LIBRARIES
Harvard Library is the oldest library in the United States, founded in 1638 with a gift of 400 books from John Harvard, and is the largest university library in the world. Today it is an unparalleled resource for learning and research. Engaging users through curated discovery, digital collections, reimagined physical space, and specialized research support, Harvard Library delivers exceptional experiences to its user communities. Serving as an information hub, the Library connects users to related disciplines and to University-wide teaching resources. Its holdings range from traditional print collections to rapidly expanding digital resources. It is the work of the Harvard Library to provide the University’s faculty, students, and researchers—now and in the future—with comprehensive access to these materials.
Library Cards Your Harvard ID card is your library card. The Benefits Office notifies the Harvard ID office about new retirees on a monthly basis, so it may take up to a month for your Harvard ID record to reflect your retiree status.
New retirees can visit the Library Privileges Office in Widener Library Room 130 (617-495-4166) if you have difficulty accessing the FAS libraries (Widener, Lamont, Cabot, Fine Arts, etc.) with your ID card.
Access and Borrowing Retirees may use most of the libraries and may borrow circulating materials. However, specific access and borrowing policies for retirees and their spouses vary across the University’s libraries. Prior to any library visit, contact the library in question to find out more about your access.
For access to libraries affiliated with a particular graduate school, contact the individual library directly to determine whether your ID card has been activated for entry to those locations.
For a complete list of Harvard libraries and their websites, visit http://library.harvard.edu/find-library/
To search the HOLLIS catalog of library holdings, visit http://library.harvard.edu/
Spouses and Qualified Domestic Partners of retired faculty and staff may obtain their own Special Borrower’s cards for use in the Harvard College libraries for a small processing fee. Contact the Privileges Office in Widener Library for more information at 617-495-4166.
Acceptance of these College Library special borrower’s cards varies widely in the professional school libraries (Business, Law, Medicine, Kennedy, Education, Design, and Divinity). Although retirees may use and borrow from these libraries, call ahead to see if access and borrowing are also offered to spouses/domestic partners.
Databases and Electronic Journals Harvard Library’s licensing agreements with publishers and vendors do not include retirees for access to databases or e-journals from their personal computers unless they are registered for courses in the Extension School or in one of the faculties.
Access to many of these resources can be obtained by using the computers that are available inside the library.
Journal and newspaper articles on many subjects are now included with books in searches of the HOLLIS catalog.
Museums
Admittance to all Harvard museums is free for retirees—and one guest— upon presentation of a valid Harvard ID card. Separate personal memberships in the Museums are recommended because of the enhanced benefits they provide.
HARVARD ART MUSEUMS
HUAM is among the world’s leading art institutions, comprising three museums and four research centers:
• Fogg Museum
• Busch-Reisinger Museum
• Arthur M. Sackler Museum
• Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies
• Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art
• Harvard Art Museums Archives
• Archaeological Exploration of Sardis.
The Fogg Museum includes Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. The Busch-Reisinger Museum, unique among North American museums, is dedicated to the study of all modes and periods of art from central and northern Europe, with an emphasis on German-speaking countries. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is focused on Asian, ancient, Islamic, and later Indian art.
Together, the collections include approximately 250,000 objects in all media. Integral to Harvard University and the wider community, the museums and research centers serve as resources for students, scholars, and the public. For more than a century they have been the nation’s premier training ground for art museum professionals and are renowned for their seminal role in developing the discipline of art history in the United States.
The recent renovation and expansion of the Harvard Art Museums builds on the legacies of the three museums and unites their remarkable collections under one roof for the first time. Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s responsive design preserved the Fogg Museum’s 1927 facade, while transforming the interior space to accommodate 21st-century needs.
The museums now feature forty percent more gallery space, an expanded Art Study Center, conservation labs and classrooms, and a striking new glass roof that bridges the facility’s historic and contemporary architecture. The three constituent museums retain their distinct identities in this new facility, yet their close proximity provides exciting opportunities to experience works of art in a broader context.
