Boston Public Library Research Services

Born in Norwood in 1864, Fred Holland Day, better known as F. Holland Day was the only child of a wealthy Boston merchant. The wealth he inherited from his father allowed him to freely pursue his interests in photography and literature without worrying about making a living. He was a major proponent of photography as an art form, with his own work being part of the pictorialist and symbolist movements. His career as a photographer essentially ended in 1904, when a fire destroyed most of his prints and negatives.

Day was also an avid book reader and collector, and self-financed a publishing house in Boston which was in operation for about nine years. He published works by Oscar Wilde, Stephen Crane, and Aubrey Beardsley among others.

While Day kept his personal life private, he is widely believed to have been homosexual. He never married or had children, and his manner of dress and otherwise eccentric behavior led many of his contemporaries to assume he was gay. Many of his photographs also featured male nudity in ways that many consider to be an indication of his preferences.

West End Museum, F. Holland Day- https://tinyurl.com/mrxkhwne
Archives of American Art, F. Holland Day papers, 1858-1977- https://tinyurl.com/yjuc3yhx
Getty Museum, F. Holland Day- https://tinyurl.com/mxr2rdby
Books at the BPL- https://tinyurl.com/hmbxskmw

Image Credit:
Title: [Self-portrait, F. Holland Day in medieval costume with arm on antique chair]
Creator(s): Day, F. Holland (Fred Holland), 1864-1933, photographer
Date Created/Published: [ca. 1893]
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005675767/

First opened in 1838, Hopkins Observatory in Williamstown, Massachusetts is the oldest existing astronomical observatory in the United States. It was hand-built by Professor Albert Hopkins and his students over the course of two years. Hopkins had previously been given permission by the administration of Williams College to obtain astronomical equipment in Europe.

The building has been moved twice, first in 1908 and again to its current location in 1961. While the original telescope was replaced about 20 years after being installed, much of the equipment remaining is original. Since the 1960s its primary use has been as a planetarium, hosting free shows that are open to the public.

Williams College Astronomy Department, Hopkins Observatory- https://tinyurl.com/48wv8z92
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Williams College’s Hopkins Observatory: the oldest extant observatory in the United States- https://tinyurl.com/4x8e9tky
Books at the BPL- https://tinyurl.com/3k9ncbfb and https://tinyurl.com/3thu83wx

Image Credit:
Williams College - Hopkins Observatory. Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA.
17 April 2008
Via Wikimedia Commons

"Barney Frank speaks at Gay Pride rally at Parkman Bandstand in the Common, Boston," Photo, 1976, Spencer Grant.

Barney Frank served in the MA House of Representatives (1973 – 1981) and the U.S. House of Representatives (1981 – 2013). He recently passed away in April 2026. He is being remembered as a gay rights pioneer — and indeed here is photographic evidence of Frank rallying with his fellow Bostonians during Pride 1976 🏳️‍🌈

🏳️‍🌈 Boston's LGBTQ+ History guide: guides.bpl.org/LGBTQhistory/LocalCreatives
🏳️‍🌈 Image: arts.bpl.org/collection/bpl/detail/b8f7204e-8ddc-46e5-897c

J. S. Bach's 6 Suites for Violoncello Solo are some of his most well-known works, and any cellist worth their salt will have performed at least one of them in their lifetime. The Boston Public Library's music research collection has twelve different editions of the works, which should make any researcher of these works happy. Not all of them are currently listed in the online catalog at this moment, but most of them are. If you're interested in seeing this full score (notable for being edited by the cellist Jacqueline du Pre), you can request it to use while at the Central Library by visiting the Book Delivery Desk and requesting M52.B2 BWV 1007-1012 1981x. In the meantime, here's Ms du Pre performing the Prelude of the 1st suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50XbIqoLJos