Studio of Giacomo Arena. "Group Portrait of the Arean and D'Allesandri Staff with Implements," 1870. Albumen silver print.

The Harrison D. Horblit Collection of Early Photography, one of the foremost teaching and research collections in America, will be on display to the public from March 10 through May 26 at the Houghton Library. This premier collection of more than 7,000 items -- including daguerreotypes, photographic prints, books illustrated with original photographs, early photographic albums, cameras, and manuscripts -- documents the discovery of photography from the 1830s through the turn of the century.

Harrison D. Horblit '33, an amateur collector of rare books on the history of science, began his photographic quest in the 1960s with the purchase of the entire photography holdings of Sir Thomas Phillipps, a renowned book and manuscript collector of the 19th century. Building on this prestigious beginning, Horblit spent the next 20 years adding to his collection. In 1995, Jean Horblit presented the collection to Houghton Library, of the Harvard College Library, in memory of her husband. For the past three years, the Library has been cataloging, re-housing, and conserving this vast quantity of photographic material in preparation for the opening to the public.

A number of events, open to the public and free of charge, are scheduled in conjunction with the exhibition. An opening reception will be held Wednesday, March 10, at 5 p.m. at the Houghton Library, located in Harvard Yard. A two-day international symposium will be held March 10 and 11 at the Carpenter Center Auditorium, 24 Quincy St. A closing tea will follow the symposium on March 11, at 4:30 p.m. in the Houghton Library Exhibition Room.

French School. "Close-up of Chimeras on the South Tower of Notre-Dame de Paris," ca. 1870. Albumen silver print.

The two-day symposium, which includes three panels composed of curators, historians, and librarians, will discuss such topics as the development of the calotype process by William Henry Fox Talbot in Great Britain, the proliferation of commercial photography in Rome during the 1850s, and experiments in medical photography by Duchenne de Boulogne in France.

Panel I, at 2 p.m. on March 10, includes Hans P. Kraus Jr., private dealer in 19th- and early 20th-century photographs; Larry J. Schaaf, independent researcher and author; Merry A. Foresta, senior curator of photographs, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; and Denise Bethel, director of the photographs division and an auctioneer at Sotheby's, New York.

Panel II, on March 11 at 9:30 a.m., features Robert Sobieszek, curator of photography and curatorial co-chair of the Los Angeles Museum of Art, and visiting professor in art history, University of Southern California; Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, the 250th Anniversary Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University, 1998-1999, and professor of classical studies, and Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek at Wesleyan University; Julia van Haaften, first curator of photographs in the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach division of art, prints and photographs, research division, New York Public Library; and Anne McCauley, professor of art history, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the 1998-99 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for independent research.

Frederic A. Flacheron. "Temple of Vesta and Fountain," 1850s. Albumen silver print.

The final session, Panel III, takes place on March 11 at 2 p.m. with Grant B. Romer, director of conservation and museum studies, International Museum of Photography and Film, George Eastman House; John Szarkowski, curator emeritus of the department of photography, Museum of Modern Art and independent researcher and photographer; Martha A. Sandweiss, associate professor of American studies and history at Amherst College and director of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst; Alan Trachtenberg, 1999 guest scholar at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, as well as Neil Grey Professor of American Studies and English at Yale University.

The papers from this symposium are published in a volume titled Six Exposures: Essays to Celebrate the Opening of the Harrison D. Horblit Collection of Early Photography, and are available both at the Houghton Library and at the University of Washington Press as of March 10.

An illustrated catalog published by the Houghton Library accompanies the exhibition and is also available both at the Library and through the University of Washington Press beginning March 10. Review copies are available directly from the University of Washington Press.