Requests

Reference

The Harvard Plate Stacks provides reference and research support for scholars, students, artists, educators, and members of the public.

Please submit your inquiry via our departmental email: HarvardPlateStacks@cfa.harvard.edu. We aim to acknowledge most reference requests within 5–7 business days. However, the time required to complete a request will vary depending on staff capacity, the complexity of the inquiry, and the condition and location of the materials.

If you have not heard back from us after a week, you are welcome to follow up on your original message.

Access to Archival Materials

Before planning an in-person visit, please review our Collections Access Policy and Ways to Visit for information, which describe how to schedule a research appointment and what to expect when working with the collection.

Please note that the archival materials of Project PHaEDRA are stored in an off-site archival facility. These materials have been fully digitized and made available on free online platforms. Because of the off-site storage and the fragility and uniqueness of the originals, in-person consultation of PHaEDRA archival materials is limited and requires curatorial approval.

Imaging Rights and Permissions

The Harvard Plate Stacks follows the Harvard Library Policy on Access to Digital Reproductions of Works in the Public Domain. In line with that policy, we provide free use of openly available digital reproductions of items in the Harvard Plate Stacks collection when the underlying works are in the public domain. The Harvard Plates Stacks similarly supports fair use of its digitized reproductions that are not in the public domain when all applicable legal criteria are met. Since we provide this open access, we do not charge permission or usage fees for such reproductions, and we do not issue licenses or grant or deny permission to publish, reproduce, or otherwise distribute them. 

As a matter of good scholarly practice, we kindly request that you include an appropriate credit line to the Harvard Plate Stacks, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian when you use our images, but no additional permission from us is required. Visit our recommended citation and credit guide for specific examples. 

The Harvard Plate Stacks keeps various bibliographies and records related to the use and discussion of our materials and histories. You are more than welcome to share any forthcoming publications or uses with us by contacting us.

New Digitization and Large Data Request

For undigitized materials or requests for new photography, there may be costs associated with creating or processing new images, depending on the size, format, and condition of the original object and the staff time required to fulfill the request.

Similarly, to ensure equitable access and to protect the reliability and performance of our digital services and databases, we actively monitor automated activity and may impose rate limits or temporarily restrict high-volume harvesting, crawling, or bulk downloading of images and data. If a request results in substantial direct costs—such as storage retrieval or outbound data transfer from our cloud infrastructure—we may ask the requester to cover those costs and/or to use an approved bulk-delivery method. Researchers and organizations planning large-scale data use, including computational analysis or machine-learning/AI workflows, should consult our StarGlass API information or contact us in advance to discuss scope, technical options, and any applicable terms.

Exhibitions and Loans

The Harvard Plate Stacks is eager to share our collections and stories with a broad public through collaborative exhibitions and loans.

Our collections are non-circulating, and any loan of original materials requires an individualized loan agreement and careful review of conditions, including security, environmental parameters, display duration, lighting levels, and insurance, as is standard practice in museums and special collections repositories.

To begin a conversation about potential loans or an exhibition partnership, please email us or contact the curator directly. We encourage prospective borrowing institutions to reach out as early as possible, since loan review, conservation assessment, and shipping arrangements can require significant lead time. The Harvard Plate Stacks does not have a registrar and loans will likely require the use of contracted conservators.

Working together with conservators at Harvard Library’s Weissman Preservation Center, the Harvard Plate Stacks has developed display guidelines for glass plate negatives. These guidelines help us balance preservation needs with interpretive impact. Because of the sensitivity of glass plates to light, handling, and changes in the environment:

• Most exhibitions will require the use of facsimiles or high-quality reproductions. Note that the fugitive nature of the inks and pigments used in historical annotations, their light sensitivity, keeps annotated glass plates from being on display or loaned.
• In rare cases—when the interpretive value is high, and resources allow—we may consider the display of original plates, provided that environmental, security, and exhibition standards can be met.

We are enthusiastic about collaborating with borrowing institutions, curators, and designers to find solutions that both protect the objects and make their histories and scientific significance accessible to the widest possible audience.