Harvard’s keeper of historic and antique clocks
The clock is older than the nation itself but still keeps time down to the minute — those in meetings at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) offices, in fact, often rely on its chime to mark the beginning or end of the gathering. At least, that’s the way it was. In January, the 8-foot-tall longcase clock, built in London around 1750, started running a few ticks slow, which became a minute, then almost two. The tension on the strings had suddenly become tight when winding it. It was enough to concern the clock’s onsite monitor, Ann Hall, GSAS director of communications. She contacted the Harvard Art Museums, which loans out this clock and hundreds like it throughout campus. Enter Richard Ketchen, one of the faithful keepers of Harvard’s antique clocks. “I come when I’m called,” said Ketchen, an expert in the measurement of time. He is the Harvard Art Museums...