Retrospection
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).
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.
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.
Warren House 6
A Celtic illustration brings the character of the Celtic Languages and Literatures Department to this bathroom relic of departments past.
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 1
The Warren House is painted yellow and features twin white brick chimneys that jut resolutely into the crisp Cambridge air.
The Strange History of Fake Harvard Students
Although social media was set ablaze this year with rumors of an impostor, there are records of people pretending to be Harvard freshman as far back as the 1960s.
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.
plate
An astronomical photographic plate taken in Peru from Harvard College Observatory's Arequipa Station.
Peruvians workers at site of construction of Bruce Building, Harvard College Observatory, Arequipa, Peru
Peruvians workers work on the Bruce Building at Harvard College Observatory, Arequipa, Peru.
Mount Harvard Cover
In the late 19th to early 20th century, the Harvard College Observatory set up a field station in Arequipa, Peru to document the skies of the Southern hemisphere.
Susan Sontag
But for Sontag, no word went unqualified, no word was left without its own definition to her, not “Camp,” not “illness,” not even “I,” and certainly not “writer.”
Astronomical Imperialism: Harvard In the Peruvian Skies
The data collected by Harvard College Observatory in Arequipa in the late 19th to early 20th century, is foundational in the study of astronomy and has furthered our understanding of the cosmos. But this type of cross-continental scientific undertaking cannot be separated from its impact on its workers — both the Indigenous people building Harvard facilities in Peru and the low-paid women astronomers in Cambridge.
The Ghost of Susan Sontag
“The Self as a Project.” That’s what Sontag told Charlie Rose she was working on when she wasn’t writing. The grand irony is that she took that noble aspiration of the liberal arts colleges she swore off and made it hers: teaching people how to think.