Sex, Drugs and Erotica at Harvard University Archives.
This is interesting!
Harvard University have acquired a new and very unique collection on loan - the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection, which is the 'largest of its kind in the world. It includes centuries of art, literature, and popular culture artefacts related to altered states of mind: sex and drugs.' Dating back as far as the 16th century, the collection was assembled by Colombian businessman Julio Mario Santo Domingo Jr., who died in 2009, and includes some 30,000 books and 25,000 photographs, posters and ephemera.
'The collection’s breadth owes a lot to the two extraordinary collections that Santo Domingo had the foresight to buy and combine: that of the late Gérard Nordmann, a Swiss aficionado of erotica, and the one once held at the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library in San Francisco. The Ludlow collection contained 10,000 items related to psychoactive drugs. It was named after the American who wrote the first full-length work in English on the cannabis experience, “The Hasheesh Eater” (1857). Harvard is now steward of works by crusaders both against illicit drugs and for them, like Aleister Crowley, who wrote “Diary of a Drug Fiend.” The Nordmann collection, auctioned by Christie’s in Paris in 2006, contained only 1,200 items, but many were leading works about altered states of mind. For instance, Nordmann had acquired the original manuscript of “Story of O,” the 1954 erotic classic about female submission.'
It is being described as 'uniquely rich', even among Harvard's diverse collections, and will be made available to researchers after it has been catalogued by staff.
Read the full article here!
Harvard University have acquired a new and very unique collection on loan - the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection, which is the 'largest of its kind in the world. It includes centuries of art, literature, and popular culture artefacts related to altered states of mind: sex and drugs.' Dating back as far as the 16th century, the collection was assembled by Colombian businessman Julio Mario Santo Domingo Jr., who died in 2009, and includes some 30,000 books and 25,000 photographs, posters and ephemera.
'The collection’s breadth owes a lot to the two extraordinary collections that Santo Domingo had the foresight to buy and combine: that of the late Gérard Nordmann, a Swiss aficionado of erotica, and the one once held at the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library in San Francisco. The Ludlow collection contained 10,000 items related to psychoactive drugs. It was named after the American who wrote the first full-length work in English on the cannabis experience, “The Hasheesh Eater” (1857). Harvard is now steward of works by crusaders both against illicit drugs and for them, like Aleister Crowley, who wrote “Diary of a Drug Fiend.” The Nordmann collection, auctioned by Christie’s in Paris in 2006, contained only 1,200 items, but many were leading works about altered states of mind. For instance, Nordmann had acquired the original manuscript of “Story of O,” the 1954 erotic classic about female submission.'
It is being described as 'uniquely rich', even among Harvard's diverse collections, and will be made available to researchers after it has been catalogued by staff.
Read the full article here!