In this inscribed gift copy to Harvard College, Fisher Howe offers a detailed account of his 1850 journey throughout the Middle East. “I am waiting, not without some impatience, for the forthcoming “ Oriental and Sacred Scenes, ” by our esteemed friend, Fisher Howe, Esq. Mr. Howe is a matter-of-fact man, and has the faculty…
Category: Widener Library
Alexander Russell Webb and the American Muslim Propagation Movement
Alexander Russell Webb (1846-1916; journalist, publisher, and U.S. ambassador) is noted as the first American to have converted to Islam. Raised as a Presbyterian, Webb eventually abandoned his Christian upbringing to investigate other faiths, ultimately converting to Islam in 1888. Ironically, while he declared himself a Muslim, Webb had not even met a single Muslim. Soon afterwards,…
A New Digitization Work-stream …
In collaboration with Preservation Services Collection Care, Imaging Services has established a new programmatic work-stream: the Widener Library, digitization of ReCAP items committed to retain program. As the name suggests, this project is connected to the ReCAP (Research Collections and Preservation Consortium) program, to which Harvard Library is a dedicated partner. ReCAP’s mission is to…
The Nubian Pyramids
Frédéric Cailliaud’s travel accounts and drawings were pivotal contributions to the development of Egyptology in the 19th century. Cailliaud, born in 1787, became a prominent French naturalist, mineralogist, and conchologist. From 1815 to 1827, he travelled extensively throughout Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia, collecting minerals and making observations. He rediscovered the ancient emerald mines of Mount Zubarah and long…