We took a tour of the library and it was outstanding. The library is the repository of many first edition books and manuscripts from all around the world. The rooms and their collections are gorgeous, the Emily Dickinson room is a special treasure and the current exhibition on Prison Writing has fantastic displays. Check to see when their free tours are and book it into your trip. It was a tiny bit hard to find the library, because nobody on the campus seemed to know where it was! And the Uber drivers can't easily find it, because it's walkable only. So find the Widener library first and it is sort of near it, a smallish Georgian structure.

Visiting Harvard? Whatever your interest, do try and take an hour to visit the ongoing Apollo 11 exhibition in the Houghton Library. I defy you to be anything but inspired by this story of human endeavour. Although not a large exhibition by any means, occupying just a single room, the exhibits detail human fixation with our solar system and exploration. Documents reach back centuries, and I am always amazed by the scientific knowledge and foresight of our forebears. The images from more recent comics and magazines bear a marked resemblance to the actual components of the Saturn V, Command and Lunar Modules. And then the exhibits directly associated with Armstrong and his crew, breathtaking! This exhibition is free, and on for a limited time only, so do make an effort to visit it while it's on. Highly recommended.

Neil Armstrong spoke these iconic words when he became the first man to walk on the moon 50 years ago. The lunar touchdown on July 20, 1969, and subsequent moon walk a few hours later united the people on Earth in wonder as this achievement represented the best in all of us. A small, but exceptional, exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing is presently on display at Harvard’s Houghton Library. Chronicling the discoveries made throughout the centuries that culminated in space flight and the lunar landing, one half of the exhibit features Houghton’s rare books and the other half displays unique items on loan from a private collector. Rare books include those by Copernicus, Galileo and Newton. Among the other special items are: the autobiography of the first person to travel to outer space - Yuri Gagarin’s “Road to the Stars” inscribed by him and Nikolai Kamanin, the cosmonaut training director; the sketch of the lunar module that Neil Armstrong made for his father; and the star charts used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin while on the lunar surface. There are many fascinating items on display; the materials on loan to the Houghton are especially outstanding. This once-in-a lifetime exhibit is not to be missed and it’s free; go before it closes on August 3.