Harvard University Tour

Day 1 in Boston (9 Dec., 1999), we visited the oldest university of United States-Harvard University.

Around 10am, we gathered at the visitor center, located on the ground floor of the Holyoke Center. The Holyoke Center houses many of the University’s administrative offices as well as the University Health services.

Here is the starting point of our Harvard tour. The tour guide was a 2nd year student [so called sophomores, a very American term] who studies politics and law.

Brief History

Established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard of Charlestown Massachusetts. Upon his death in 1638, the young minister left his library and half his estate to the new College. In 1639, in recognition of John Harvard's bequest, the Great and General Court ordered "That the college agreed upon formerly to be built at Cambridge shall be called Harvard College." Founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the College has grown from 9 students with a single Master into a University with an enrolment of more than 18,000 degree candidates.

We were told that admission is tough enough so that once accepted, the University finds any way possible to help with the financing - to the tune of $30,000 per year for an average of 4 years! That includes room and board in a dormitory.

Widner Library

There were many stories of the buildings that comprise Old Harvard Yard. One of the best concerns the Widner Library. Harry Widner was a student at Harvard back in the early 1900's. He loved rare books and was quite good at collecting them. Apparently he came across a find in England and travelled there to collect the edition. Returning to America, he booked passage on the Titanic. Legend has it that he actually made it onto the lifeboat but realising the rare editions he had just purchased were in his room, returned to fetch them. And went down with the ship. Mrs. Widner, in memory of her son, offered $2 million dollars to build a library - with three conditions. One, each student admitted must pass a swimming test before graduating (this was in effect until the 1960s when it was realised that it posed undue hardship on the physically disabled students). Two, there must be a place in the library that memorialised Harry's room exactly as he left it before sailing to England (there is). Third - no stone, mortar or brick may ever be moved once in place. This proved a hardship when the officials at Harvard realised their book collection was larger than anticipated (having built far bigger a building than they thought they'd immediately need). What to do. If any violation occurred, the library would revert to the City of Cambridge. So, using one of the large windows on the side of the building, they removed the glass and built a walkway to the new addition, thus not violating the conditions.

John Harvard Statue

The other great story is of the statue of John Harvard. One: he was not the founder. Two, Harvard was not founded in 1638 but 1636. Three - the best - it's not a statue of John Harvard! When the library building burned down centuries ago, it's believed the only possible photographs of Harvard burned too. No one knew what he looked like. So, they lined up the students of the graduating class of that year and picked the most likely soul. Ironically, it's believed he made have been related to the first dean of Harvard.

It is tradition that all freshmen urinate on the statue and also students touch John Harvard’s shoe for good luck.

Massachusetts Hall

Fogg Museum

The Fogg Museum opened in 1895. In 1911, the Museum held the first exhibition of Degas in the United States. The Museum's current home was constructed in 1927 to house the world's largest and most comprehensive academic collection. It contains 150,000 works of art from around the globe, focusing on Western art from the Medieval period to the present. In addition to the collections, the Fogg contains three lecture halls, the Straus Center for Conservation, and an extensive Fine Arts Library. The Busch-Reisinger Museum, in Werner Otto Hall (1991) adjacent to the Fogg, is the only North American museum exclusively devoted to the art of Northern and Central Europe.

 Science Center

Josep Lluis Sert designed the Science Center (1972), which has shape of a polaroid camera. In addition to the departments of Mathematics, Statistics, and History of Science, the Center contains numerous laboratories, lecture halls, classrooms, a café, and cool IMac computers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wandered over to the Science center. It's said Bill Gates gave a nice sum of money to construct the building. Outside is a collection of large rocks with water fountains in the center area, randomly placed.

                                                                                                                                                        

We went inside to see if anything was open to the public. The foyer had about eight IMacs – providing students and visitors with free Internet access, of which we all took full advantage and sent emails to friends back home. The café there was nice and the prices were reasonably inexpensive for students.

Memorial Church

Memorial Church (1932) borders the northern section of the New Yard. Marble inscriptions on the walls of the Church interior commemorate Harvard men who died in World Wars I and II. Tablets also bear the names of graduates who died in Korea and Vietnam. The Church's spire looms 172 feet above the Yard. In June, the South Porch facing Widener Library transforms into a stage for the Commencement Exercises.

Squirrel fishing

Another interesting but weird observation in Harvard was that several students held sticks chasing after squirrels. Later we found out that it was actually a part of a research project in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The aim of the project is to improve the work quality on Rodent Performance Evaluation. Gray squirrels became the apparent subject of study because of their abundance in the immediate surroundings of old Harvard yard, with many large oak trees nearby.