Hidden in Plain Site: Exploring Harvard’s History Through Campus Landscapes and Public Collections

The iconicity of Harvard University's campus is informed by its vast memorial ecology and a constellation of public artworks, temporary and permanent exhibitions, garden statuaries, and a unique architectural identity within its historic built environment. Using the campus-as-text methodology, this course explores—and reads—Harvard's history through its campus landscape and public-facing collections. In doing so, students have an opportunity to participate in weekly site visits to campus landmarks, exhibitions, and library and museum collections and exhibitions to complement modules that explore how the campus's design, academic architecture, and its memorial and material culture shape a public history of America's oldest university. This course endeavors to ask many questions, including but not limited to: in what ways is Harvard's historic built environment and academic architectural identity in intimate dialogue with the city of Cambridge and other urban centers adjacent to the campus? What institutional narratives are conveyed through Harvard's constellation of public art, garden statuaries, notable interiors, cultural properties, exhibitions, and broader memorial ecology? How do these visual elements and cultural assets fit within the University's broader museum and library collections? How do we preserve and care for these inherently public-facing collections? As Harvard prepares for its 400th anniversary, where are their opportunities to introduce new narratives and memories that enhance and/or expand how the University's history is articulated within the campus landscape?