HARVARD UNIVERSITY

HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Puritans so dreaded an uneducated ministry that in 1636, only six years after the founding of Massachusetts Bay, the colony's General Court voted money "towards a schoale or colledge." Named after the Reverend John Harvard, a private benefactor, Harvard College opened in 1638 in a house inside a cattle yard donated by the town of Cambridge, and in 1642, it graduated the first class of nine men. In 1650, the legislature granted an official charter providing for governance by a small, self-perpetuating corporation and a larger board of overseers to be chosen by the magistrates; half were to be ministers.

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

The college's charge was "the education of youth in all manner of good literature Artes and sciences." This meant four years of grammar, rhetoric, logic, ethics, natural science, metaphysics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and history as well as Latin, Greek, and (for interpreting the Old Testament) Hebrew. Prospective ministers, the majority of Harvard's graduates for several generations, studied theology for an additional three years. But the established Congregational Church seldom interfered in either curriculum or training.

Following the English (rather than the European) model, students lived in dormitory rooms and ate meals with tutors at "commons." The tutors, ill-paid and often no older than the students, answered to the president of the college, who also taught. Henry Dunster was a formidable early president (1640–1654), as was Increase Mather (1685–1701), a famous Boston divine. Order was a chronic problem. Harvard students, many of whose families paid their tuition with farm produce, consumed much "beef, bread, and beer" and fathers frequently had to pay for broken windows. During a somnolent eighteenth century, posted student social rankings were a chief preoccupation.

Major Changes and Enhanced Independence

Under the presidencies of John T. Kirkland (1810–1828) and especially Josiah Quincy (1829–1845), Harvard—now with a medical college (1782) and law school (1817)—erected new buildings, established permanent professor-ships, and increased its enrollments. Fewer boys came from the New England hinterlands, and more from Boston's economic and cultural elite, grown rich from commerce, finance, and manufacturing. Scions of the plantation South arrived. By the time of the Civil War, faculty were better paid, even affluent, mixing easily with Boston society. Ministers were increasingly rare and serious researchers and men of letters more common, as in, for example, the fields of criticism (James Russell Lowell), chemistry (Josiah Cooke), geology (Louis Agassiz), and economics (Francis Bowen). President James Walker (1853–1860) remarked, "Now a professor is as much a layman as a lawyer or a physician is." Instruction itself grew more secular; only 10 percent of antebellum Harvard graduates became ministers, a startlingly low figure for nineteenth-century America.

At midcentury, Harvard—still state chartered and partially state funded—faced two challenges: one from religious conservatives opposed to the university's religious liberalism, and another from political liberals opposed to its exclusiveness and its hostility to abolitionism. In response, the institution moved to insulate itself from political interference by severing its relation to the state government, forgoing funds but jettisoning politically appointed overseers. The corporation and president dealt with a lesser challenge—this from faculty demanding greater control—by firmly grasping (as a professor put it) "the money, the keys, and the power."

The Regimes of Charles W. Eliot and A. Lawrence Lowell

Charles W. Eliot's presidency (1869–1909) witnessed further change. Student numbers rose to fifteen hundred. Students from the defeated South largely disappeared, to be replaced by representatives of the new economic power centers, New York City in particular. Raised in privilege, students led "gilded" lives at Harvard, immersed in clubs, sports, and society and earning "gentlemen's Cs." Private gifts, from wealthy alumni and others, increased dramatically. President Eliot, trained in chemistry, introduced an elective system that relaxed the traditional college curriculum. But the most profound innovation came when Eliot laid the foundations of the graduate school in 1872. The stress on advanced instruction and research produced unrivaled departments of history (Henry Adams, Edward Channing), philosophy (Josiah Royce, William James), fine arts (Charles Eliot Norton), and English (George Lyman Kittredge), among many others. Eliot strengthened the law and medical schools and established a professional school of business administration. By the end of Eliot's term, Harvard, with its illustrious alumni, lavish patronage, national reach, and distinguished faculty, was the premier institution of higher education in the country, a position it has largely maintained.

President A. Lawrence Lowell (1909–1933), a political scientist, established new professional schools (public health, engineering) but elsewhere modified Eliot's legacy. Focusing anew on undergraduates, Lowell introduced major fields, the tutorial system, and the house plan, which lodged the three upper classes with tutors in residential units, partly as a way to undermine the influence of the Harvard clubs. Lowell's defense of the right of students and faculty to dissent—to oppose U.S. entry into World War I or be prolabor—led to tension with the corporation but enhanced Harvard's reputation for academic integrity. Lowell tolerated new ethnic groups, making Harvard perhaps the most tolerant of American universities. Yet he also helped impose a quota on the admission of Jewish students, fearing that they would crowd out Protestant applicants and develop "inappropriate ethnic consciousness."

