Harvard University has been around longer than the United States - a lot longer. Only sixteen years after the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock, they established an institute of higher learning that has lasted for more than 350 years.

The school was established in 1636, by order of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which granted £400 for the school to be created; since its earliest beginnings, then, Harvard has been a public school. (It was not, however, the first school of its kind in the thirteen colonies - in 1622 a college was planned near present-day Richmond, Virginia, but battles with Native Americans in the area kept that school from flourishing.) In 1637, the Court ordered placement of the new school at Newtown, which was renamed Cambridge. The first appointed professor was Nathaniel Eaton, and he was responsible for a wide variety of duties - in fact, the school’s first building was a wooden house built by Eaton. He was not much of a manager, though, and was fired after just two years. The school’s name came from local minister John Harvard, who died in 1638 leaving his entire library and half of his estate to the new school; a 1639 order from the Court decreed that the school would be known as Harvard College. In its early years, the college followed a British-style educational structure but with distinctly puritanical overtones befitting the cultural climate in which it was situated. Many of the earliest students - there were nine in the first graduating class in 1642 - became ministers in the region, but the college’s mission, stated in 1643, was to “advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches.” That year was also when the first scholarship was offered, through an endowment from Anne Radcliffe.

The college had strict rules in the 17th century. Students were not permitted to smoke tobacco, and they were fined if they were late or missed class. Playing cards and going to taverns were also not permitted, and students caught doing those things could also be fined. And yet this was not always a monetary payment - early financial rolls show that some students paid with food, livestock, clothing, or anything else they could offer. Students were also not allowed to go home very often - and even if they had been, the college was so remote at that time that they would be unable to make the entire journey in a reasonable amount of time to be absent from classes. But the college was struggling financially after only thirty years of operation, and was forced to request money from the Court of the colony just to maintain its buildings. Around 1660, a special section of the school was formed: the Indian College by the English Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England. Native American students came from Martha’s Vineyard and other Massachusetts regions to learn the ministry at Harvard.

In 1672, Harvard alumnus Leonard Hoar (of the class of 1650) became the college’s president. Two years later, he proposed reforming the college to not only offer book study, but to add features such as an arboretum and a chemistry lab; unfortunately these changes were not to be as the Court did not approve of them. The first American-born president of Harvard was Increase Mather, who took on the role in 1685 nearly 30 years after his own graduation. The father of renowned author and politically-focused minister Cotton Mather, he actually did not spend much time at Harvard. Four years of his presidency were spent in England attempting to renew the charter for Massachusetts, and the next twelve years were spent in Boston with occasional visits to Cambridge. He retained control of the college in absentia, and this fueled frustration among students and faculty, who asked for his resignation. (This may also have been because his financial affairs were suspect - he reportedly used college funds to pay for a new saddle and shoes for his horse.) Mather also awarded himself an honorary doctorate, the first in the history of the new world; Harvard would not begin giving out regular honorary degrees for more than 75 years after this point.

In 1708, John Leverett was elected president of Harvard, the first non-clergyman president. This brought about a change in the college’s general manner, which for its first 70 years had been puritanical. Under Leverett, the college became more independent of any sort of religious philosophy. Policies behavior remained strict, though, and in 1722 a rule was established prohibiting food and liquor from being served at commencement parties - those who violated the rule could be stripped of their degree. Corporal punishment was finally ended in 1755, and in 1761 a new penal code established a system of warnings and written apologies rather than monetary fines.

In early 1764, the smallpox epidemic in Boston caused the General Court to move its meetings to Harvard. The fire that kept them warm was maintained over the weekend, and it spread while almost nobody was around. The entire library collection was lost, as were other relics of the college. Because the accident had taken place as a result of the government’s use of the buildings, the government paid to replace as much was possible. Contributions, including furniture and money, came from England - but this would be the last British donations to the college, as the Revolutionary War was just around the corner. In 1775, students were evicted from the college so it could be used as troop barracks; they finally got their dormitories back in 1778.

The college’s growth continued throughout the late 18th century, beginning with the establishment of the Medical School in 1782. It did not last long, but it returned along with the Law School after the Civil War. The graduate schools were also established around this time, during the presidency of Charles W. Eliot. Eliot also partnered with Harvard faculty associates who were interested in creating a college for women, and the Harvard Annex opened in 1879; it received its charter as Radcliffe College in 1894.

Today, Harvard University is co-educational and has approximately 18,000 students and more than 2,000 faculty members. Famous graduates include seven U.S. presidents, Henry David Thoreau, Jack Lemmon, and W.E.B. DuBois. It is known as a politically liberal school, and one of the most selective in the country - accepting only nine percent of applicants.

Essay word count: 1080
Additional resources: The Harvard Book, Harvard/Radcliffe Online Historical Reference Shelf, The Harvard Guide.
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