The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820
Prepared by Charles Willson Peale, Long Eared Owl (Asio otus) (detail), 1786–1827. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ornithology Department, Harvard University, 67850. Photo: Jeremiah Trimble; Courtesy of the Ornithology Department, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; © President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Between 1766 and 1820, Harvard College assembled an extraordinary collection of paintings, portraits, and prints; mineral, plant, and animal specimens; scientific instruments; Native American artifacts; and relics from the ancient world. These objects were displayed in a set of three rooms adjacent to the college library in Harvard Hall, a large brick building that still stands at the center of campus today. The largest of these spaces, the Philosophy Chamber, was an ornately decorated room named for the discipline of natural philosophy, a cornerstone of the Enlightenment-era curriculum that wove together astronomy, mathematics, physics, and other sciences in an attempt to explain natural objects and physical phenomena. The collection and the chamber played a vital role in teaching and research at Harvard, while also serving as the center of artistic and intellectual life in the greater New England region for over 50 years. Artists, scientists, students, and advocates of American Independence—including George Washington—came to the Philosophy Chamber to discover, discuss, and disseminate new knowledge. Students attended lectures and demonstrations there, and visitors from around the globe flocked to the space to see works by some of the Atlantic World’s greatest artists and artisans, including John Singleton Copley and John Trumbull. While the collection survived the Revolutionary War thanks to a temporary relocation (along with all of Harvard College) to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1775, an expansion of the college library in 1820 ultimately led to the dispersal of the collection to various university departments and local museums. The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820 reunites many of these original objects, showcasing a range of works that have been hidden away for nearly two centuries.
The exhibition features more than 100 works displayed in four thematic sections, including a loose reconstruction of the Philosophy Chamber itself. Included are full-length portraits by John Singleton Copley; exceptional examples of Native Hawaiian feather work and carving by indigenous artists of the Northwest Coast; a dazzling, large-scale orrery (a model of the solar system) by Joseph Pope; mezzotints after the work of expatriate American artists; and Stephen Sewall’s mural-sized copy of the Wampanoag inscription on the landmark known as Dighton Rock, an 11-foot boulder located in Berkley, Massachusetts. The objects are drawn from a number of private, academic, and public collections in the United States and the United Kingdom, including from the following collections at Harvard University: the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard Art Museums, the Harvard Map Collection, Harvard University Archives, Houghton Library, the Mineralogical and Geological Museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, and the Warren Anatomical Museum.
An illustrated catalogue with essays by a mix of curators, professors, conservators, conservation scientists, and doctoral candidates has been published in conjunction with the exhibition. The publication advances new understandings of early American art history, and serves as a rich resource for any reader interested in the art and culture of the Atlantic World.
Organized by the Harvard Art Museums. Curated by Ethan W. Lasser, the Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. Curator of American Art and Head of the Division of European and American Art at the Harvard Art Museums.
The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820 will travel to The Hunterian, at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where it will be on view April 17 to July 15, 2018.
This project is supported in part by major grants from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Luce Foundation.
The exhibition and catalogue were also supported in part by the following endowed funds: the Bolton Fund for American Art, Gift of the Payne Fund; the Henry Luce Foundation Fund for the American Art Department; the William Amory Fund; and the Andrew W. Mellon Publication Funds, including the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund.
Share your experience on social media: #PhilosophyChamber
Online Resources
Explore the Philosophy Chamber through our online Digital Tool featuring an audio podcast, additional information about the works on display, reactions from visitors to the chamber during its active years, and excerpts from the faculty lectures and student debates that once enlivened the room.
Learn more about the exhibition in our series of short videos, available on YouTube.
DJ /rupture (a.k.a. Jace Clayton, Harvard ’97) created a Spotify playlist that sonically explores themes found in the Philosophy Chamber exhibition.
Related Programming
Information about events related to the exhibition, including lectures, a symposium, gallery talks, and Materials Lab Workshops, can be found in our calendar.
