Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Surveillance: From Vision to Data
Opening Thursday, September 21, 2023, in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. This timely exhibit considers surveillance beyond the realm of cameras and their watchers, exposing the profound influence of data.
Learn about the historical instruments that have been used to transform individuals and landscapes into data. Uncover how powerful entities, from colonial empires to U.S. intelligence agencies, have harnessed surveillance data to produce and perpetuate social hierarchies. Immerse yourself in interactive critical artworks that challenge and resist surveillance through data. Look beyond vision and toward data to reveal an elusive, and now ubiquitous, form of visibility.
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
Mediterranean Marketplaces
Connecting the Ancient World
Much like today, ancient “consumers” were connected to distant markets. Both basic and precious goods from faraway lands “shipped” to royal palaces, elite estates—sometimes even rural households—and technological advances in craftsmanship and commerce transcended boundaries of language, religion, or culture to spread rapidly. Mediterranean Marketplaces: Connecting the Ancient World explores how the movement of goods, peoples, and ideas around the ancient Mediterranean transformed the lives and livelihoods of people at all levels of society, driving innovations that had lasting impacts—even on the modern world. Open at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.
Harvard Museum of Natural History
In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers
An Exploration of Change
On view at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss is an immersive multidisciplinary experience that marries art and science through a modern artistic interpretation of Henry David Thoreau’s preserved plants. The exhibition invites visitors to experience emotionally resonant connections to the profound loss of natural diversity caused by human-induced climate change. The exhibition urges us to ask, “What do Thoreau’s findings tell us about what plants are winning, and what plants are losing, in the face of climate change today?”
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology
Shehuo: Community Fire
社火
May 13, 2023–April 14, 2024
Zhang Xiao, the 11th recipient of the Peabody Museum’s Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography, brings us on a bilingual photographic exploration of the transformation of Shehuo, a traditional spring festival held in rural northern China that coincides with the New Year. When Zhang began his photography in 2007, Shehuo (社火, Community Fire) was celebrated with great regional variation, and included prayers for a good harvest and ritual performances of local folk tales.
2023年5月13日至2024年4月14日
张晓是皮博迪博物馆罗伯特·加德纳摄影奖(Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography)的第11位获得者,他将带领我们进行一次双语的摄影探索,展现社火这一中国北方农村欢度春节的传统习俗及其变迁。张晓在2007年开始拍摄此系列作品时,社火的庆祝活动因地域差异而各具特色,包括对于丰收的祈求和本地民间故事的宗教仪式表演.
Exhibit Spotlights
HMSC Connects! Exhibit Spotlights offer a virtual window into intriguing cultural and scientific concepts with online exhibits, selections from gallery exhibitions, and more.
The Groundbreaker: A Woman Archaeologist in a Field Led by Men
This exhibit highlights archaeological archives of Theresa B. Goell, director of an international field excavation site, detailing her travels and experiences as she worked in this male dominated field.
Cochineal: How Mexico Made the World See Red
This is the story of a color—one that began as an evolutionary tale, and evolved to shape the course of human history.
Cochinilla: Cómo México Hizo que el Mundo Viera el Rojo
Esta es la historia de un color que comenzó como un cuento evolutivo y evolucionó para dar forma al curso de la historia humana.
Women of the Museum 1860-1920: Behind-the-Scenes at the Museum of Comparative Zoology
This exhibit highlights women’s expertise and extensive knowledge of the museum’s collections may not have been fully appreciated by their contemporaries but today we recognize how their work allowed the museum to grow into its role as a center for research, teaching, and public programs.
The Interpretation of Drawings: Freud & the Visual Origins of Psychoanalysis
This exhibition invites the viewer to explore the role Sigmund Freud’s sketches and drawings played in the development of his psychoanalytic theories.
A World of Viruses
Learn more about viruses as we explore what they are, where they can be found, and how they behave in both a positive and negative way.
Sharks: Streamlined Swimmers
In this exhibit spotlight, learn how sharks’ body design has been honed over hundreds of millions of years to increase swimming performance.
Uncovering Pacific Pasts: Harvard’s Early Endeavors in Oceanic Anthropology
Learn how early Harvard scholars imagined Oceania and listen to Pacific Islanders reflect on Peabody Museum collections.
Rewilding Harvard
An initiative to restore biodiversity, Rewilding returns native plants to a planter in front of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.