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Originals and Inspirations in Harvard's Special Collections
The Negro Bible (The Slave Bible)
The Slave Bible was published in 1807. It was commissioned on behalf of the Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves in England. The Bible was to be used by missionaries and slave owners to teach slaves about the Christian faith and to evangelize slaves. The Bible was used to teach some slaves to read, but the goal first and foremost was to tend to the spiritual needs of the slaves in the way the missionaries and slave owners saw fit.
The Arabian Nights (1802)
Available at the Houghton Library; translated from Antoine Galland's "Les mille et une nuits, contes arabes" (The Thousand and One Nights -- Arab Tales)
"Voodoo" Macbeth
Harvard's Fine Arts Library provides images of the famous 1936 production directed by Orson Welles with an all-black cast, its setting changed from Scotland to a Caribbean island.
Forged Portrait of William Shakespeare
Paul Francis Zincke (d. 1830) painted this fake portrait of Shakespeare, passing it off as contemporary to the playwright. It was sold to the French actor François Joseph Talma, who discovered it as a fake in his lifetime.
Van Gogh Self-Portrait (Forgery)
One of 33 fake Van Gogh paintings sold by the German art dealer Otto Wacker, who pled guilty to fraud and falsifying documents in 1932; two years later, this work came to the Fogg Museum at Harvard in a bequest.
Moby Dick: Classics Illustrated Edition by
"Moby Dick" as a comic book, published in 1947. Available to read in the Houghton Library.
Tales from Shakespear: designed for the use of young persons by
This collection of retellings of Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies for young readers has never been out of print since it first appeared in 1807. Houghton Library has copies of the first several editions.
Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus by
You can read the original 1818 edition at Harvard's Houghton Library. The cover shown here is from a later edition.
The most ancient and famous history of the renowned Prince Arthur: king of Britaine
The Houghton Library owns several early editions of Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur" (written ca. 1470), including a 1557 edition from the collection of Harry Widener (Class of 1907).
C. H. Smith's Double Mammoth Uncle Tom's Cabin
From the Harvard Theatre Collection, a color lithograph poster for one of the many 19th-century theatrical adaptations of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
