Harvard Art Museums Open Archives to Public

UPDATED: October 6, 2016 at 3:34 p.m.

On Monday, visitors to the Harvard Arts Museums got a rare peek into the archives of past exhibits during "Archives Open Hours."

The event was part of American Archives Month, an initiative by institutions across the country to open their archives to the public throughout October.

During the archive's event, archivists taught visitors about the museum’s history and past exhibits by explaining the context of artifacts on display.

Events documented ranged from the construction of the Fogg Art Museum’s first building to a past exhibit that showcased edible art, and included documents that dated to over a century ago.

Megan Schwenke, a senior archivist at the Harvard Art Museums, said that the event allows people to see documents to which they might not otherwise have access.

“It’s a really great opportunity for us to participate in American Archives Month and also just give the public an opportunity to see what I think is a lesser known collection at the museum,” she said.

Rebecca L. Torres ’02 , a communications staff assistant at the Harvard Art Museums and former Crimson photographer who visited the exhibit, said, “It’s really exciting to come to events like this where they kind of open the door to the archives to see just a small snippet of the rich history that’s here.”

This year, archivists focused on the process of designing various exhibits that appeared at the Harvard Art Museums. They included pictures of curators planning the layout of exhibits and selecting the artwork for galleries.

Ariana L. Chaivaranon ’18, who attended the archive’s open hours, said visiting the archives made her realize how art has evolved throughout the museum’s history.

“I think [the exhibit] just gives you a really interesting perspective on where you are now,” she said.

Schwenke said archivists at the Harvard Art Museums intend to participate in American Archives Month every year. Harvard Art Museums’ archivists will hold Open Hours every Monday in October except Columbus Day.

The archivists also plan to display their records during a program called Open Archives, which makes archives at various institutions in Cambridge accessible to the public for one week next summer.

“Cambridge has the most archival repositories per square foot in the world,” Schwenkesaid. “The idea is that everybody gets a glimpse into the rich history of Cambridge all in one week.”

The archives are usually located in the Somerville Research Facility and are open to the public by appointment during the week.

This article has been updated to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: October 6, 2016

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Harvard Art Museums archives are usually closed. In fact, they are open to the public by appointment during the week in a Somerville research facility.