A colonial college and its name
In 1636 the Massachusetts Bay Colony's legislature approved £400 for a college. The following year it located the school at Newetowne, later Cambridge. John Harvard did not make the original founding decision: his 1638 bequest of about 400 books and half his estate made him an important early benefactor. The legislature named the college for him in 1639.
Henry Dunster became the first president in 1640, and nine students graduated in 1642. The 1650 charter entrusted continuing management to a corporation comprising the president, fellows and treasurer. This structure allowed property, gifts and educational responsibilities to continue across changes of individual officeholders.
From college to a university
Medical education acquired a dedicated organization in the 1780s. The Divinity School was established in 1816 and the Law School in 1817; graduate study later gained its own institutional arrangements. Professional training and research developed alongside undergraduate teaching. Harvard College became the undergraduate component of a broader university.
The observatory, founded in 1839, the Lawrence Scientific School of 1847 and the Arnold Arboretum of 1872 illustrate the expansion of research infrastructure. Observation, experiments, books and living collections required specialist staff and continuing maintenance. Beyond Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Longwood and Allston in Boston became major university locations.
Slavery in the university's historical records
The 2022 Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery report used university archives, libraries and other repositories to examine enslavement by Harvard affiliates and financial links with slave trading and plantation economies. It documented more than 70 people enslaved by university leaders, faculty and staff between 1636 and 1783, some living or working on campus.
The report also investigated racial theories and later discrimination in education and housing, alongside Black graduates' resistance and public work, including W.E.B. Du Bois's scholarship and Charles Hamilton Houston's legal activity. These findings place the growth of schools and donations within questions about labor, access and the interpretation of institutional records.
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