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Articles by Jon Hetman
Hydrangeas, History, and Summer Beauty at the Arnold Arboretum
Lacecap flowers of bigleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla 405-2007*A. Image credit:Ned Friedman In July, the Arnold Arboretum’s landscape comes alive with the broad, luminous blooms of temperate hydrangeas—plants that reward close observation, particularly when encountered in their diversity.
Late-Spring Finale at Arnold Arboretum: Mountain Laurels at Hemlock Hill
Along the northwestern base of Hemlock Hill at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, a broad sweep of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) grows where the woodland slopes down to meet the historic carriage road. Each June, in the filtered light beneath the hemlocks, these massed plantings offer one of the Arboretum’s most spectacular seasonal spectacles.
Reading the Weather at the Arnold Arboretum
Last week’s winter storm offered a vivid reminder of New England’s climate in motion: nearly 18 inches of snow fell at the Arnold Arboretum between January 25 and 26—more than Boston received in each of the past two winters in their entirety. For the Arnold Arboretum, storms like this are more than remarkable weather events; they are data points in a long continuum of observation that extends nearly a century.
Arnold Arboretum Mounts Three International Plant Collecting Expeditions This Fall
This fall, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is mounting three international plant collecting expeditions—efforts that reflect the Arboretum’s enduring commitment to botanical discovery, global plant conservation, and international collaboration to preserve biodiversity.
Cultivating Beauty and Knowledge on Peters Hill
Each summer, the Arnold Arboretum engages emerging green industry and public garden professionals through the Isabella Welles Hunnewell Internship Program, a vocational opportunity that merges the Arboretum’s educational and horticultural missions.
Expanding Drought Protection for Arnold Arboretum's Plants
This summer, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University continued its ambitious and essential work to protect its living collections from the growing threat of prolonged summer droughts. With the launch of a third phase of a multi-year initiative for emergency drought mitigation, the Arboretum is advancing its commitment to sustainability and stewardship of its plant collections in response to climate change.
Celebrating Young Scientists: A Summer of Discovery and Growth at Arnold Arboretum
This summer, the Arnold Arboretum marked the successful conclusion of the fourth year of its Arboretum Young Scientists (AYS) program—a monthlong immersive experience in investigative science for middle school students from Boston Public Schools. This summer, 16 students participated as scientists-in-training, spending each day at the Arboretum engaged in scientific exploration and collaborative discovery with their peers.
Farewell to a Beloved Sentinel: The Silver Maple of Meadow Road
The plant collections stewarded at the Arnold Arboretum reflect a continuous cycle of growth, change, and renewal, where each plant contributes its own unique threads to the evolving story of the landscape. Just as the Arboretum adds scores of new plants to the collections each year, a commensurate number of plants are also removed annually, representing plants lost to old age, pests and disease, extreme weather events, or other concerns including public safety.
Preserving a Legacy of Modern Botanical Exploration at Arnold Arboretum
The historical importance of the ongoing biodiversity exploration and plant conservation work of the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) is coming into focus through a major archival project underway at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.
Washington Street Gate Entrance to Arnold Arboretum Closes for Renovations
The renovation of the Washington Street entrance at Forest Hills started this month. This project will temporarily close public access to the Blackwell Path and Bussey Brook Meadow via the Washington Street entrance from February through October of 2025. Visitors can access the Arboretum from the Forest Hills Entrance on the Arborway or a new entrance opening to pedestrian traffic at Arboretum Road in Roslindale.
Arnold Arboretum's Hunnewell Building Renovations Preserve History, Sustain Functionality
The Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum, a historic museum and administration complex constructed in 1892, stands as a testament to architectural elegance and botanical significance. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a National Historic Landmark, the building has been a cornerstone of the Arboretum’s operations and public education mission for more than a century.
Celebrating 40 Years of Field Study Experiences for School Children at Arnold Arboretum
This fall marks a significant milestone for the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University as it celebrates the fortieth anniversary of its flagship programs for children’s education, the Field Study Experiences (FSE). Since their inception in 1984, the Field Studies have been a cornerstone of local environmental education, serving more than 4,500 students annually from kindergarten through sixth grade, primarily from Boston Public Schools (BPS).
