The history of Harvard

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A timeline of Harvard's history
Asian and Pacific American history at Harvard
Women's history at Harvard
African American history at Harvard
Native American history at Harvard

This photo of Harvard "College Yard," taken around 1857, is from Harvard Archives.

When was Harvard founded?

On October 28, 1636, Harvard, the first college in the American colonies, was founded.
Who founded Harvard?

Despite popular opinion (and a certain statue) John Harvard did not found Harvard, but he was the first major benefactor and he donated half of his estate and his library of more than 400 books to the School.

Harvard University was officially founded by a vote by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Where is Harvard University located?

While many think of Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts as Harvard’s campus, the University also has robust campuses in the Longwood and Allston neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts.
Is Harvard College the same as Harvard University?

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 our students.
Learn more about Harvard’s origins in the 1600s

2022

An image of buildings making up Harvard College in 1767

Historical highlight

Harvard and the legacy of 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.

Explore the report and recommendations

Asian and Pacific American history at Harvard

This marble slab, or stele, which resides in Harvard Yard, was presented to Harvard in 1936 as a gift from Chinese alumni on the occasion of the University’s tercentenary.

Learn more about the stele

Ge Kunhua

In 1879, Ge Kunhua was appointed the first Chinese language instructor at Harvard and the first native Chinese speaker to teach Chinese in America.

Learn more about the history of China at Harvard

Namhi Kim Wagner

Namhi Kim Wagner was the first director of the Korean Language Program at Harvard University. She generously shared her passion for the Korean language and Korean Studies with generations of faculty, staff, and students.

Learn more about her life

Kentarō Kaneko

Kentarō Kaneko was one of the first two Japanese students to attend Harvard. He earned a degree from the Law School in 1874 and went on to help draft the Japanese constitution in 1889.

Explore Harvard Law School Library’s East Asian law collection

Naina Lal Kidwai

After becoming the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School, in 1982, Naina rose through the financial ranks in India, eventually being named by Fortune magazine "the third most powerful businesswoman in Asia." In the second half of her long career, she pivoted to focus on improving India’s water quality and health outcomes.

Learn more about Naina's story

James Choi Spackman

While attending Harvard in the 1950s, James Choi Spackman took on many jobs to make ends meet, including his “first business lesson,” a wildly successful snack stand.

Fe del Mundo

After spending time as an Harvard Medical School assistant physician at Boston Children’s Hospital in 1940, Fe went on to found the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. She was later conferred the rank and title of National Scientist of the Philippines as well as the Order of Lakandula, one of the highest honors given by the Philippines.

Learn more about Fe's work

1776

A drawing of the founding fathers signing the declaration of independence

Historical highlight

Eight Harvard alumni sign the Declaration of Independence

John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry, Robert Treat Paine, William Williams, William Ellery, and William Hooper

Learn more about Harvard in the 1700s

Women’s history at Harvard

As staff members, then as students and faculty, the women of Harvard’s past paved the way for generations to come.

Explore our Women’s History Month celebration

Alice Hamilton

In 1918, Alice Hamilton became the first woman to be appointed to Harvard’s faculty.

A complicated history

While women weren’t taught at Harvard until 1879, they have always been a part of the University.

Grace Hopper

Computing pioneer Grace Hopper was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer and wrote what became the world’s first programming manual.

Drew Faust

In 2007, Drew Gilpin Faust became the 28th President of Harvard University, the first woman to serve in that role.

Learn more about Drew

Barbara Deming

Starting in 1959, Barbara Deming focused her activism on women’s and lesbian issues. She founded a program, now named for her, that supports feminist projects in arts and education.

Black Women Oral History Project

The project interviewed and recorded 72 Black women who made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century.

Star analysts of Harvard

In the late 19th through the mid-20th century, these women classified the stars, determined their brightness, and discovered new stars, nebulae, and novae.

The first women at Harvard Medical School

On June 4, 1944, the Harvard Corporation voted to accept women in the 1945 medical school freshmen class.

Read their story

1875

A poster of a football with Harvard Yale written on it

Historical highlight

The first Harvard-Yale football game

Yale hosted the first Harvard-Yale football game in 1875, which Harvard won, to the delight of some 150 student boosters from Cambridge.

