In those years, Harvard College had 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.  Many of these objects have been hidden away for centuries.

The collection played a vital role in teaching and research and was a center of artistic and intellectual life for over 50 years. Artists, scientists, students, and advocates of American Independence—including George Washington—came to the Philosophy Chamber to discover and disseminate new knowledge. Visitors from around the globe flocked to see works by some of the Atlantic World’s greatest artists, including John Singleton Copley.

Harvard Art Museums’ Curator Amy Torbert will be presenting the story of the collection and singular objects including an Inscription on Dighton Rock, believed to have been made by members of the Wampanoag Tribe; a portrait by John Singleton Copley, a Native Hawaiian Crested Feathered Helmet), a preserved Long-Eared Owl.

The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820 exhibition is on view at Harvard through December 31, 2017.

Amy Torbert is the 2017-18 Maher Curatorial Fellow in American Art at the Harvard Art Museums. A specialist in American art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, she recently earned a PhD in art history from the University of Delaware. She also holds a MA from Williams College and a BA from Hollins University (Roanoke, Virginia). She has held curatorial fellowships at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Yale University Art Gallery.