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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES A Harvard 'Type' of Guy By Rebecca Rollins
Howard Allgaier moves through the maze of glass exhibit cases lining the walls of Harvard’s Museum of Natural History with the ease of a host giving a tour of his home. "Now, this I did years ago, but it still looks pretty good," he says, passing a frozen flock of stuffed hummingbirds. Without missing a step Allgaier turns a sharp corner and disappears momentarily behind a wall of giant fossils, beckoning, "Let me show you something else back here – it’s incredible!" It’s no wonder Allgaier is so comfortable in the Museum. He probably knows this building, and these exhibits, better than anyone on campus. Eighty-eight-year-old Howard Allgaier first walked through the Museum doors fresh from trade school and looking for work. This month, after nearly 70 years of employment, Allgaier decided to retire."It still amazes me when I look at all this," Allgaier exclaims, having arrived at the exhibit case that is his destination. Gesturing in the direction of a 10-foot-tall skeleton of a prehistoric ground sloth, he explains, "That is one of the most difficult runs I ever did." Allgaier isn’t talking about identifying extinct mammals or reconstructing unearthed bones. His pride lies at the feet of these rare exhibits, literally. Allgaier is a printer whose life’s work is seen in hundreds of Museum exhibit signs and publications. "Twenty-four point Cheltenham! That’s my type. It’s what I used when I was making labels for these exhibits back in the ’30s and ’40s. All hand-set type on a 10x15 job press."On Dec. 1, 1930, Howard Allgaier accepted a job working as a printer at the Harvard University Botanical Museum. All these years later he proudly confirms that chapter in his life with documentation in printer’s-proof black and white – his original offer letter for $65 a month, as painstakingly preserved as the Museum exhibits displayed around him. Reminiscing about his early days at the Museum, Allgaier leafs through a couple of photo albums, which hold the offer letter as well as paper and ink memorabilia from decades of work behind a Harvard printing press. "I came out of the Depression, and you couldn’t get a job anywhere. I heard that they wanted someone here to print labels in the Museum," he recalls. Allgaier thumbs through photos of his presses and paper cutters with great pride and more than a hint of nostalgia. "The Chandler and Price 12x18 was my prized press. It had an automatic feed. I could run anything above a postcard size. Anything smaller than that I had to hand feed. I also had a 10x15 Golding hand-fed press."Allgaier’s original workspace was next to the desk of Louis Bierweiler, who spent countless hours mounting the now-famous glass flowers exhibit. "He came here as a boy 15 years old and spent his whole life at Harvard," Allgaier said of Bierweiler. "He laid out the glass flowers and fastened them down. He mounted them all and he made the plaques and the cases. My little press was right next to his desk, but not too close, so I didn’t bother him." Allgaier printed the descriptive labels that still lie alongside the glass flowers today. Allgaier’s 69-year portfolio consists of those labels, the small printed boards that accompany the larger exhibits in the Museum, and hundreds of Museum publications that he meticulously produced by hand, setting each letter and each line of type. Imagine working the same job for nearly 70 years. It’s an awesome accomplishment, betrayed somewhat by the ease with which Allgaier recalls the details of a print job run half a century ago as clearly as the meal he ate for breakfast this morning. When talking to Howard, one gets the impression that pride in the quality of the work he’s produced far outweighs the number of years he’s been on the job. For Howard, one day is just like the next; whether it’s 1930 or 1999.Those who are impressed with Allgaier’s employment longevity should crosscheck the history of the campus as a measure for putting his years at Harvard into perspective. When Allgaier first came to Harvard in 1930, A. Lawrence Lowell was president of the University. Future Harvard President Derek C. Bok was born that year in Bryn Mawr, Pa. (Howard was here when Bok eventually came to Harvard, and still here when Bok left.) The highest paid Harvard professor made $12,000 per year when Allgaier began his printing career, and ‘pioneer aviator’ Orville Wright was among that year’s Harvard Commencement day honorees. "Harvard Square was very country-like. The streetcars still ran through here. Everything was wide open. There was a house over there," he said, waving in the direction of the Science Center. "And I lived behind the woods in a house on Sacramento Street. When the war [WWII] came on, they did away with the tennis courts that used to be over there [west of the Science Center] and built housing for the officers’ families who studied during the war. I’ve seen all these changes. Harvard has grown and grown, and it’s still growing."By 1985 the technological advances affecting the rest of the world crept into Allgaier’s museum-based printing operation. The presses stopped, and his attention shifted to other responsibilities. For the past several years, he’s worked just one day per week, helping with a variety of Museum functions. Now Allgaier feels his Museum work is done. "The best thing was the people I worked with . . . and my independence. My friends who worked outside in print shops were always unhappy with the people they worked with. I was my own boss. I could have left for an even better-paying job, but I was loyal. I am a loyal person, and they created this job for me. I learned to be a ‘grade A’ printer here, and I was independent. And besides printing I was in charge of the desk, and everything else that went on in the Museum." Retiring on the cusp of the new millennium has no great significance for Howard. His thoughts on the year 2000? "To me it’s just going to come and go, it’s just going to be another year. It don’t mean nothin’. I’ll be another year older." On the other hand, when asked to summarize his work at Harvard, the enthusiasm that’s kept him here all these years leaps forth. "I loved working here. I wanted to get a good job with decent pay and have good [physical] health. Eventually I got the job, and it lasted a lifetime. I’m retiring, but I’ll come back once in a while to make sure the museum is up to snuff." The work of Howard Allgaier remains on display with the exhibits at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Copyright 1999 President and Fellows of Harvard College |
