HARVARD UNIVERSITY, the oldest institution of learning in the United States, founded in Cambridge, Mass., 3 miles from Boston, in 1636. At a meet ing of the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay convened on Sept. 8, only six years after its first settlement, it was voted to give f400 toward a "schoale or colledge," and the ensuing year 12 of the most eminent men of the colony, including John Cotton, and John Winthrop, were authorized "to take or der for a college at Newtown." The name of Cambridge was soon afterward adopted in recognition of the English University, where many of the colonists had been educated. In 1638 John Har vard, a young non-conformist minister, died in Charlestown, leaving to the col lege £750, and his entire library of 300 volumes. The institution was immedi ately opened, and was named after its benefactor. Its first president was the Rev. Henry Dunster.
Between 1636 and 1782 Harvard Col lege conferred only the degrees of Bach elor and Master of Arts, but in 1780 the term University was applied to it in the constitution of Massachusetts. In 1782 and 1783 three professorships of medi cine were established and the first de gree of Bachelor in Medicine was con ferred in 1788. In 1810 the lectures in medicine were transferred to Boston, and there the first medical college was built in 1815. The Law School was established in 1817, and has the distinction of being the earliest school in the country con nected with a university and authorized to confer degrees in law. The Divinity School was a gradual outgrowth of the college; the Hollis professorship of Di vinity was established in 1721, but the divinity faculty was not formally organ ized till 1819. It is undenominational no assent to the peculiarities of any de nomination of Christianity being re quired of any instructor or student. These were the three oldest additions to the college, and justified the wider title.
The Scientific School instituted in 1847, and at first announced as an advanced school in science and literature, was named after Abbott Lawrence, who pre sented it with $50,000. It confers the degree of Bachelor of Science. The Graduate School, established in 1872, and placed in 1890, together with the Law rence Scientific School, under the Fac ulty of Arts and Sciences, confers also the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doc tor of Science. The Dental School, sit uated in Boston, was instituted in 1867, its course being three years; it gives the degree of Doctor of Dental Medicine. The School of Veterinary Medicine was established in 1882, has a free clinic, a hospital, a pharmacy and shoeing forge, and its course of three years leads to the degree of D. V. M. The Arnold Ar
boretum was founded in 1872 as the out come of the will of James Arnold, and is practically a public park of great beauty and an experiment station in Ar boriculture, Dendrology and Forestry. The school of Agriculture and Horticul ture was established in 1870 in accord ance with the will of Benjamin Bussey, and is known as the Bussey Institution. It confers the degree of Bachelor of Agricultural Science. The Astronomical Observatory was established in 1843 by means of a public subscription; the Sears Tier was built in 1846, and two years later Edward Bromfield Phillips be queathed to the university the sum of $100,000 for the observatory. A branch station is established on a mountain 8,000 feet high, near Arequipa, Peru. Among the more important instruments are the 15-inch and 6-inch equatorial telescopes, the 8-inch transit-circle, the 11-inch Draper photographic the 8 inch photographic telescope, and the me ridian photometer. In 1914 the univer sity was divided into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Faculty of Divin ity, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Applied Science.
Among the other establishments be longing to the university are the Muse um of Comparative Zoology (1850) ; the Botanical Museum; the Mineralogical Museum; the Natural History Labora tories; the Peabody Museum of Ameri can Aram°logy and Ethnology, founded in 1866 and transferred to the univer sity in 1897; the Semitic Museum founded in 1889; the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum, founded in 1895, and containing, among other treasures the Gray engravings and the Randall en gravings; the Botanic Garden, founded in 1807, and the Gray Herbarium, pre sented to the University in 1864; and Radcliffe College, brought into official re lation with the university in 1894. Be sides the various department libraries, more than a dozen in number, there is a University Library kept in Gore Hall, numbering 700,000 volumes, and as many maps and pamphlets. In 1764 the li brary was destroyed by fire, the only works saved being an Oriental collection bequeathed by Dr. Lightfoot, and the Greek and Roman classics presented by Bishop Berkley.
The university buildings number more than 60, including the great Memorial Hall, built in honor of the alumni who perished in the Civil War. In 1909 Charles W. Eliot retired after 40 years as president, and was succeeded by A. Lawrence Lowell. In 1919 the faculty numbered 827, and the students 4,891.