The offices at Harvard are as varied as the professors who inhabit them. Visit offices in Wadsworth House, the second-oldest building on campus, which served as headquarters for General George Washington in 1775, or those on the top floor of the modernist Carpenter Center, the architect Le Corbusier’s sole building in North America.

Robert Darnton, the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and University Librarian, holds court in Wadsworth House. His office is lined with books, many of them from the 18th century, and contains such personal mementos as a Fenway Park baseball and bits from the Berlin Wall, which he watched fall in 1989. “I am just happy in a room that evokes the past,” he said.

Donner Professor of Science Cumrun Vafa described his corner office in Jefferson Hall as “home within the University for me.” Blackboards line the walls of most offices within the Physics Department. “Blackboards represent collaboration, research, and freedom of thinking, discussion, and openness. That’s the aspect of scientific work that I think is crucial for research,” said Vafa.

The spaces are utilized in various ways throughout each day. They serve as contemplative places for reading, writing, and deliberating, and at times, as places to socialize with students and fellow academics. Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology Richard W. Wrangham said of his fifth-floor office atop the Peabody Museum, “It’s nice to be secluded as well as part of the outer world.”

In a way, each office evokes its owner. Looking around his space filled with books, papers, and objects from a lifetime of fieldwork, Wrangham joked, “I would like to feel that it represents me. It probably does. So be kind as you photograph it.”

At her visit to Ewha Womans University in Seoul, the Harvard president was awarded the title of Distinguished Honorary Ewha Fellow. In her speech “Educate Women; Change the World,” Faust promoted the transformative power of education for young women and the world they inhabit.

In 1891, the home’s second owner, Henry Clarke Warren, who was handicapped after injuring his spine as a child, outfitted his bathroom with special features such as a call bell and a two-tiered, zinc bathtub. The reclusive Warren lived on the second floor, where he installed other call bells, skylights, a heated sunporch, and a specially designed bed. He heated his rooms to 90 degrees as a respite from his chronic pain. Despite his lifelong suffering, Warren attained distinction in his field with his pioneering research in Sanskrit and Pali texts. He worked standing — with the aid of crutches — but eventually this became impossible so he worked kneeling on a chair, supporting his weight by leaning on his elbows. Warren’s great friend Charles Lanman, a Sanskrit professor at Harvard, once joked with Warren about the latter’s “trouser knees,” which were frayed from his constant kneeling. Warren answered, “Ah, but when St. Peter sees those knees, he’ll say, ‘Pass right in, sir, pass right in.’”

By the 1980s, the extraordinary bathroom was featured in a mystery novel, one of a series by Amanda Cross. She wrote: “Janet was found in an inebriated state in an ancient bathroom in some old frame house where the English Department hangs out …”

Just outside the bathroom is another curious feature of the house: a trap door in the hallway floor believed to have been used to hide runaway slaves by the home’s original owner, Harvard Latin Professor Charles Beck. The door was discovered in the 1940s when workers found old draperies, musty carpets, a bed, and a dresser with a photograph of a cow on it. The secret passageway was later sealed off when students were found playing in there.

Upon his death in 1899, Warren left most of his estate, including this house, with its interesting past, to Harvard, which had “provided him a sanctuary unlike any he had been able to achieve within his family.” A year later the house was moved slightly to accommodate construction of the Harvard Union (now called Barker) and currently serves as office space for the faculty and staff of Celtic languages and literatures, folklore and mythology, and the Mahindra Humanities Center.

Grids are easily perceived, and boxes are everywhere. Architecture makes regular use of repeating structures and details. Bookshelves and windowpanes — the world has a way of aligning its elements.

There is efficiency and elegance to the grid form, but there is also beauty in the chaotic, the random, and in nature’s proportions. Human activity and the whimsy of the natural world collide with the well-tested structure of the grid.

Admire a campus that frames, and challenges, borders.

Presidents, prime ministers, Nobel laureates, heads of state, and leaders in business, labor, finance, and media have paraded across the Forum’s stage. And photographers have sought out the most creative ways to capture the most interesting perspectives in a space with a multitude of viewpoints.

Conservative and liberal leaders, environmentalists, economists, military officials, journalists, and political satirists take to the stage to voice their opinions and share expertise in the public gathering space. In the last 10 years, the Forum has hosted guests as varied as Aung San Suu Kyi, Condoleezza Rice, Gordon Brown, Michael Steele, Terry McAuliffe, Tom Brokaw, and Stephen Colbert.

