Altered States: Sex, Drugs, and Transcendence in the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library is a new exhibition at Harvard’s Houghton Library that investigates human kind’s search for transcendence via religion, the occult, philosophy, music, endorphins, sex, ecstasy i.e. most of the elements of theurgic theory and practice. The exhibit runs September 5 – December 16.
An article in Fine Books Magazine notes:
“Investment advisor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Jr. (1957-2009) assembled the world’s largest private collection documenting psychoactive drugs and their physical and social effects. His interest was broad, from cultivation and synthesis to the many cultural and counter-cultural products such altered states of mind have inspired and influenced. Rich in scientific, medical, legal, and literary works, the Ludlow-Santo Domingo (LSD) Library documents in depth both the benefits of controlled use and the horrors of addiction.
“The exhibition, curated by Leslie A. Morris, Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts at Houghton Library with the assistance of colleagues throughout the Harvard Library system, focuses on eight major topics represented in the LSD Library: opium, cocaine, hallucinogens, marijuana, sex, social protest, underground comix, and ephemera. “The incredible variety of material in the LSD Library has transformed our collection,” said Morris. ‘The Library can now support innovative new research on 20th-century culture and counterculture. And it’s very cool stuff!’”
read the entire news story here:
https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/press/2017/07/exhibition-at-harvards-houghton-library-explores-the-history-of-the-human-search-for-something-more.phtml.
Houghton Library is Harvard University’s principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, literary and performing arts archives, and more. The library’s holdings of primary source material are managed by an expert staff and shared with scholars, students and the public in the reading room, and through exhibitions, lectures, seminars, publications and courses.
Houghton Library is located in Harvard Yard, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
It is open Monday, Friday and Saturday 9am-5pm, and Tuesday through Thursday 9am-7pm.
Houghton Library is closed on Sundays. Exhibitions are free and open to the public.
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/