Interns Launch Explorers Garden Expansion at Arnold Arboretum
Each summer, participants in the Isabella Welles Hunnewell Internship Program at the Arnold Arboretum complete a group project in the landscape as the culmination of their training in public garden management. The challenge for 2024 interns was to interweave the distinct and historically relevant stories of the plants and history of the eastern slope of Bussey Hill. Near the summit of the hill the Arboretum’s crown jewel of plant collecting: the Explorers Garden.
ICYMI: Rare Corpse Plant Bloomed at the Arnold Arboretum
The world’s largest unbranched inflorescence —the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) or corpse plant from Sumatra in Indonesia—bloomed at the Arnold Arboretum over a 48-hour period beginning the evening of June 22. A phenomenon that may take 7 to 12 years to occur, the corpse plant inflorescence emerged 11 years after planting in the Arboretum’s research greenhouses.
December Storm Generates Loss and Renewal at Arnold Arboretum
On December 18, more than two inches of rain and wind gusts exceeding 50 miles per hour wreaked significant damage to trees in the Arnold Arboretum. Nearly 40 accessioned plants were lost across the landscape, many uprooted or—in the case of nearly a dozen hemlocks—snapped in half.
Genetic Mutation Discovered at Arnold Arboretum Gives Rise to a New Cultivar
Among the wonderful benefits of the Arnold Arboretum—where plants gathered from around the world grow side-by-side under the watchful care of staff experts—is that when something interesting or unusual happens, it typically gets noticed. Case in point is a spontaneous mutation of a single branch (or sport) of an Eastern redbud tree in the Arboretum’s collection first observed by a staff member in 2009.
Arboretum marks anniversary with tree planting at Elmwood
Adele Fleet Bacow (from left), President Larry Bacow, Conor Guidarelli, Andrew Gapinski, and William (Ned) Friedman helped plant the three trees at Elmwood.
A call for more support for Harvard humanities concentrators post-graduation
One of the more interesting observations in Mapping the Future, an assessment (released in May) of the state of the humanities—and their declining concentrator numbers—within Harvard College, was that more than half the freshmen who say they're interested in a humanities concentration when they enter end up changing their minds by the time they declare a major, halfway through sophomore year.
At Home with Harvard: Library Treasures
This round-up is part of Harvard Magazine’s series “At Home with Harvard,” a guide to what to read, watch, listen to, and do while social distancing. Read the previous selections, featuring articles about climate change, racial justice, movies and theater, and more, here. Harvard’s vast library system is a source of endless inspiration and knowledge for students, professors, alumni, and those of us at Harvard Magazine.
Harvard fall student and staff conditions
When students begin arriving in Cambridge, about three weeks hence, they will enter a community temporarily transformed by the coronavirus. The College announced on July 6 that only about 40 percent of the 6,700 undergraduates would be permitted to be in residence (first-year students, and those who cannot pursue their academic work from home)—and disclosed today that in fact only 1,632 will be on campus: about 25 percent of the student body.
Harvard University Press releases “Racism in America: A Reader”
“We wanted to make something.” Two months ago, as Sharmila Sen and her colleagues at Harvard University Press (HUP) followed the news of demonstrations spreading around the country—and around the globe—to protest racism and police brutality, she says they decided they needed to do more than simply issue a statement of solidarity. “We wanted to contribute actively in some way,” says Sen, HUP’s editorial director.
Could COVID-19 Transform U.S. Education?
Paul Reville, former Massachusetts secretary of education, now directs the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Education Redesign Lab, a research center that aims to remake public education to meet today’s inequality crisis.
First-Year International Students Won't Be Allowed on Campus This Fall
Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 | SUBSCRIBE Log-In | Register Search form Search Articles News more News Research more Research Click arrow at right to view full image gallery The U.S. Army's 24th Infantry Regiment, an African-American regiment, arriving at Camp Wikoff in Montauk, New York, 1898 Roosevelt Class No. 560.3, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library, Harvard University A Houghton Library project to digitize thousands of African-American records...
At Home with Harvard: Theater & Broadway
This round-up is part of Harvard Magazine’s series “At Home with Harvard,” a guide to what to read, watch, listen to, and do while social distancing. Read the previous selections, featuring articles about income inequality, racial justice, immigration, and more, here. In past weeks, we’ve covered Harvardians on the big screen (movies) and the small screen (television). Many alumni have found their way to the stage, too.