Learn more about Harvard in the 1800s

African American history at Harvard

A complete look at Harvard’s Black history includes the dual legacies of slavery and discrimination along with pioneering moments of inclusion, equity, and empowerment.

Learn about Harvard’s African and African American Program

Richard T. Greener

In 1870 he was the first Black student to enter the College and complete the undergraduate curriculum. He was not, however, the first Black student to be admitted, a distinction belonging to Beverly Garnett Williams, in 1847. (He died just before the academic year began and thus never entered the College.)

Learn more about Richard

Alberta Virginia Scott

In 1898 Alberta Virginia Scott became the first African-American graduate of Radcliffe College, seen here in a special dress for a class celebration.

Learn more about Alberta

W.E.B. Du Bois

Along with being a Civil Rights activist, historian, educator, editor, and outspoken public intellectual, W.E.B. Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, is also a founding father of American sociology.

Learn more about W.E.B. Du Bois

Eileen Jackson Southern

The portrait of Eileen Jackson Southern was an authority on Renaissance and African American music and the first Black female professor to be given tenure at Harvard.

Learn more about Eileen

Clement G. Morgan

Thirty-one-year-old Clement G. Morgan made national headlines as the first African American chosen to deliver a Harvard senior class oration.

Learn more about Clement

Deborah Washington Brown

Deborah Washington Brown, the first Black woman to earn an applied math Ph.D. at Harvard pushed the fields of artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology to innovative places.

Learn more about Deborah

Robert Tanner Freeman

Only four years after the Civil War ended, Robert Tanner Freeman, the son of enslaved parents, graduated in Harvard School of Dental Medicine's first class. He was also the very first African American to earn a dental degree in the United States.

Learn more about Robert

Carter G. Woodson

After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912, Carter Woodson became known as the “father of Black history,” launching Negro History Week, which later expanded into Black History Month.

Learn more about Carter

1939

Historical highlight

Walter Gropius comes to Harvard

Founder of the Bauhaus art movement, Walter Gropius, became head of architecture at Graduate School of Design in 1939, ensuring that the University would have its first modern building, as well as one of the most comprehensive Bauhaus collections in the world.

Learn more about Harvard in the 1900s

Native American history at Harvard

The education of Native Americans is woven into the long history of Harvard University. The Charter of 1650, which continues to govern Harvard, pledges the University to “the education of English and Indian youth.”

From 1655 to 1698, the “Indian College” stood in Harvard Yard, on the site currently occupied by Matthews Hall.

It was not until 1970 that a program was established to specifically address Native American issues. In early 1970, the American Indian Program (AIP) emerged on campus.

Learn more about this history

Acknowledgement of Land and People

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. We pay respect to the people of the Massachusett Tribe, past and present, and honor the land itself which remains sacred to the Massachusett People.

Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck

Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck was a member of Harvard’s graduating class of 1665. Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck is from a Wampanoag tribe that lived in Martha’s Vineyard. Caleb gained acceptance to Harvard’s Indian College after passing the school's entrance exam at the age of fifteen. Caleb would go on to become the first Native American to graduate from Harvard’s campus in accordance with Harvard’s charter of 1650.

Learn more about Caleb

Eli Langley

Before graduating to work with Teach for America, Eli Langley became the first tribal member to use their Native language to fulfill the College’s second language requirement.

Native American program turns 50

The Harvard University Native American Program celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. Learn how it started and the hopes for the future.

Learn more about the program

Short biographies of five Indian College students from the 17th century

Read the biographies

Harvard’s first tenured professor of Native American history

Philip Deloria joined Harvard’s history department as the School’s first tenured Native American professor. Department chair Daniel Lord Smail lauded the Dakota descendant as “hands-down the leading authority in Native American history."

Learn more about Philip

The Project on Indigenous Governance and Development

Founded in 1987, the project uses applied research and service to understand and foster the conditions under which sustained, self-determined social and economic development is achieved among American Indian nations.

Learn more about the Harvard Project

Native American Heritage Month

We celebrated Native American Heritage Month with an exploration of the past, present, and future of Harvard's Native American community.

Explore this In Focus