Hours and Admission Daily, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed on major holidays. Admission is free for HUAM members, Harvard students, faculty, staff, and retirees (plus one guest) with valid Harvard IDs, as well as youth under 18 and Cambridge residents.
General public: $15 adults, $13 seniors (65+), $10 non-Harvard students (18+).
Massachusetts residents receive free admission on Saturdays, from
10:00 a.m.-noon.
Membership in the Harvard Art Museums starts at the Associate Level for $60 and also includes unlimited free admission to the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture.
Contact the membership office for more information. 617-495-4544
am_membership@harvard.edu - 32 Quincy St., Cambridge - 617-495-9400
https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/
HARVARD MUSEUMS OF SCIENCE AND CULTURE
HMSC is a consortium of four public museums in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences:
• Harvard Museum of Natural History
• Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology
• Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
• Semitic Museum.
26 Oxford St., Cambridge - 617-495-3045 - http://hmsc.harvard.edu/
Find the latest guide to programs, exhibits, and classes at https://hmnh.harvard.edu/files/hmnh/files/master_s18_guide_low-res.pdf
Membership for seniors in the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture is $35 and includes unlimited admission to all four museums, plus invitations to exhibition openings, special receptions after public lectures, and occasional behind-the-scenes tours. Membership in HMSC also includes admission to museums and science centers worldwide through the Association of Science-Technology Centers ASTC Passport Program.
A household membership for Harvard ID holders is $85. To join, visit the Museum’s website or contact the membership office.
617-496-6972 - members@hmsc.harvard.edu https://hmsc.harvard.edu/membership
Harvard Museum of Natural History HMNH was created in 1998 to take over all of what had been the public galleries of the research museums, e.g., collection of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum (MGM), glass flowers of the Herbaria, and the public galleries of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). It was made into a new public museum where galleries like the New England Forests combine zoology, plants, and geology into one modern exhibit showcasing current Harvard research.
Explore 12,000 specimens—dinosaurs, meteorites, gemstones, and hundreds of animals from around the globe. Get close to the world’s only mounted kronosaurus, a 42-foot-long marine reptile; one of the first triceratops ever discovered; a 1,642 lb. amethyst geode; and three whale skeletons.
Visit the museum’s website for information on new and changing exhibitions, public lectures, special events, classes, and parking.
26 Oxford Street, Cambridge- 617-495-3045 - https://hmnh.harvard.edu
Museum of Comparative Zoology MCZ is a center for research and education focused on the comparative relationships of animal life.
The MCZ was founded in 1859 by an act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts primarily through the efforts of Louis Agassiz, a brilliant lecturer and scholar from Switzerland. The museum established and served as a training ground for professional zoologists and influenced many budding U.S. museums.
Research at the MCZ continues to follow Agassiz’s vision to illuminate the structures of living things and their natural classification and relationship with their surroundings, while remaining a leading institution for modern zoological research. The present-day MCZ collections are comprised of approximately 21 million extant and fossil invertebrate and vertebrate specimens.
26 Oxford Street, Cambridge - 617-495-2460 - http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/
Harvard University Herbaria and Libraries include six collections and more than five million specimens of algae, bryophytes, fungi, and vascular plants. Together they form one of the largest university herbarium collections in the world.
22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge - 617-495-2365 - http://huh.harvard.edu
Glass Flowers and Marine Animals The Herbaria’s world-famous exhibition of Glass Flowers consists of amazingly realistic models of flowering plants and fruits created in Germany by father and son glass artists Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka from 1886-1936. This unique collection of over 4,000 models—some 3,000 on display—represents more than 830 plant species. You will see amazingly realistic models of apple and apricot plants illustrating some of the diseases affecting fruits of the Rosaceae family.
26 Oxford St., Cambridge - 617-495-3045 - https://hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers
Mineralogical and Geological Museum MGM is home to one of the finest collections of geological material in the world, including the Earth and Planetary Sciences Gallery. Over 200 years of attentive curation has resulted in a premier collection of more than 400,000 specimens. The MGM functions as a repository of geological material to further earth science research and education at the University and around the world.
