This event has reached capacity. If you would like to be added to the waitlist, please email haa_alumnieducation@harvard.edu.
Join us for an exciting opportunity to visit Widener Library! One of Harvard’s most famous and beloved buildings, Widener is home to over 3.5 million volumes that stretch across five miles of shelves. You may have fond memories of the library from your days as a student, but guests will now have the rare opportunity to go behind closed doors and descend into one Widener’s depths and visit some of its most incredible and least visible spaces: the Collections Care conservation lab, and Imaging Services’ collections digitization studios. Attendees will have the chance to meet and talk with the expert staff who repair and preserve library materials for use by contemporary and future scholars.
In a state-of-the-art facility on Widener’s lower level—normally inaccessible to visitors—you’ll have a chance to meet and talk with the expert staff who conserve library materials and digitize collections for use by contemporary and future scholars.
A light reception in the Rotunda will precede the tours. The reception will feature brief remarks from Laura C. Wood, Associate University Librarian for Research and Education. Additionally, guests will be able to step beyond the red velvet ropes and explore up close the remarkable Harry Elkins Widener Collection, whose treasures include an illuminated copy one of 48 surviving copies of the Gutenberg Bible, published in 1454. Come mix and mingle with fellow Harvard bibliophiles!
Harvard Alumni and Friends of the Harvard Community: $20