With an on-site population of nearly 70 and miles of pathway and sidewalk, it takes a gargantuan effort to maintain safe walkways.

For the safety of staff and visitors, the Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks are closed until further notice. Keep an eye out on our website and social media for further closure updates.

Due to this weekend's inclement weather, the Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks are closed on Saturday, January 24, and Sunday, January 25. Stay tuned to our website and social media platforms for further weather closure updates. Until then, stay safe and warm! ☃️

Due to this weekend’s weather conditions and travel issues, the concerts featuring Maeve Gilchrist and Layale Chaker have been postponed until further notice. Individual ticketholders will be contacted about ticket options.

MEXICO-TENOCHTITLAN is a “richly illustrated volume . . . [and] a valuable addition to Teotihuacan literature.” Read the review: https://www.thearchcons.org/current-issue-book-reviews/

In just five days, the Music Room will host the wonderful Layale Chaker and Maeve Gilchrist performing “Smoke Veins”, a suite drawn from Celtic and Levantine traditions.

February 23 is the deadline to apply for Introduction to Ge’ez, a #language and #paleography course held from July 5–August 1, 2026, at HMML in Collegeville, Minnesota. Course fees, meals, and lodging are generously sponsored by @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social#language#paleography Apply today: hmml.org/programs/intro-ge-ez

Khipus are a complex information system that use knotted, colored, and twisted cords to record and convey information. Last November, a group of stellar graduate students was able to closely observe the Dumbarton Oaks khipu collection during our 2025 Graduate Student Museum Study Day.

Wondering how the humanities can support careers in STEM? Meet Michael Kennedy-Yoon! Following his time at Dumbarton Oaks as an Early Career Fellow, Michael pursued a career in medicine.

"Some flavors whisper of home, speaking a language rooted in place and memory. For those living in the Levant, the slightly bitter and spicy notes of za’atar have been a symbol of heritage, culture, and resilience for centuries."

Attention Harvard College seniors and recent alumni! Applications to Dumbarton Oaks' Early Career Fellowships are due on Sunday, February 1.

Happy Apple Tree Day! Have you seen our apple trees in the Gardens? In the spring, these beautiful flowers bloom, giving way to apple fruits in the summer months.

"I cannot help myself from drawing connections to Dumbarton Oaks in everything I read." Kyle Mandell, a 2025-2026 Post-Baccalaureate Fellow, shares how Dumbarton Oaks inspires his reading list in the latest Oaks News, "Building My Own Collection: Reading in the Milieu of Dumbarton Oaks."

As the year comes to a close, check out some of Dumbarton Oaks’ highlights in our 2025 Wrapped! Thank you for an incredible year and see you in 2026!

Happy holidays! Enjoy 30% off all our books through Dec. 31 with the code HOL25 at checkout. Get yours today: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/partners/dumbarton-oaks-research-library-and-collection?page=1 https://www.hup.harvard.edu/series/dumbarton-oaks-medieval-library Harvard University Press

Kick off the new year with new music!

For anyone researching fifteenth-century Spain, especially the reign of Juan II of Castile (1406–1454), [THE LABYRINTH OF FORTUNE] is an essential resource.” Read the review: https://www.medievalists.net/2025/11/new-medieval-books-the-labyrinth-of-fortune/

Dumbarton Oaks is proudly sponsoring two intensive language courses in Introductory Ge'ez and Classical Armenian, in partnership with the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.

Calling all scholars working in Turkey on Byzantine, Armenian, Georgian, and Syriac Studies! Apply now for a virtual, four-session program focused on professional development.

The Plant Humanities Initiative at Dumbarton Oaks invites applications for two-week virtual faculty residencies in June 2026, concentrating on topics at the intersection of East Asia Studies and Plant Humanities.

Applications are open for the 2026 Plant Humanities Summer Program! This program is a collaboration between the DO Plant Humanities Initiative and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Participants will engage in two weeks of virtual instruction followed by two weeks in-person at Oak Spring.

Due to inclement weather, the Gardens are closed today, Friday, December 5. But the Museum is warm and open! We look forward to welcoming visitors to the Gardens again tomorrow, Saturday, December 6, unless additional closure guidance is shared. Keep an eye out on social media and our website!

Winter season at Dumbarton Oaks begins on Tuesday, December 2. Admission to the Gardens is free, but tickets must be reserved in advance via Eventbrite.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving baking, have you heard of the tonka bean? Often compared to vanilla, it is a central ingredient in many recipes around the world... Except in the United States, where it is actually banned by the Food and Drug Administration!

Join us on Sunday, December 7 and Monday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. to hear our Fall 2025 Musician-in-Residence Phillip Golub perform original compositions alongside unique re-imaginings of familiar melodies. Tickets: www.doaks.org/events/music...

In observance of Thanksgiving, the Museums and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks are closed on Thursday, November 27. We look forward to welcoming visitors again on Friday, November 28. Find more information about hours and tickets at our #LinkInBio under "Plan Your Visit to DO."