Specimens are organized into four different research collections: minerals (100,000 samples), gems, rocks and ores, and meteorites. The Earth and Planetary Sciences Gallery displays more than 3,000 specimens.
26 Oxford Street, Cambridge - 617-495-3045 - https://mgmh.fas.harvard.edu/
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology is a world-class museum of archaeology and anthropology. With a collection of 1.2 million objects and half a million photographs, the museum maintains eight public galleries and a teaching gallery. Two of the newest exhibitions are the Legacy of the Penobscot Canoe and Arts of War, which displays extraordinary examples of weapons, helmets, and shields that are both deadly and works of art.
Entrances are on both 26 Oxford Street and 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge - 617-496-1027 - https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Harvard University has been acquiring scientific instruments for teaching and research since 1672. The Collection, which was established in 1948 to preserve these instruments as a resource for teaching and research in the history of science and technology, has become one of the largest university collections of its kind in the world.
It is located near the Oxford St. entrance to the Science Center.
1 Oxford St., Cambridge - 617-495-2779 https://chsi.harvard.edu/
Harvard Semitic Museum is the principal repository for Harvard’s holdings of Near Eastern archaeological artifacts. Founded in 1889, its collections represent all of the major cultural areas of the ancient Near East, including Egypt, Israel, Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Cyprus, and Iran. Public exhibitions include an ancient Israelite house, and the original collection of the Museum’s founder, David Gordon Lyons, entitled “From the Nile to the Euphrates”.
6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge - 617-495-4631 - http://semiticmuseum.fas.harvard.edu
OTHER HARVARD MUSEUMS
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University was founded in 1872 as a research institute and living museum dedicated to the study and appreciation of woody plants. Across its 265 acres grows a rigorously documented collection of over 15,000 trees, shrubs, and vines gathered from the wild in Asia, Europe, and North America. The Arboretum landscape, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Sprague Sargent, is a National Historic Landmark and part of Boston’s Emerald Necklace park system.
The landscape is open from dawn to dusk every day of the year. There is no admission charge, though membership is encouraged and begins at $35. See the website for a description of membership benefits. Free tours are available April–September. Adult education classes and lectures are offered year-round.
The Hunnewell Building Visitor Center (with restrooms) is open weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and weekends 10:00 am-5:00 pm. Closed holidays.
Find information about the Arboretum’s opportunities for volunteers in their public-school programs under Volunteers (page 49).
125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 (MBTA Forest Hills Station) 617-524-1718 https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/Fisher Museum at the Harvard Forest is located in Petersham, Massachusetts. The Museum’s main exhibition displays 23 internationally acclaimed models (dioramas) portraying the history, conservation, and management of central New England forests. The Forest itself is a 4,000-acre laboratory and classroom. The Harvard Forest is a department of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).
978-724-3302
http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/fisher-museum
Warren Anatomical Museum is located on the 5th floor of the Countway Library of Medicine. It is one of the last surviving anatomy and pathology museums associated with a medical school in the United States. The museum was founded in 1847. Collections are displayed in 300 cases containing artifacts from the larger collection of 15,000 items that include anatomical and pathological preparations; various wax, papermache, and dry preparation anatomical models; photographs, prints, paintings, and drawings; medical instruments and machines; and medical memorabilia.
The Museum Gallery is open to the public, free of charge, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; closed during Harvard University holidays. 617-432-2136 or 617-432-6196 - https://www.countway.harvard.edu/chom/warren-anatomical-museum
BENEFITS IN NON-HARVARD MUSEUMS
ASTC Passport Program Membership in the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture also provides free general admission to science and technology museums and centers worldwide through the Association of Science- Technology Centers ASTC Passport Program. Restrictions in nearby local museums may apply. http://www.astc.org/passport/
Institute of Contemporary Art Your Harvard ID is also good for free admission for one person to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston’s Seaport District.
Outings & Innings offers discounted tickets to many museums, including the New England Aquarium, Museum of Science, Peabody Essex Museum, Children’s Museum, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts. See page 29.