Harvard University

• • Harvard University**, founded in 1636 and named in 1639 for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Though its primary campus lies in neighboring Cambridge, Harvard maintains a powerful and enduring presence across the Boston metropolitan area, with major campuses in the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston itself. By the 19th century, Harvard had emerged as the most prominent academic and cultural institution among the Boston elite. Today, Harvard is one of the most internationally recognized universities in the world and remains a central pillar of Boston's identity as a global center of education, medicine, and research.

Founding and Early History

In 1636, the first college in the American colonies was founded when the "Great and General Court of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England" approved £400 for the establishment of "a schoale or colledge" that would later be called Harvard. Harvard's history began when a college was established at Newtowne in 1636, which was later renamed Cambridge for the English alma mater of some of the leading colonists. Classes began in the summer of 1638 with one master in a single frame house and a "college yard."

Harvard was established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636 as a Puritanical institution dedicated to training young men for the ministry. The Charter of 1650, which continues to govern Harvard, pledges the University to "the education of English and Indian youth." Reflecting this commitment, from 1655 to 1698, the "Indian College" stood in Harvard Yard, on the site currently occupied by Matthews Hall.

Harvard gets its name from its first benefactor, a minister from Charlestown named John Harvard, who gave half his estate, as well as his library, to the school upon his death in 1638. While never formally affiliated with any Protestant denomination, Harvard trained Congregational clergy until its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized in the 18th century.

In the late 18th century, as Harvard began granting graduate and doctorate-level degrees, it began to be called Harvard University, with Harvard College referring exclusively to its undergraduate program. The university's historically influential schools include its schools of medicine (1782), law (1817), business (1908), and Graduate Arts and Sciences (1890).

Growth and Transformation in the 19th Century

Following the American Civil War, under Harvard president Charles William Eliot's long tenure from 1869 to 1909, Harvard developed multiple professional schools, which transformed it into a modern research university. During his long tenure as Harvard's president (1869–1909), Charles W. Eliot made Harvard into an institution with national influence.

In 1870, one year into Eliot's term, Richard Theodore Greener became the first African-American to graduate from Harvard College. Seven years later, Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish justice on the Supreme Court, graduated from Harvard Law School.

The incentive for getting a child into Harvard was enormous. By the 1870s, two-fifths of the heads of large New England textile firms and half the directors of Boston's biggest banks and insurance companies were Harvard men. By 1870, the politicians and ministers that heretofore had made up the university's board of overseers had been replaced by Harvard alumni drawn from Boston's upper-class business and professional community and funded by private endowment.

Harvard Medical School, the third-oldest medical school in the United States, was founded in 1782 as Massachusetts Medical College by John Warren, Benjamin Waterhouse, and Aaron Dexter. In 1810, Harvard Medical School relocated across the Charles River from Cambridge to Boston. The medical school moved to its current location on Longwood Avenue in 1906, where the "Great White Quadrangle" or HMS Quad with its five white marble buildings was established.

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first graduate training program in population health, which was founded in 1913 and then became the Harvard School of Public Health in 1922. The school was part of Harvard Medical School until 1946, when it became a fully autonomous institution with its own dedicated public health and medical faculty.

Campus and Presence in Boston

The 209-acre main campus of Harvard University is centered on Harvard Yard, colloquially known as "the Yard," in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about three miles west-northwest of downtown Boston. However, Harvard's footprint extends significantly into Boston proper through two additional campuses.

Harvard Business School, Harvard Innovation Labs, and many athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located on a 358-acre campus in the Allston section of Boston across the John W. Weeks Bridge, which crosses the Charles River and connects the Allston and Cambridge campuses. The university is actively expanding into Allston, where it now owns more land than in Cambridge. In 2021, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences expanded into the new Allston-based Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), which is more than 500,000 square feet in size.

The university's schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Public Health are located on a 21-acre campus in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, about 3.3 miles south of the Cambridge campus. Several Harvard-affiliated hospitals and research institutes are also in Longwood, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Joslin Diabetes Center, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Additional affiliates, including Massachusetts General Hospital, are located throughout Greater Boston.

The Yard houses several Harvard buildings, including four of the university's libraries. Also on Harvard Yard are Massachusetts Hall, built between 1718 and 1720 and the university's oldest still-standing building, Memorial Church, and University Hall.

Cambridge is part of Boston's comprehensive public transportation system (the MBTA). With buses and a subway stop right at the center of Harvard Square, students and visitors can easily access the campus. Downtown Boston is only a 15-minute ride from campus.

Academic Profile and Notable Alumni

Harvard College is just one of 14 Harvard Schools. The College is for undergraduate students and the 13 graduate and professional schools teach the rest of the university's students. Harvard's total enrollment in the early 21st century is about 25,000.

Harvard's endowment, valued at $53.2 billion, makes it the wealthiest academic institution in the world. Harvard Library, with more than 20 million volumes, is the world's largest academic library. The oldest library system in the United States, Harvard Libraries support students and the public with vast archives and cutting-edge technologies.

For Harvard College, home to Harvard's undergraduate degrees, the typical graduation rate is 98%, placing it among the highest in the country. Harvard offers generous need-based funding to admitted students; over half (55%) of students receive financial aid in the form of scholarships and grants, and one in five students pay nothing.

By the end of the first decade of the 21st century Harvard had educated eight U.S. presidents—John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Harvard alumni, faculty, and researchers also include 188 living billionaires, 24 heads of state and 31 heads of government, founders of notable companies, Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, members of Congress, MacArthur Fellows, and Rhodes Scholars. Notable alumni also include W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry David Thoreau, Gertrude Stein, Leonard Bernstein, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Fifteen scientists have won the Nobel Prize for work done at the Medical School alone.

Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery

In recent decades, Harvard has undertaken a formal reckoning with its institutional ties to slavery. On April 26, 2022, Harvard President Larry Bacow released the Report of the Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, accepted the committee's recommendations in full, and announced a historic commitment of $100 million to fund their implementation.

Harvard has also worked to acknowledge the land on which it was built. Harvard University is located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Massachusett, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. Harvard pays respect to the people of the Massachusett Tribe, past and present, and honors the land itself which remains sacred to the Massachusett People.

In 1918, Alice Hamilton became the first woman to be appointed to Harvard's faculty. While women weren't taught at Harvard until 1879, they have always been a part of the University.