Harvard Top Earners | Harvard Magazine
The University’s annual tax filings covering the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, and the accompanying disclosures released today, include the earnings of the most highly compensated Harvard administrators and those at Harvard Management Company (HMC), which invests the endowment and other assets. The filings report data with a significant lag, and this year were further delayed for two months from the usual May 15 release date, reflecting the extension caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ivy League Announces No Sports in Fall
Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 | SUBSCRIBE Log-In | Register Search form Search Articles News more News From left: Lawrence S.
At Home with Harvard: Harvard in the World
This round-up is part of Harvard Magazine’s series “At Home with Harvard,” a guide to what to read, watch, listen to, and do while social distancing. Read the previous selections, featuring articles about income inequality, racial justice, immigration, and more, here. As the world became more interconnected, so did Harvard: the University is more global than ever, with students, alumni, and faculty pursuing mission-driven research and work across the planet.
Harvard College to Accommodate 40 Percent of Students Each Semester
About 40 percent of Harvard undergraduates—entering first-year students, and those who cannot learn successfully in their current home environment—will be permitted to be in residence for the fall semester, effecting a sharply de-densified experience during the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
Harvard Houghton Library 75th anniversary exhibition
Houghton Library was conceived in 1924, in a letter by Archibald Cary Coolidge, director of the Harvard University Library, who imagined an “enchanted palace on the raised ground close to Widener.” Consistent with the times, and with his very name, he envisioned the repository in elite terms: “a beautiful building…in which we store all our works of great rarity and value…[and] works dear to the book-lover, a place where we could keep what we valued most and show it to those who appreciate...
Coastal Banks Shed Risky Mortgages—Putting the Financial System at Risk
Warming oceans—and the storms and rising sea levels they bring—will have their most severe impact on the southeastern shoreline of the United States, from the Texas Gulf Coast up to the Carolina Outer Banks. Mortgage lenders in the area have taken note.
At Home with Harvard: The Immigrant Experience
This round-up is part of Harvard Magazine’s series “At Home with Harvard,” a guide to what to read, watch, listen to, and do while social distancing. Read the previous selections, featuring articles about income inequality, racial justice, Pride month, and more, here. Migration is as old as humankind, yet it’s also newly urgent and contentious across the world—and will surely be made more so by the acceleration of climate change.
College Yield Drops 3 Percent During COVID-19
Articles News more News Fall academic plans from four different New England institutions—and what Harvard faces 6.23.20 Beds were set up for Spanish flu patients outside the Harvard-affiliated Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1918. Photograph courtesy of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Archives Fall semester interrupted, a century ago 6.23.20 Research more Research Beds were set up for Spanish flu patients outside the Harvard-affiliated Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1918.
At Home with Harvard: Inequality in America
This round-up is part of Harvard Magazine’s series “At Home with Harvard,” a guide to what to read, watch, listen to, and do while social distancing. Read the previous selections, featuring articles about the climate crisis, racial justice, Pride month, and more, here. it has become widely accepted that wealth inequality in the United States has reached crisis levels.
Harvard fall plans informed by other northeastern colleges
As the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) determines how Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will operate this fall—residentially, remotely, or some mixture—three very different New England institutions have just announced their plans or detailed principles for their own decisions: Bowdoin College, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Yale.
How Harvard Handled the 1918 Flu Pandemic
On September 23, 1918, when Harvard College opened its doors for the new school year, the Spanish flu had infected hundreds of Cambridge residents. More than 3,000 local children—nearly a quarter of total school enrollment—were reported ill, and Cambridge officials, meeting the day after Harvard classes began, voted to temporarily close the city’s schools. But the University remained open and took few immediate steps to stem the influenza’s spread.
Juneteenth Is Now a University Holiday
Articles News more News The choices and challenges facing the University and the Harvard community 6.17.20 Harvard Yard Photograph by Mancala/Wikipedia The holiday “offers a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the promise of a new beginning,” University president Larry Bacow wrote.
Choices challenges facing Harvard approaching fall
As the summer solstice approaches on June 20—the sun high, with shadows sharp and short—shadows of a different kind loom over the University and its community, as a fall semester unlike any other draws nearer. People across Harvard are working furiously to envision how to operate during the pandemic, and preparing to adapt the campus, research, and teaching and learning accordingly. Already: Six professional schools have announced they will conduct teaching remotely during the fall term.
The Pandemic’s Economic Fallout
The coronavirus pandemic, which has caused U.S. GDP and employment to drop at unprecedented rates, left economists and policymakers blind at a moment of enormous strain for millions of workers, businesses, and government officials trying to cope with the crisis.
