Old John Harvard

   

   On our recent visit to Massachusetts we went one day up to Cambridge to visit Harvard's Natural History Museum. From the subway station in Harvard Square we walked through Harvard Yard to reach the museum, passing the statue of John Harvard after whom the college is named.

   It was on this day in 1639 that the college was named in Harvard's honor. Harvard, a clergyman, bequeathed half his estate plus his library to the college at the time of its foundation just before he died of tuberculoses at the age of 30.

   John Harvard was born in London in 1607. His father was a tradesman and there was enough money to send John to Cambridge University to study for the ministry. In 1637 John and his wife Ann emigrated to the newly formed Massachusetts Bay Colony and settled in Charlestown across the harbor from Boston. 

   Religion was important to the early settlers and a college was proposed to "advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches." Within a few months of his arrival in the New world, John was on his deathbed. He left half his monetary estate and their house to Ann. The rest went to the new college. John died in September, 1638.

   Harvard has tremendous cachet just by being the oldest college in the U.S. At first the college existed to educate ministers for the church. It didn't become a research university until after the Civil War. In 1879 Radcliffe College opened for women. Harvard professors were paid to repeat their lectures to the women students. The two schools merged in 1999. By the middle of the 20th century the school was admitting students not just because of their lineage and wealth, but also because they were talented. 

   By 2022 John Harvard's £400 had grown to $53 billion, the largest academic endowment in the world. It also has the largest academic library in the world. But does all this make Harvard the best university in the world? It's a subjective judgement, but according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings of global universities for 2022, Harvard is #1. Number 2 is MIT, a mile down the avenue from Harvard.

   Stanford University is #3. Number 4 is 30 miles up the road at Berkeley. Oxford is #5. Cambridge is #8 and the next eight are in the U.S. The top 25 are are all in English speaking countries until the Swiss Federal Institute (26). Tsinghua University in Beijing is tied for #26 with the Swiss. The University of Minnesota is #55. Not bad. Could be worse.

Proof of vaccination is on the plaque below.