Collectively peculiar
In a quiet hallway outside the Harvard University Archives, it is jarring to encounter a giant black ant. Well, OK: a picture of a giant black ant — glistening head, alitrunk, petiole, gaster. In the same glass case is a centuries-old wrought-iron gutter spike, retrieved from Massachusetts Hall after a fire 90 years ago. The spike, now displayed on a silk pillow, is the size of a bayonet, its head mashed flat by some colonial blacksmith. Close by, also under glass, are a hand-written letter from John F. Kennedy ’40, an annotated almanac from 1775, protest photos from 1948, a first-edition Erich Segal novel, a vial of scent, and — on a 19th century memorial card — a weeping willow tree made of human hair. “From Code Books to ‘Love Story’” is the inaugural exhibit in a new series at the Archives: periodic displays of the odd and the wonderful, all chosen by...