Founded by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1636, Harvard is America's oldest institution of higher learning. From a college of nine students and one instructor, it has grown into a world-renowned university with over 18,000 degree candidates and 2,000 faculty members, including numerous Nobel laureates. Situated a few miles west of Boston on the Charles River in Cambridge, Harvard's main campus is one of the country's most scenic. With an endowment of $11 billion, the university is the country's wealthiest.
Seven U.S. presidents -- John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush -- were educated at Harvard, as were leaders in many fields. The school's notable alumni include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., T.S. Eliot, Ralph Bunche, David Rockefeller, I.M. Pei, Robert Coles, Patricia Schroeder, Al Gore, Jr., and Yo-Yo Ma. Harvard based its original curriculum on the classics taught in European universities and on the Puritanism preached in the American colonies. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the college diversified, turning away from Puritanism towards intellectual independence. Under the leadership of president Charles W. Eliot, from 1869-1909, Harvard revitalized its law and medical schools and established schools of business, dental medicine, and arts and sciences, and transformed itself into a major modern university.
Also significant in Harvard's transformation was the 1879 opening of its "sister" school, Radcliffe College, which made Harvard's resources available to women. Today, Harvard continues its tradition of academic excellence as a coeducational university with an undergraduate college, nine graduate schools, and some 200 allied institutions including laboratories, libraries, and museums.
- Search on Harvard in American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 to see more than 150 images of the university campus. The collection is a contribution to the National Digital Library from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
- Search on Harvard and Yale in Taking the Long View, 1851-1991 to find photographs of sporting events between Harvard and its longtime rival, Yale University.
- Don't miss the preview of the Leonard Bernstein Collection, which features 85 photographs of this 1939 Harvard graduate both before and after he achieved fame as a composer and conductor.
