Retrospection
Peering Through the Smoke of Time at Leavitt & Peirce
Leavitt & Peirce has been selling cologne, chess sets, and the gentleman’s indulgence since 1883. But the original owners of the store engineered it to become a quasi-social club for Harvardians in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And a social club it did become.
Harvard’s Hallowed Halloween
Today, one might spend Halloweekend partying it out at Currier’s Heaven & Hell or The Crimson’s own Crimween. But a century earlier, Halloween at Harvard was a more refined affair.
A Desk and ‘Dalliance with the Nazis’
While Roscoe Pound is often remembered for pioneering sociological jurisprudence, his time as dean contains a much more concerning legacy.
Rationality and Religion at The Social Ethics Museum
Many of the museum collections showcased mass suffering and hardship. However, Peabody hoped that the museum would elicit sympathy rather than pity, and lead students towards a moral life centered around helping the less fortunate.
‘But A Dream’: The Story of the Philosophers’ Camp
“I have never seen civilization at so high a level, in some respects, as here — and I have never seen society on the whole so good, as I used to meet at the Saturday Club,” Lowell wrote of their exploits.
Eliot Bible
The Eliot Bible, written in Wôpanâak, the language of local Native American tribes, was originally written to Christianize Indigenous people. Now, it is playing a role in Native language survival.
“No Fear or Danger of Their Forgetting it:” Revitalizing Wôpanâak from John Eliot’s Bible
Deep in the basement of Harvard’s Indian College, John Eliot worked for 14 years to translate and print the Bible. Completed in 1663, Eliot’s Bible was written in Wôpanâak, the language of local Native American tribes.
Burning Bridges: How the Charles River Changed Economic Law
The Court’s ruling set a precedent that still has implications for economic progress and market competition today. The law still struggles with the question of what it means to value technological progress over the livelihood of one company.
The Harvard Bicycle Club
From organizing intercollegiate bicycle races to hosting nine-course dinners, the HBC aimed to make a then-new pastime a central athletic activity at Harvard — and foster a campus bicycling culture to boot.
HUPSF Bicycle Club (1). Harvard University Archives.
The men of the Harvard Bicycle Club pose for an 1885 photo with their high-wheelers — precursors to the modern-day bicycle. The oldest collegiate cycling club in the country, the HBC was both an athletic organization and a semi-exclusive social club during its relatively brief existence. HUPSF Bicycle Club (1).
Warren House 5
A rusted and eccentric zinc tub occupies about one-third of the Warren House half-bath.
h bomb
In 2004, some Harvard students started publishing H Bomb, a student-run magazine about sex that included writings, art, and nude pictures of Harvard undergraduates.
Did Harvard’s Sex Magazine Come Too Soon?
Along with nudity, the first issue of H Bomb promised art and text galore. The editors also had a vision for the future of the magazine: “longer, smarter, and definitely hotter.” But this projection for H Bomb’s future did not survive the test of time.
Warren House 9
Annexed in the rear of the building is a stylistically unique rear porch. Constructed in 1897, this red brick portion of the house stands two stories tall and is adorned with glazed tile balustrades.
Warren House 6
A Celtic illustration brings the character of the Celtic Languages and Literatures Department to this bathroom relic of departments past.