Related Publications
The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820
This book explores the history and collections of one of the most unusual rooms in early America. Between 1766 and 1820, the Philosophy Chamber, a grand room adjacent to the Harvard College Library, was home to more than one thousand artifacts, natural specimens, and works of art dispatched to the college from points around the globe. Named for the discipline of natural philosophy, the Philosophy Chamber served as a lecture hall, experimental lab, and picture gallery. The room was frequented by an array of artists, scientists, travelers, and revolutionaries, and its collections stood at the center of artistic and intellectual life at Harvard and in the New England region for more than 50 years. Dispersed and hidden away for nearly 200 years, this unrivaled collection has been reunited for the first time since it was originally assembled, providing an invaluable window into the art and culture of early America. It attests to the wide-ranging spirit of inquiry that characterized the late 18th and early 19th centuries. With an insightful look at conservation efforts and detailed examination of specific objects, including works by artists such as John Singleton Copley and John Trumbull, this publication explores the social and political stakes that underpinned one of the most remarkable assemblages of artifacts, images, and objects in the Atlantic World, and introduces readers to many long-forgotten icons of American culture. The related exhibition, The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820, is on display at the Harvard Art Museums from May 19 through December 31, 2017. The exhibition then travels to The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where it will be on view March 23 through June 24, 2018. Ethan W. Lasser is the Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. Curator of American Art and head of the Division of European and American Art at the Harvard Art Museums; Aleksandr Bierig is a Ph.D. student in architectural and urban history at Harvard University; Anne Driesse is Senior Conservator of Works of Art on Paper in the Harvard Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies; Katherine Eremin is the Straus Center’s Patricia Cornwell Senior Conservation Scientist; Andrew Gelfand is the Anne Lunder Leland Curatorial Fellow at the Colby College Museum of Art, and a former undergraduate intern in the Division of European and American Art at the Harvard Art Museums; Claire Grech is the former Australian Conservation Science Fellow in the Straus Center; Teri Hensick is the Straus Center’s Senior Conservator of Paintings and Head of the Paintings Lab; Jane Kamensky is Professor of History at Harvard University and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Georgina Rayner is the Straus Center’s Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Conservation Science; Jennifer L. Roberts is the Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University; Whitney Barlow Robles is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Harvard University; María Dolores Sánchez-Jáuregui is the William Hunter Tercentenary Curatorial Trainee, supported with Recognition funding from Museums Galleries Scotland at The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and a former Maher Curatorial Fellow in American Art at the Harvard Art Museums; Anthony Sigel is the Straus Center’s Senior Conservator of Objects and Sculpture; Kate Smith is the Straus Center’s Associate Conservator of Paintings; Lucie Steinberg is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Harvard University; Oliver Wunsch is a Ph.D. candidate in the history of art and architecture at Harvard University. The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820 is supported in part by major grants from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Luce Foundation. The exhibition and catalogue also received support from the following endowed funds: the Bolton Fund for American Art, Gift of the Payne Fund; the Henry Luce Foundation Fund for the American Art Department; the William Amory Fund; and the Andrew W. Mellon Publication Funds, including the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund.
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A Late Discovery from the Philosophy Chamber
Whitney Barlow Robles, a recent curatorial intern at the Harvard Art Museums, helped make important contributions to the upcoming special exhibition The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820. Thanks to her research, the exhibition will now include six early 19t...
Tracing Inscriptions
As we prepare for our 2017 exhibition on Harvard’s 18th-century Philosophy Chamber, a team of conservators and curators from the Harvard Art Museums and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology are closely studying a 1768 copy of inscriptions from Massachusetts’s Dighton Rock.
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Curators and other experts are conducting research for a future exhibition about Harvard’s 18th-century Philosophy Chamber.
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Related Tours
The Philosophy Chamber
Explore the Philosophy Chamber exhibition through this digital tool featuring an audio podcast, additional information about the works on display, reactions from visitors to the chamber during its active years, and excerpts from the faculty lectures and student debates that once enlivened the room.