There would be no silk without silkworms, and no silkworms without the mulberry tree!

Our three newest Medieval Library vols. are out now: THE MENOLOGION OF BASIL II, THE WORKS OF HROTSVIT OF GANDERSHEIM, and vol. 1 of THE OLD ENGLISH CHRONICLE!

In observance of Veterans' Day, the Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks will be closed on Tuesday, November 11. We look forward to welcoming visitors again on Wednesday, November 12. Plan your visit to Dumbarton Oaks at www.doaks.org/visit/plan.

Join us on Thursday, November 20, at 6:00 p.m. to hear from Brian S. Bauer, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago, speaking on the mummification practices of the Inca and the journey of five royal mummies from Cusco to Lima.

Up next in our Music At Dumbarton Oaks Concert Series, we welcome father-son duo Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane!

In the spirit of Halloween, meet Graylin and Giorgia, two Dumbarton Oaks fellows who participate in the Death Working Group—an informal group of DO scholars whose research tackles the topic of death. What places in Dumbarton Oaks do you find the spookiest? vimeo.com/1132248701

In observance of United Nations Day, did you know some of the first conversations behind the creation of the UN were hosted at Dumbarton Oaks? Find out more about this history at https://www.doaks.org/about/history/dumbarton-oaks-conversations. Image source: US National Archives

"Gulmohar" is a popular name for restaurants, resorts, boutiques, songs, and even an award-winning 2023 Indian melodrama. But how did this tree become such an important symbol in Indian culture?

Less than two weeks left before the deadline!

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Mary Cunningham, well-known among Byzantinists for her wide-ranging studies of the Virgin Mary and other topics in medieval Christianity.

Join us on Wednesday, November 12, for a talk by Professor Meredith McKittrick on the landscapes of white supremacy. Register at www.doaks.org/events/garden-and-landscape-studies/public-lectures/landscapes-of-white-supremacy-water-aridity-and-racial-domination-in-twentieth-century-southern-africa.

Read Jonathan Wilcox's (The Medieval Review) new review of The Old English Catholic Homilies: The First Series, by Ælfric,Edited and translated by Roy M. Liuzza: https://domedieval.org/review-the-old-english-catholic-homilies-the-first-series/

Join us on Thursday, October 23, for a public lecture by Maximilien Durand, director of the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art at the Musée du Louvre. Registration is free but required. Learn more about the event and register at www.doaks.org/events/byzan...

Calling all Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, Plant Humanities, and Garden and Landscape scholars! Fellowship and Grant applications for the 2026-2027 academic cycle are due by Saturday, November 1, 2025.   Learn more about DO's Fellowships and Grants and apply today at www.doaks.org/research/fel....

Dumbarton Oaks proudly supports the 2026 Byzantine Studies Prize by The Medieval Academy of America, awarding $1,000 to a meritorious monograph in Byzantine Studies. The deadline for nominations is Wednesday, October 15, 2025. www.medievalacademy.org/page/Byzanti...

The Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks will remain open through the federal government shutdown. We look forward to welcoming visitors during our usual public hours.

MEDICAL WRITINGS is a “valuable addition” to DOML, “one that will be of interest not only to those specializing in medieval English medicine, but also to a broader readership.” Read the review: domedieval.org/books/medica...

Congratulations to Thaisa Way, Director of Garden and Landscape Studies, on receiving a Special Commendation by the jury of the J.B. Jackson Prize at the University of Virginia's Center for Cultural Landscapes. Read the full announcement at www.arch.virginia.edu/news/center-....

Presenting our 2025-2026 Fellows! Over the next year, they will advance scholarship in the areas of Pre-Columbian, Byzantine, Plant Humanities, Music, and Garden and Landscape studies. Meet our fellows and their research projects at www.doaks.org/about/people....

The Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, September 16. Daily tickets will not be sold and season passes will not be honored. We look forward to welcoming visitors again on Wednesday, September 17.

BOOK OF THE DEAD is officially out! The second book in our Texts from the Early Americas series is the first transcription and translation of a Nahuatl-language death registry maintained by the Indigenous people of Huexotzinco, Mexico (1619–1640). Get your copy: www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...

Just published: SACRALIZING VIOLENCE IN BYZANTIUM! [Image caption: Plate with the Battle of David and Goliath, Byzantine, 629–630. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.]

🧵(1) This month, 10 students from around the world gathered at HMML in Collegeville, Minnesota, to learn Classical Armenian language and paleography. 

 Thanks to @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social and the Zohrab Information Center, Eastern Diocese, for sponsoring the course!

We’re thrilled to announce that vol. 1 of MEDICAL WRITINGS FROM EARLY MEDIEVAL ENGLAND has won the 2025 International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England Award for Best Translation or Edition! Thank you @isseme2025.bsky.social! For this year’s awardees: isseme.org/2025/07/15/i...