Reviving the Philosophy Chamber
Five years ago, when Harvard’s Ethan Lasser began examining the history of a series of portraits by the American painter John Singleton Copley, something odd caught his eye. “That name just grabbed me,” said Lasser, of repeated references in the records to the enigmatic space where the works once hung. “It was so intriguing and curious that I pursued it and I quickly found this huge, untapped archive about this room — what happened in it, who visited it, and most importantly, what it held.” So began a multiyear treasure hunt to track down as much of the room’s original material as possible — part of an effort to re-create the stories of collecting and scholarship that collided inside the Philosophy Chamber. Located in Harvard Hall in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the room was the largest of three in the building dedicated to teaching College students through a vast...