Research Science, Student Radicalism, and an Enlarged Endowment

The presidencies of the chemist James B. Conant (1933–1953) and the classicist Nathan Pusey (1953–1971) marked a deemphasis on undergraduates and a dramatic shift in resources toward research science at the expense of the traditional liberal arts. Harvard became a chief recipient of federal research grants during World War II and the Cold War, which triggered the appointment of top researchers in key scientific and engineering fields and the construction of substantial new facilities for them. As of 1967, Harvard had trained 16 percent of Nobel Prize winners, more than any other university. By 1971, total enrollments were 40,000 and the operating budget was $200 million.

The struggle to maintain high academic standards while addressing radical activist demands and the needs of a suffering Cambridge consumed much of the administration of President Derek Bok (1971–1991), a lawyer who expanded Harvard's global presence and applicant pool. His successor, Neil Rudenstine (1991–2001), concentrated on increasing the university's endowment, which rose from $1.3 billion in the early 1970s to over $15 billion by the end of the century. This made Harvard the wealthiest university in the United States by a substantial margin, which prompted criticism of its high yearly tuition ($35,000) and low pay rates for janitorial and other staff. Lawrence Summers, an economist and former secretary of the Treasury, was appointed Harvard's twenty-seventh president in 2001.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hawkins, Hugh. Between Harvard and America: The Educational Leadership of Charles W. Eliot. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Hershberg, James. James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age. New York: Knopf, 1993.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936.

Story, Ronald. The Forging of an Aristocracy: Harvard and the Boston Upper Class, 1900–1970. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1980.

Yeomans, Henry A. Abbott Lawrence Lowell, 1856–1943. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1948.

RonaldStory

See alsoEducation, Higher: Colleges and Universities, Denominational Colleges, Women's Colleges ; Ivy League ; Law Schools ; Medical Education ; Science Education .

Harvard University mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college.

Harvard College

Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638 it was named for John Harvard , its first benefactor. During the 1640s the college expanded despite inadequate finances, and in 1650 it was incorporated and chartered by the General Court. Intended to be an institution for the education of Puritan ministers, it grew to be an institution of general education, and new and more liberal subjects and policies were introduced.

In the 18th cent., particularly under John Leverett (1708–24), enrollment and campus facilities increased and the religious attachment to Congregationalism declined. Systematic theological instruction was inaugurated in 1721 with the establishment of a professorship of divinity, and by 1827, with the opening of Divinity Hall, Harvard became a nucleus of theological teaching in New England. In its early years the college was largely supported by the colony and the New England community as a whole, but support soon came in the form of gifts, and in 1823 the last state grant was received. Under Charles W. Eliot , the college became a great modern university. Its physical plant and curriculum were expanded, the graduate school was established, and the law and medical schools were reorganized. Eliot is also noted for his introduction of the elective system at Harvard.

Radcliffe, Graduate Schools, and Other Facilities

From two distinct schools, Radcliffe College for women (est. 1879, chartered 1894) and Harvard evolved in the 1970s into coordinate colleges with shared facilities and professors; all degrees were granted by Harvard. In 1999, Radcliffe officially merged with Harvard College, which became a coeducational undergraduate institution. At the same time the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard was established. The university also has graduate schools of divinity (1816), law (1817), arts and sciences (1872), education (1920), business (1908), and design (1936). Harvard also has schools of medicine (1782), public health (1922), and dental medicine (1941). The school of public administration (1936) was reorganized as the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1966.

Harvard's original library was founded in 1638 with a bequest of 400 books from John Harvard . By the early 21st cent., the university had more than 80 libraries with numerous special divisions. Its main branch is the Harry E. Widener Memorial Library (1915). The largest university collection in the world, the libraries house more than 15 million volumes as well as papers, manuscripts, incunabula , prints, digital resources, and other materials. Among the university's many museums are the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Fogg, Sackler, and Busch-Reisinger museums of art. Harvard is closely associated with numerous research facilities, including the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Arnold Arboretum, Harvard Forest, a center for Byzantine studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., and a center for Italian renaissance studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy.

Bibliography

See histories by S. E. Morison (1936) and E. J. Kahn (1969).

