Harvard Just Oozes With Culture

Boston, they say, is a great college town because it has Culture. Museums, galleries, libraries--Beantown is full of places to hang out, browse and otherwise intellectualize.

On Harvard's campus, however, Culture lurks down nearly every cobblestone path. With the wealth of free offerings on campus, the city outside might as well be, say, New Haven.

Many Harvard students never set foot in the campus museums, but the University has a wide range of varied collections that are worth a look.

The Fogg Art Museum, a brick building on Quincy Street not far from the Union, feels like an art gallery. And the acoustics in its cavernous inner atrium are perfect for the occasional chamber music performance.

The Fogg has a well-respected collection of European and North American works, including an impressive Impressionist gallery with a number of Monets. The Fogg also features Jackson Pollack, Picasso, Rembrandt and Renoir, as well as Rodin sculptures and twentieth-century photographs.

The Busch-Reisinger Museum, connected to the Fogg building in brand-new Werner Otto Hall, was founded in 1901 and specializes in art from German-speaking Europe.

The Sackler Museum is the modern, striped brick building across Broadway Street from the Fogg. Decidedly less museum-like on the outside, its front railings and vents are painted fluorescent green. Its collection, which opened in 1985, features ancient, Asian and Islamic art. The Fogg, the Sackler and the Busch-Reisinger are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

A bit farther from the yard are the museums of natural history, located on Divinity Avenue. The Peabody Museum contains artifacts from ancient cultures around the world, and has a large collection on North, Central and South American Indian cultures. Its inner stairs are treacherous, but its artifacts are interesting.

The Botanical Museum, located behind the Peabody, contains the Ware Collection of Glass Models of Plants, "The Glass Flowers." The Mineralogical and Geological Museums, also in the Peabody building, contain gems, minerals, ores and meteorites.

With huge doors covered with giant insect sculptures, the Museum of Comparative Zoology features fossil invertebrates, whale skeletons, the largest turtle shell ever found, and extinct birds. It, too, is housed in the Peabody Building. The natural history museums are open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Semitic Museum on Divinity Avenue contains artifacts from Near Eastern cultures. It is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Beyond the wide museum halls, much of Harvard's Culture lies in the narrow stacks of the University's many libraries. A nearly unparalleled collection of books of every subject and language makes Harvard's one of the best research library systems in the world.

Some real game are filed into the libraries' overstuffed shelves--eclectic or very old books that can be checked out like any other.

They library labyrinth may be difficult to master, and it's easy to lose track of time when dusty pages beckon from all sides. Occasionally, legend goes, an unfortunate lost student is forced to spend a night among the volumes of forgotten lore.

Much of the Yard lies in the shadow of Widener Library, the colossal building with what seems like miles of open stacks. An unmatched browsing center, Widener stacks are also a legendary spot for hot-and-heavy Harvard romances.

Far-less-sexy Lamont, one of three undergraduate libraries, is a popular place for studying and socializing. Anyone who enters the large ground floor reading hall is scrutinized by a roomful of bored students hoping for escape.

The Cabot Science Library is also oriented toward undergraduates, boasting long hours and a convenient location in the Science Center. Rounding out the selection of undergraduate libraries is Hilles, with a collection strong in the social sciences and a suburban location at Radcliffe Quad.

Harvard's other specialty libraries include the Tozzer anthropology library on Divinity Avenue and Andover-Harvard Theological Library. Houghton library in the Yard contains fascinating collections of first editions and manuscripts, as does Schlesinger Library in Radcliffe Yard. And Check out the movable stacks in Pusey Library underneath Widener.

With all of the brain exercise that goes on around Harvard, muscles can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Harvard is home to many a gaunt scholar, but the University does provide a facility for pumping and priming.

If trekking through library stacks--or walking up entryway stairs--doesn't provide enough exercise, the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC), across Holyoke Street from Lowell House, has stairmasters, stationary bicycles, Nautilus machines, exercise rooms, a swimming pool and basketball courts. It's open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends.

The "MAC" doesn't hold a candle to the best athletic facility on campus, the Business School's Shad Hall. The B-School gym is a palatial, state-of-the-art new center. But alas, undergraduates and summer school students are banned from the building, which is reserved for B-School students, faculty and staff.