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).