The year in photos

December 19, 2023 5 min read

Part of the Photography series

Harvard’s campus and community through the lens of our photographers.

Academic and athletic highs, dramatic scenes on- and offstage, quiet moments, a changing of the presidential guard. The year 2023 added its imprint to the long Crimson line.

Postdoc William Allen performs research with lasers in the lab of Xiaowei Zhuang.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

During the 2023 Wintersession, 12 students build a Japanese river skiff in an apprenticeship-style “silent” workshop. Sachiko Kirby ’26 closely examines the boat edge for straightness as she uses the plane tool.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Lauren Chen ’24 (left) and Minjue Wu ’22 create charcoal drawings during a portraiture class.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Chilly crowds join the Parade for Hasty Pudding 2023 Woman of the Year Jennifer Coolidge.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Alexander Yang (from left), Katherine Marguerite, and Leen Al Kassab receive their residency assignments during Match Day at Harvard Medical School.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard Climbing Club members socialize before getting in a workout.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

The Harvard Foundation hosts the 37th Annual Cultural Rhythms celebrating 2023 Artist of the Year Issa Rae, flanked by Alta Mauro (left) and Sade Abraham (right). Devon Gates performs during the show.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Devon Gates performs during the show.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Students strut during Eleganza, an annual fashion and talent show put on at the Bright-Landry Center.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Poetry of the past and present intermingle. Harvard student poet Mia Word ’24 stands for a portrait outside Longfellow House on Brattle Street. She selected the location because of its connection to Phyllis Wheatley, the first African American published poet.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Government concentrator Quinn Lewis ’23 represents a new generation of graduates focused on climate solutions.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

A model poses wearing “Water of Life” during the Marine Debris Fashion Show.

Photo by Scott Eisen

Chloë LeStage ’23 is an undergraduate who trained to become a doula during a COVID gap year and is dedicating her thesis to doulas in prison.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Henry Cerbone ’23 is blending studies of animals, philosophy, engineering, and robotics to understand how robotics can learn from biology and biology can, perhaps, be helped by robotics.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

A late afternoon sun creates distinctive shadows on the Carpenter Center.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Kelly Jenkins carries a large photo of her daughter Shea Jenkins ‘23, captain of the women’s lacrosse team, across the street on her way to Commencement Exercises 2023.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard College Baccalaureate Service takes place in Tercentenary Theatre. Rakesh Khurana (from left), Larry Bacow, and Matthew Potts process to the event.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard Commencement Exercises in Tercentenary Theatre. Katalin Karikó (left) and Tom Hanks are pictured as Hanks’ name is read as the “winner.”

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

As part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing initiative, Goat Yoga on the QUAD is offered to Harvard Medical School students. Miriam Zawadzki (left) and Carla Winter, both M.D./Ph.D. students at HMS, react as goats join their poses.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

People with umbrellas pass beneath trees outside the courtyard of the Harvard Museum of Natural History on a rainy day.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

The columns of Austin Hall are reflected in the entrance to the building at Harvard Law School.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Patrice Higonnet, Robert Walton Goelet Research Professor of French History, Emeritus, walks past the murals inside the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Little Amal is the 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child at the heart of The Walk. Over the last year she has become a global symbol of human rights, especially those of refugees.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Anhphu Nguyen ‘25 shows a monocle inside the Harvard Science and Engineering Complex (SEC). Nguyen studies specialize in human-computer interaction.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

The Physics of Sports, taught by Kelly Miller, applies the laws of physics to understand the world of athletics. Students use motion trackers and sensors to analyze motion in its dynamical and kinematic aspects.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Students and faculty participate in conversation in the garden at the Center for Government and International Studies.

Photo by Dylan Goodman

Inauguration Arts Prelude features a performance by the Asian American Dance Troupe in Sanders Theatre.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard President Claudine Gay visits Harvard Archives to see the presidential insignia that will play an important ceremonial part of her Inauguration. Gay is pictured with the Harvard Charter of 1650.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

View of the procession into Tercentenary Theatre for the Inauguration Ceremony of Harvard President Gay.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard Professor Claudia Goldin is named the winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023. Goldin (pictured) speaks during a press conference.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Cross-country star Graham Blanks.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Ice T (right) speaks about the United Nations graphic in the Day One DNA: 50 Years in HipHop Culture exhibit at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.

Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer

President Gay met with staff, faculty, and students during a visit to the Business School in November.

Photo courtesy of Harvard Business School

Ryan Adams ’26 (left) and Max Bowman ’26 share a conversation on the rocks outside the Science Center.

Photo by Dylan Goodman

Students await the German National soccer team in Widener Library during their tour of the campus.

Photo by Dylan Goodman

Harvard President Claudine Gay comforts an attendee at an interfaith vigil held this month on the steps of Memorial Church to grieve for victims of the violence in Israel and Gaza.

Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer

The tower of Eliot House is pictured along the Charles River as rowers pass the Weeks Footbridge.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Pierce Hall pictured at sunset.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Vanessa Valverde ’27, pictured in front of Memorial Hall, is a female veteran who served in the U.S. Marines.

Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer

Overview shows the renovated roof of Sanders Theatre at Memorial Hall as below people cross the street.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer