Harvard College Is Founded (1636)
Founded with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Harvard College was named for its first benefactor, John Harvard. He bequeathed his books and about £780 to the fledgling college. The oldest and one of themost prestigious institutions of higher education in the US,Harvard originally trained Puritan ministers. Today, it has the largest university endowment in the US, estimated at more than $25 billion in 2009. Why did Harvard athletes first adopt the color red?Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, established in 1636, whose history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the world's most prestigious universities.
Established originally by the Massachusetts legislature and soonthereafter named for John Harvard (its first benefactor), Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning, and the HarvardCorporation (formally, the President and Fellows of Harvard College) isits first chartered corporation. Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregational and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were graduallysecularized during the 18th century, and by the 19th century Harvard hademerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites.Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's longtenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard was a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalizeadmissions after the war. The undergraduate college becamecoeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College.