July-August 2020
Articles News more News This photograph of a Harvard University Police officer at a Boston protest against mistreatment of people of color at the hands of police was widely shared on Twitter. The officer in the photograph, and six others dispatched in response to a request for mutual aid from the Boston police department, were members of the HUPD bicycle patrol, an innovation Riley instituted in the 1990s to improve community relations.
Harvard Commencement 2020 | Harvard Magazine
There’s nothing like a global pandemic and economic meltdown to concentrate the mind and focus the joyous celebration of graduation on the very hard work at hand. And so it was with Harvard’s condensed, online University degree-conferral ceremony (“Honoring the Harvard Class of 2020”) and its diverse schools’ class days and celebrations on Thursday, May 28, as Tercentenary Theatre lay vacant (see the cover) on an occasion when 32,000 happy people would normally be present.
The Undergraduate faces life without handrails
Soon after the Harvard community was upended and scattered around the world by the COVID-19 evacuation, I called my two roommates. Pre-move-out, whenever I felt like my world was falling apart, I could always depend on returning to our room in Adams. The worn wooden floors, beautiful crown molding, and fireplace made the space look reliably ancient, like an antique heirloom passed down for generations.
Turkish-inspired Delights
Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 | SUBSCRIBE Log-In | Register Search form Search Articles News more News Fall academic plans from four different New England institutions—and what Harvard faces 6.23.20 Beds were set up for Spanish flu patients outside the Harvard-affiliated Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1918.
Massachusetts Hall at 300
Massachusetts Hall, for many people, is Harvard. It guides visitors through Johnston Gate into what is now Harvard Yard. Its compact design—pleasingly proportioned Early Georgian red brick with white trim, devoid of frills—defines the architectural idiom for much of the rest of this campus (and others). Its history anticipates the University’s, too.
Protecting the press as a foundation of democracy
When America’s Founders drafted the First Amendment, including its protection of a free press as key to self-governance, they could not foresee the twenty-first-century media landscape: Twitter and Facebook, filter bubbles that feed readers stories that reinforce their beliefs, and the shrinking number of local newspapers, now considered “legacy” media.
Profile of comedian Karen Chee
When Karen Chee ’17 was a child, her parents proved definitively that TV was bad for her. During a Jeopardy broadcast, Chee’s mother had her count how many times producers cut to different shots. Each change, her mother said, sapped one’s ability to focus. Chee counted, and the number was astounding. “I was completely convinced by the argument,” she says. In the dentist’s waiting room, she would train her gaze away from the TV, desperate to preserve brain function.
Harvard Cambridge Scholars
Articles News more News The choices and challenges facing the University and the Harvard community 6.17.20 Harvard Yard Photograph by Mancala/Wikipedia The holiday “offers a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the promise of a new beginning,” University president Larry Bacow wrote.
Harvard’s VirScan exposes viral vulnerabilities
Only immunity can bring an end to the current pandemic—whether through vaccination or the potentially deadly ordeal of infection. Unfortunately, it’s not a given that either a bout of COVID-19, or any of the experimental vaccines now in development, will confer long-lasting immunity. The human immune system’s response, even to a pathogen it recognizes, can range from toothless to deadly overreaction—and this coronavirus may be able to manipulate that response.
Greater Boston’s Season of “Social Trust”
In late May, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health assistant professor Joseph Allen put it bluntly: “This is going to be a very different summer.” Even as many parks and preserves that closed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic began reopening this spring, visitor access came with strict protocols designed not only to prevent viral spreading, but also to protect natural areas from damage caused by overcrowding.
The View from Mass Hall
When people who are steeped in our institutional history hear the word “unprecedented,” they are understandably skeptical. There isn’t much that hasn’t happened at the University at one point or another over the past 383 years, and our Class of 2020 is not the first group of graduates unsettled by crisis. Had this year progressed in the usual way, I would have just welcomed back to Harvard Yard the members of our fiftieth reunion class.
Dr. Fauci, social distance, and a campus without people
Existential Q&A. A novel situation, like a pandemic, raises novel questions. For one, is an impeccable university campus still beautiful if no one is around to see it? In search of an answer, Primus walked across Harvard Yard early on March 24, shortly before the Massachusetts order shutting nonessential businesses took effect. In the gray light, the bubbly yellow flowers of Cornus mas (cornelian cherry) showed to particular effect.
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