Putting things in their place
In Harvard’s Collection of Historical and Scientific Instruments, curious items are the norm, like the exploding “thunder house,” a small wooden box used to demonstrate the value of lightning rods, or the control console of the Harvard cyclotron, which was the University’s second particle accelerator. But in the Putnam Gallery, in a display on vision and illusive nature, a giant plastic model of a human eyeball sits near the palette of the American painter John Singer Sargent, the surface of the latter covered in hardened strokes of muted color. Hidden in several of Harvard’s collections across the University are similar treasured curiosities, part of a new class and exhibit that encourage students and visitors to question traditional categories of knowledge. “Tangible Things,” on view through May 29, is organized in collaboration with a Harvard General Education course, “Tangible Things: Harvard Collections in World History.” “We are teaching students and visitors about a way...