Harvard University, first North American institution of higher learning, founded (1636) at Newe Towne (Cambridge) under a grant of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Three years later, the college was named for John Harvard (1607–38), a colonist who bequeathed half his estate (£780) and his library of more than 400 volumes to the new institution. In its early years, the college was closely allied with church and state, but in the mid‐19th century this alliance was completely severed, the clergy no longer being formally represented on the board of overseers, which is elected by the alumni rather than the legislature. Harvard Divinity School (founded 1819) was originally a stronghold of Unitarianism, but has later been a nonsectarian graduate school of theology. Other prominent schools are those of medicine (founded 1782), law (founded 1817), Lawrence Scientific School (1847–1907, now the school of engineering), and business administration (founded 1908). Among the notable institutions within the university are the Agassiz museum of comparative zoology, Peabody museum of archaeology, Fogg art museum, Arnold arboretum, and Widener Memorial Library, the largest university library in the U.S. Famous presidents of Harvard include Increase Mather (1685–1701); Josiah Quincy (1829–45); Edward Everett (1846–49); Jared Sparks (1849–53); C.W. Eliot (1869–1909), under whom Harvard took its place as a leading university of the U.S.; A.L. Lowell (1909–33), who introduced the tutorial system and house plan and made other reforms and innovations; and James B. Conant (1933–53). Radcliffe College for women, once an affiliate, is wholly integrated into the university. Throughout its history, Harvard has played an important role in American cultural life, and its faculty and alumni have included many outstanding men. Among the literary figures on the faculty have been Holmes, Lowell, C.E. Norton, George Bancroft, John Fiske, Parkman, Longfellow, Henry Adams, Santayana, Whitehead, William James, Bliss Perry, Irving Babbitt, G.P. Baker, G.L. Kittredge, Robert Hillyer, MacLeish, William Alfred, and Bernard Bailyn. Graduates noted for their writings include Michael Wigglesworth (1651), Increase Mather (1656), Benjamin Tompson (1662), Samuel Sewall (1671), Cotton Mather (1678), Thomas Prince (1707), Mather Byles (1725), Royall Tyler (1776), Prescott (1814), Edward Everett (1811), Jared Sparks (1815), George Bancroft (1817), Emerson (1821), Holmes (1829), Motley (1831), Theodore Parker (1836), Jones Very (1836), Thoreau (1837), R.H. Dana, Jr. (1837), Lowell (1838), Parkman (1844), C.E. Norton (1846), Henry Adams (1858), John Fiske (1863), William James (M.D., 1869), Wister (1882), Santayana (1886), Herrick (1890), Van Wyck Brooks (1907), S.E. Morison (1908), T.S. Eliot (1909), Conrad Aiken (1911), Benchley (1912), Cummings (1915), Marquand (1915), Dos Passos (1916), Behrman (1916), W.D. Edmonds (1926), Agee (1932), Boorstin (1934), R.W. Anderson (1939), Nemerov (1941), Mailer (1943), K. Koch (1948), John Hawkes (1949), Donald Hall (1951), and Updike (1954).

Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., the oldest institution of higher learning in the USA. The first plays known to have been acted there were Addison's Cato, Whitehead's The Roman Father, and Otway's The Orphan, performed surreptitiously by students. Acting was later encouraged, and the Hasty Pudding Club was formed, its productions now being mainly musicals. The Harvard Dramatic Club was started in 1908 and for many years produced only plays written by students or graduates of Harvard or Radcliffe (the women's college in Cambridge). It later concentrated on foreign plays. In 1905 Professor G. P. Baker inaugurated his influential ‘47 Workshop’ to stimulate the writing and production of new American plays. The Loeb Drama Center, seating 556, was built in 1960, the first fully automated flexible theatre in the United States, offering a proscenium, thrust, or arena stage. There is also an experimental theatre seating 120. The Center is used by the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club and by the American Repertory Theatre, a professional company under the directorship of the distinguished critic Robert Brustein (1927– ) which took up residence in 1980. Its opening seasons included highly praised productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Brecht and Weill's musical Happy End. The Harvard Theatre Collection, begun in 1901, is one of the finest performing arts research libraries in the world.

Harvard University Oldest US college, founded in 1636 by John Harvard at Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was originally intended for the instruction of Puritan ministers. Today, there are two colleges, Harvard College for men and Radcliffe College for women.

Harvard University the oldest American university, founded in 1636 at Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is named after John Harvard (1607–38), an English settler who bequeathed his library and half his estate to the university.