The hallowed history of Harvard University

Harvard University is one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the world. It's also one of the wealthiest, with an endowment of over US$50 billion. But Harvard's finances have become the latest target of the Trump administration. More than $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts have been frozen by the US president in the wake of alleged antisemitism at the university. This follows Harvard's refusal to agree to the White House's sweeping list of demands, which included directions on how to govern, hire, and teach.

The funding freeze matters because 80% of Harvard's endowment is earmarked for financial aid, scholarships, faculty chairs, academic programs or other projects, according to the school. The remaining 20% is intended to sustain the institution for years to come and even then the university can only spend a small fraction each year. Harvard has since emerged as a symbol of resistance against the Trump administration and the row marks another episode in the long history of the university. 

To learn more about Harvard and some of its defining moments, click through the gallery for an educative tour of the hallowed institution. 

Where is Harvard located?

Harvard University is located in Cambridge, a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, situated directly across the Charles River from the capital city of Massachusetts. 

John Harvard (1607–1638)

In 1638, a dying English Puritan clergyman from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Harvard, bequeathed the emerging college £780 (equivalent to £138,000, or US$183,000, in 2025). He also left his library of some 320 volumes. 

Harvard College

The following year, 1639, New College was renamed Harvard College in recognition of its generous benefactor. Harvard College today serves as the undergraduate college of Harvard University.

Harvard Yard

The college overseers, the Great and General Court, purchased real estate that was later distinguished as the "College Yard." This tract of land became the nucleus of present-day Harvard Yard. 

Cambridge and the Continental Army

The fact that Newetowne was renamed Cambridge was further testament to Harvard's links with its British counterpart. Pictured is George Washington taking command of the Continental Army in Cambridge Square on July 3, 1775. Cambridge is considered the birthplace of the Continental Army. 

Harvard alumni and the Declaration of Independence

Eight Harvard alumni signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776: John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry, Robert Treat Paine, William Williams, William Ellery, and William Hooper.

Murder at Harvard

Founded in 1782, Harvard Medical School (pictured in the mid-1800s) is the third-oldest medical school in the United States. In 1849, it played a central role in one of the most notorious murder cases in Harvard history. Dr. George Parkman disappeared from the facility shortly after lending money to a colleague, Dr. John White Webster. Parkman later pursued Webster to collect the debt. Seven days after the disappearance of Parkman, body parts were discovered in Webster's lab, later identified as the remains of the missing doctor. Webster eventually pleaded guilty to murdering Parkman and was hanged on August 30, 1850.  

Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922)

Scholar, philosopher, professor, diplomat, and attorney Richard Theodore Greener (pictured in 1917) was the first African American to graduate from Harvard College, in 1870. He was not, however, the first Black student to be admitted. That distinction was given to Beverly Garnett Williams in 1847. Williams died just before the academic year and thus never entered the college. 

Theodore William Richards (1868–1928)

In 1914, Theodore William Richards won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He was the first American scientist to receive the coveted accolade in this category, and the first Harvard Nobel laureate. 

Walter Gropius (1883–1969)

German-American architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. The school's philosophy was to promote functionalism in architecture and foster cooperative projects incorporating art, science, and technology. During World War II, Gropius emigrated to the US, where he taught at Harvard University's School of Architecture from 1938 to 1952. 

Harvard in the 1970s

In 1970, a program was established to specifically address Native American issues. That year, the American Indian Program emerged on campus—an acknowledgment of sorts of the nation's Indigenous peoples and their place in American society. But 1970 also saw some of the worst civil unrest in Cambridge history. 

Mikhail Gorbachev speaks at Harvard

In 1992, the Harvard Kennedy School Forum hosted former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, who gave a talk at the university's John F. Kennedy Library. He returned to Harvard in 2002 to deliver his speech, 'Looking Back on Perestroika.'

Harvard Radcliffe Institute

The Harvard Radcliffe Institute came into being in 1999 as the successor institution to the former Radcliffe College, originally a women's college connected with Harvard. It opened in 1879 as the Harvard Annex, later known as Radcliffe College, welcoming 27 female students.

Massachusetts Hall

Massachusetts Hall is the oldest surviving building at Harvard College. It was constructed between 1718 and 1720. The property possesses great significance in the history of American education and in the development of the Thirteen Colonies during the 18th century.

Widener Library

Speaking of libraries, Widener Library opened in 1915. Housing one of the world's most comprehen­sive research collec­tions in the humanities and social sciences, the library is named after 1907 Harvard College graduate Harry Elkins Widener, who died in the sinking of the Titanic. 

Dunster House

Dunster House is one of 12 undergraduate residential houses at Harvard University. The building opened in 1930 and was named in honor of Henry Dunster, Harvard's first president. Future US vice president Al Gore and actor Tommy Lee Jones were roommates at Dunster House in the late 1960s.

Harvard's first Black president

In 2023, Claudine Gay was named the 30th president of Harvard University, a historic move that gave the nation's oldest college its first Black president. She took office on July 1, 2023. 

Responses to antisemitism

After the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Dr. Gay faced criticism for failing to adequately condemn the attacks. During a subsequent December 2023 Congressional committee hearing convened to investigate antisemitism on college campuses, Gay and the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania were asked about institutional response to antisemitism on their campuses. 

Accusations of antisemitism

Over five hours, lawmakers grilled the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT on the topic of antisemitism. In some instances, they were unable to say whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools' conduct policies.