The Institute of Politics manages all the programming of the Forum, regularly working with co-sponsors from across the University. Since its founding in 1978, the Forum has hosted more than 2,000 events. The majority of the events are open to the general public. As a rule, each speaker must take unfettered questions from the audience. This cornerstone of the Forum often produces the liveliest part of any talk.

The Forum encourages debate, from airing different viewpoints on the story (see Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein argue the facts) to tackling the most challenging issues of our times (watch Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz discuss the future of Israel and Palestine).

Photographers visually experiment with the elements at hand. Monitors, still and video cameras, laptops, and lights are playfully observed; reflections and shadows are artfully perceived. And from a perspective atop the balcony seating, a massive crowd celebrates the second-term victory of President Barack Obama in a sea of red, white, and blue.

To discover the wealth of events, visit the Forum at jfkjrforum.org.

– Stephanie Mitchell

This year, College-led and student-initiated programming provided opportunities to explore creative passions, pursue career interests, learn about different academic fields, engage in recreational activities with friends, and connect with alumni.

In the third year of the program, Wintersession 2013 featured more than 150 seminars, activities, classes, and other events. Students could earn scuba diving, earn fitness certification, explore neuroscience, learn about personal finance, taste ethnic foods, paint pottery, or challenge friends to games of dodgeball, in addition to many other options.

“Wintersession is the time during the academic year when students have an opportunity to engage in things that they haven’t been able to do during term time,” said Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds. “It’s a time of exploration here in Cambridge, and it’s a time when you can make those explorations without having to worry about grades, time management, or any of the other things that students typically worry about in the usual course of events.”

For example, scores of students heard from Hammonds, the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies, as she discussed her book “The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics.”

Wintersession wrapped with “Public Interested?,” a College-organized conference that allowed hundreds of students to interact with dozens of alumni who have chosen to dedicate their careers to public service.

Wintersession is optional, and students are encouraged to use the time between terms in whatever way benefits them most.

“When I was little, I was big on Frances Hodgson Burnett, and I suppose the ‘secret’ nature of the ‘secret’ garden doesn’t hurt — though it’s not a secret, really. When I’ve entered the garden to find it already has an inhabitant, initial disappointment is quickly swept away by spontaneous affection and — with recognition of parallel taste in study spaces — respect. Also, aren’t pink roses beautiful?”

The space with the pink roses sits toward the center of campus, yet is concealed by walls on four sides. Not hidden, however, is Harvard’s replica of Braunschweiger Löwe, or the “Brunswick Lion,” which, on its tall pedestal, can be seen from afar, beckoning visitors into the space.

Building Manager Sandy Selesky, who over the years has contributed lilacs, geraniums, pansies, impatiens, and two stone gargoyles to the garden, cares for the courtyard. She had lava stones installed in the aesthetic pool to help the red-tailed hawks step out, and she purchased furniture and added a bubbler to the pool.

In the summer, people come and eat lunch in the courtyard, and some classes hold their discussions on the lawn. But overall, it’s quiet and unlike nearby bustling Harvard Yard. Professor Patrice Higonnet, whose office faces the courtyard, remarks, “Hmmmm. A hidden space. Wouldn’t it be — selfish thought — just as well to keep it hidden?”

— Rose Lincoln

For more than a century, the church’s Harvard University Choir has performed two Christmas carol services that include readings by the clergy, and a mix of traditional and contemporary carols and hymns sung by both the choir and congregation.

These photos pay homage to the spirit of learning and discovery expressed by Eliot.
— Kris Snibbe

Ode
For the hour that is left us Fair Harvard, with thee,
Ere we face the importunate years,
In thy shadow we wait, while thy presence dispels
Our vain hesitations and fears.
And we turn as thy sons ever turn, in the strength
Of the hopes that thy blessings bestow,
From the hopes and ambitions that sprang at thy feet
To the thoughts of the past as we go.

Yet for all of these years that to-morrow has lost
We are still the less able to grieve,
With so much that of Harvard we carry away
In the place of the life that we leave.
And only the years that efface and destroy
Give us also the vision to see
What we owe for the future, the present, and past,
Fair Harvard, to thine and to thee.

