Art Right Now: Thanks for Typing

Art and music are things that balance me. Although, sometimes they throw me off balance too. Art especially will catch me off guard or make me think of things in a different way. In the Boston area, we are lucky to have so much art at our fingertips; There are museums and shows just outside our doorsteps as well as galleries and exhibitions a day trip away. You can stumble upon free exhibits downtown or try to get a coveted ticket before everyone else by being a member at the museum. I prefer to take in art often and in smaller doses. I just digest it better that way. One of my favourite little stops for art (and culture) is to pop into Harvard’s Houghton Library to see what they have in their first floor gallery.

Art Museums at Harvard: The Big Picture

My kids grew up in the Cambridge public school system and there is a bit of a snicker anytime anyone mentions the Peabody Museum of Natural History for the sheer number of times the kids have been there on school trips. The Peabody Museum at Harvard is probably most known for the collection of taxidermy animals which is very impressive, the crystals (a popular one ever since the kids were really little) and the collection of glass flowers (which are so impressive and do not look like they could possibly be glass). Everyone should at very least go see the glass flowers, which were made from 1886 through 1936 by Leopold (1822-1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939), father and son glass artists who produced 4,300 glass models that represent 780 plant species exclusively for Harvard.

The Fogg Art Museum is one that I neglected for a while, only because it was under construction for so many years that I never got to know it and then forgot about it once it finally opened. I had my first visit recently for the Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black exhibit and I know I need to just keep going back. It is right under our noses, a beautiful space, and also I will now be paying attention to the permanent collections as well as ephemeral shows ( I have my eye on the Critical Printing exhibit). If you haven’t been yet, admission is free, pop into the Harvard Art Museums and stay a minute or a while as your wish. If you can sneak out on a week day for a little bit, then I also highly recommend checking out what is going on at the Houghton Library and that is just a little time commitment, but well worth it.

Houghton Library Exhibits: To Be Specific

If you just want something quick, but no less fulfilling, Harvard’s Houghton Library is the place to visit. They have a first floor exhibit that changes fairly frequently. I first paid attention to these exhibits because they recently had one an Edward Gorey, who has been one of my favourite illustrators since childhood (I was an odd child.). The Gorey exhibit did not disappoint. I went back a couple of times to visit it solo and with friends. The Houghton Library exhibits are in one large room, so an easy stop for a lunch break or after work to decompress (although they close at 5p.m.). There is always a bonus mini exhibit in the foyer too. At the moment (April 2026) it is new acquisitions.

Thanks For Typing: Houghton Library

I was in the last 9th Grade class in my high school to have the choice of taking either keyboarding (on computers) or typing (on electric typewriters). Being the (im)practical, nostalgic human that I am, of course I chose typing, and went on to become a very fast typist, which has serve me well albeit on computer keyboards. I am grateful that I no longer lose so many wpm having to use the correction tape, but I still enjoy the nostalgia from the sound to the look of a type-written-on-a-typewriter document. So, of course I was intrigued when I heard that the latest exhibit at the Houghton Library was on typing and women’s type labor in literature and arts.

The thing about these exhibits, in particular, is that they are not exactly art exhibits, but encapsulate a whole moment in history, and many dimensions within a particular focus. Every moment in history plays into our current day in some way. What really caught my attention in this exhibit was learning that IBM released a typeball specifically for Labanotation. The typeball itself is fascinating, but it is the Labanotation that blew my mind. I grew up dancing from age 4-29 and happened to dance in a university setting for most of childhood so very specific things like Labanotation was on my radar. I never had the chance to learn to read or write Labanotation but was always aware of it. As an adult, I decided I wanted my next tattoo to be Labanotation because it is meaningful to me and I like the geometry of it. My dad, albeit a mathemetitian who worked in the research labs, worked at IBM and somehow I never learned about this specific little fact until my visit to the Thanks for Typing exhibit.

Thanks for Typing has many interesting items on display from a Typescript copy of a Labanotation score for Jerome Robbins’ Interplay to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, vintage poster and magazine ads, Emily Dickinson’s autographed manuscript “All overgrown by cunning moss”, T.S. Eliot, Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot, and Ezra Pound page 5 of The Waste Land typescript with autograph corrections, and an autographed letter to Eleanor Holmes Hinkley from Valerie Eliot

The Houghton Library exhibits are family friendly as well. The exhibit is small enough for any attention span. There is a bench for tired souls to sit and take it in. There is usually at least one interactive component. For this one, I definitely enjoyed a little time at the typewriter even though I have one at home to play with too. Thanks for Typing: Women’s Type Labor in Literature and the Arts will be at the Houghton Library through May 1st. 2026.