026

"Thanks for Typing: Women’s Type Labor in Literature and the Arts" closes tomorrow! Thanks to those who typed us notes on our Olympia typewriter.

➡️ Swipe to read some of them.

04/28/2026

Declaring independence was just the first step towards forming the United States. Seeking to replace the weak Articles of Confederation with a stronger central government, a 1787 convention produced a constitution that provoked sharp debate over its ratification by the states. "A More Perfect Union: The Birth of the Constitution" features one of the early printings through which the text of the Constitution was presented to the public, as well as the most influential work of the ratification debate, "The Federalist" 📜✒️🇺🇸.

Open May 4–August 27, 2026
Houghton Library Lobby Gallery



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Pictured: Proceedings of the Fœderal Convention. Providence: John Carter, 1787. AC7.Un33C3.1787ℓ. Friends of the Library Fund, 1941.

04/27/2026

Houghton Library holds almost 3,000 items related to angling and fish. "Making Waves: Books on Angling and Fish at Houghton Library" displays the breadth of this collection, which includes richly illustrated taxonomies, anglers’ guides, ships’ logs, watercolors, and even children’s materials and miniature books 🌊⚓📚🐟🐠🐡🎣.

Open May 4–August 21, 2026
Houghton Lobby Gallery
Curated by Lewis Brian Day with thanks to Peter X. Accardo, Susi Barbarossa, Laura Larkin, Jackie Parascandola, Molly Schwartzburg, and Keren Tran.
https://library.harvard.edu/exhibits/making-waves