Each year Harvard and Yale vie for bragging rights in a football rivalry dating back to 1875. Harvard vs. Yale is more than just a game. It’s The Game. For many alumni, it’s also a chance to reconnect and reaffirm friendships forged decades ago.

For Bob and Carolyn Cumings of Winchester, Mass., the 2008 game marked the 56th anniversary of their blind date, and each subsequent game adds to their personal history as a married couple.

Tailgating at The Game is an art form. The spreads run the gamut from burgers to caviar and wine served with crystal and silver. On a table between parked cars in 2004, Bob Shaunessy ’59 proudly displayed the game ball he was given as captain of the team that defeated Yale, 28-0. The 2004 game marked the first time that Shaunessy had taken the ball out of his home since he and his mates blanked Yale 46 years earlier.

On the field at halftime, the two marching bands parody each other’s schools with creative mischief and elaborate formations. At the 2009 game in New Haven, four Yale men dressed only in pink undershorts proudly displayed the letters Y-A-L-E, painted in blue on their chests, as they exhorted their comrades to crush the Crimson.

Cymbals clash as the band belts out “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard,” fanatic fans in school colors and face paint cheer wildly, and groups of old grads bundle together for warmth and friendship, all adding to the pageantry that makes this tradition so much more than just a game of football.

— Photographs and text by Jon Chase

Need inspiration? Well, that’s easy. Just look around.

“These accomplishments support our research and teaching mission by lowering operational costs and increasing efficiency, efforts that we must continue to support and strengthen in the months and years to come.”

With the help of Leslie MacPherson Artinian, a department administrator at HDS and the garden’s staff liaison, student Lily Oster recently took charge of the garden’s operations. Together with a group of HDS students, they follow the work ethic that “weeding is a form of spirituality,” and hold this in mind while performing the dirty work the garden requires — planting, composting, watering, and, yes, weeding.

Each week some of the harvested vegetables are artistically plated by MacPherson Artinian and set out at community tea, a weekly social hour held in the Braun Room at HDS. And every other week, student Robin Lutjohann pedals vegetables by bike from the garden to Cambridge’s Faith Kitchen, where he prepares a hearty and healthy meal for the homeless.

— Photographs and text by Rose Lincoln

An author, actor, poetry champion, prison activist, and hip-hop artist, Bain introduced the new class on Sept. 7 at Harvard’s Farkas Hall, where he performed selections from his one-man multimedia show “Lyrics from Lockdown,” that tells the story of his wrongful imprisonment. Bain also invited students to the stage to audition for the new class with their own spoken-word compositions.

Drawing on influences that range from poet and author Nikki Giovanni to rapper and musician Nicki Minaj, students taking the course will research, write, record, and produce original work and explore texts from the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and the hip-hop generation.

As described in a paper published August 16 in Science, a team of researchers led by George M. Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, has developed a “dynamic coloration” system for soft robots that might one day have applications ranging from helping doctors plan complex surgeries to acting as a visual marker to help search crews following a disaster.

In this video, Stephen Morin, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Chemistry and Chemical Biology and first author of the paper, discusses the research and demonstrates how the system works.

From pottery wheels to archways to praying Divinity School students, life at the University is incredibly well-rounded.

And with their inspired and insightful eyes, the Gazette’s staff photographers bring life at Harvard full circle.

— Rose Lincoln

These are but a few of the images depicting House life at Harvard, a system started by President Lowell in 1929. Whether the activity is throwing pots, or performing an opera, or gathering in a basement café for coffee and spirited conversation, the Houses provide a smaller-scale “home” environment that is intimate and personable. Here in the Houses students are encouraged to pursue new pathways, to stretch themselves in ways both physical and intellectual, and to bond with their Housemates as they develop skills and friendships that complement their academic education.

— Jon Chase

Full text of the speech here:http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/05/text-of-fareed-zakarias-commenc…

Visit the official 375th website for more information about the University-wide celebration of Harvard’s 375th anniversary.

The event drew nearly 100 people, including Ed Portal mentors, the Allston youngsters they’ve worked with, family members, and Harvard faculty and staff, to celebrate the conclusion of yet another semester of learning.  Both mentees and mentors demonstrated the special connections that form at the Ed Portal and how contagious the excitement of learning can be.