Harvard's Finest Study Spaces

Are you an Adamsian who's tired of seeing your House library overflowing with refugees? A Winthropian who doesn't bother to learn the hours for your House library because chances are it's closed anyway? If so, you're in luck: Harvard has other lovely study spaces. You don't have to stay in your dimly lit walk-through to throw yourself into Foucalt or drill Latin verbs. Although many reading rooms are open only during the day--unfortunate timing for procrastinators and FlyBy reporters--if you're the type who studies when the sun is still up, these locales are perfect for in between classes. Here's a taste:

The George Edward Woodberry Poetry Room

The quiet poetry room, nestled next to the 24/7 Farnsworth Room on the top floor of Lamont, is the place to stumble on inspiration. Poetry books and recordings surround the few tables in the spacious reading room, which overlooks Tercentenary Theatre. The spire of Memorial Church stands tall against the blue sky. If you get bored of writing that paper, you can put on your reading glasses, lean back on a blue couch, and toss open an anthology of Wallace Stevens or the latest issue of the Kenyon Review. You can also go to the computer at the front of the room and contribute to the Woodberry Poetry Room Daily Poem, which was started to celebrate Lamont's 60th anniversary. Anyone who walks into the room can add a line to the poem. Too bad when your faithful blogger walked into the room, it had only this one line: "Each generation begins again the going there." The title? "Utopiaward."

No wonder no one else had added anything. Three more of Harvard's finest under-used study spaces are listed after the jump.

The History Department Library

The History Department Library is nestled next to the department itself on the second floor of Robinson Hall. It is a convenient place to escape to in between class--especially if you are a History concentrator who lives in the Quad. The library is always quiet, with no more than two or three people studying there at a time. The two-story library mimics the History concentration itself: piled with books and declaring it's legit--replete with book-ladders and a spiral staircase.

The Herbert Weir Smyth Classical Library

The Classics Department's library, tucked away on the third floor of Widener Library, requires more exclusive access than the History Department's. You need to either be a Classics concentrator or taking a Classics course that requires access to Smyth for the readings (the best reason to take an ancient history seminar or Classics department course). Or, if you are planning to do a secondary field and a foreign-language citation and just don't have the room in your schedule, you can try to pretend to be a concentrator when asking the department administrator for swipe access.

Smyth is a gorgeous place to study--surrounded by classical literary criticism, small statues, and the portraits of old white men. Okay, the last are sort of intimidating. Graduate students whip out their dusted hardcovers with the Greek original--and only the Greek original--of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato. The Loeb editions--with Greek on one side and English on the other--are too childish for them. Don't plan on looking at Facebook photos in this library.

Café, Lamont Library

Everyone knows about this one. The café is a quiet, oft-neglected place to study* or engage in spirited intellectual conversation. Indeed, by day it resembles a veritable coffeehouse--the type you would find in 18th-century Enlightenment Europe, where Diderot and Montaigne would discuss the great ideas over a newspaper and cup of coffee. Yeah right. More like sweaty undergrads crammed together eating all the food. But whatever, it gets the job done. You're probably reading this there now.

(Photos by Bonnie J. Kavoussi)