Harvard University Diploma: A History Written in Books, Buildings and Changing Ideas
Harvard University is a private research university in Cambridge , Massachusetts , with campuses in the Boston metropolitan area . Founded in 1636, it is the nation’s oldest institution of higher education. The development of a small colonial college into a university with extensive teaching and research facilities is an almost four-century history of change in American education.
The founding of Harvard began when the legislature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted to create a college. The name came later, in honor of John Harvard, the minister who left the school half of his estate and his personal library in 1638. He was its first major benefactor, though often called its founder. Books, then, have been central to Harvard’s story from the very beginning, establishing an early basis for its scholarly collections.
The institution expanded slowly. Harvard Medical School was founded in 1782, Harvard Law School in 1817. Other schools developed around fields like engineering, education, business and public policy. With these additions, its academic purpose expanded and a university was formed with professional schools, each with its own traditions and fields of study. The history behind a Harvard University Diploma reflects the development of an institution whose academic traditions have evolved over nearly four centuries.
Beyond the Known Yard
Its most famous historic setting is Harvard Yard, but the university stretches beyond this part of Cambridge. Its Allston campus has robust teaching and research activity, and its Longwood campus integrates medical and health-related education with the larger Boston healthcare community. The geography links older academic spaces with new spaces constructed to respond to changing research needs.
Harvard College is the undergraduate portion of the university . Residential Houses are an important part of college life, linking students with faculty and graduate students. Laboratory work, museum collections, and independent investigations in libraries supplement the learning.
Harvard’s libraries have materials on a wide range of subjects. Research is supported by institutions such as Widener, Houghton and the Harvard-Yenching Library, as well as specialist collections in fields including law, medicine, music and more. Together, they show the growth of the university’s intellectual resources from its initial collection of donated books.
Over time, access to that academic world changed. Radcliffe was founded in 1879 as a program to provide women with instruction by Harvard faculty at a time when women were not allowed to attend Harvard College. It merged with Harvard in 1999 to form the present-day Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. This history is a key part of the understanding of the gradual widening of participation in the university.