What is Houghton Library's permissions policy?
The vast majority of Houghton material is either in the public domain or under copyrights not controlled by Houghton Library.
Houghton Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of most collection material (a few exceptions are listed below), nor does it charge permission or use fees. Permission, however, may be needed from other copyright holders or executors.
When to Contact Us
Please notify the library if you plan to publish facsimile editions of Houghton materials, and for articles, editorial projects, biographical and critical works that incorporate a substantial portion of a manuscript and/or collection. The library may wish to receive a copy of such works for its records.
Researchers must notify the library when publishing images of or quoting from the collections listed below. The list includes the major collections for which these conditions apply, but it’s not exhaustive. Please email the library with any questions.
- American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM)
- American Repertory Theatre
- Thomas Bouchard
- Emily Dickinson
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Bernie Gardella
- Joseph Clark Grew
- Iranian Oral History Project
- Sally Jacobs
- Alix Jeffry
- Frederick Kiesler
- John Lindquist
- Amy Lowell
- Angus McBean
- L.E. Sissman
- Andrei Sakharov Archives
- Arks Smith
- Tobi Tobias
- Gore Vidal
- Thomas Wolfe*
*There can be no reproduction or publication of material in these collections without advance permission from the copyright holder.
Any requests to write up or publish T. S. Eliot’s material must be cleared through Faber’s Permissions Department: www.faberpermissions.com.
For material protected by copyright, certain uses (including but not limited to quoting, publishing, performing, and reproducing) may require permission from the copyright holder. When required, it’s the researcher’s responsibility to obtain such permissions.
The following resources may be helpful in this regard:
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States, published by the Cornell University Copyright Information Center, can help researchers to determine if a work is in the public domain.
- Harvard University's Office of Scholarly Communications Fair Use Guide explains fair use and gives advice on determining if your use of a copyrighted item falls under the fair use statue.
Several online resources can be useful in finding the current copyright holder of a work, and requesting licensing permission:
- The WATCH File (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders) maintained by the Harry Ransom Center and the University of Reading is a database of copyright contacts for writers, artists, and prominent figures in other creative fields.
- Artists Rights Society is a copyright, licensing and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States.
- DACS is a visual artists’ rights management organization in the United Kingdom.
- The ADAGP is a French collective which monitors copyright in the visual arts.
- ASCAP and BMI are performing rights organizations which license and collect royalties for musical works.
Citations
Houghton Library asks that researchers cite all material referenced, quoted, or reproduced with the following citation format:
[Call number]. Houghton Library, Harvard University.
For example, a photograph reproduced from the Henry James papers would be cited as: MS Am 1094 (2245). Houghton Library, Harvard University.