Editing Harvard University (section)

=== 19th century ===
{{See also|Charles William Eliot|Samuel Webber}}
[[File:John Harvard statue at Harvard University.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[John Harvard statue]] in [[Harvard Yard]]]] 
In the 19th century, Harvard was influenced by [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment Age]] ideas, including reason and free will, which were widespread among [[Congregationalism in the United States|Congregational]] ministers and which placed these ministers and their congregations at odds with more traditionalist, [[Reformed Christianity|Calvinist]] pastors and clergies.<ref name=Dorrien>{{Cite book|last=Dorrien|first=Gary J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L50mveyi6WoC|title=The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion, 1805–1900|date=January 1, 2001|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22354-0|language=en|access-date=June 27, 2015|archive-date=September 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906030528/https://books.google.com/books?id=L50mveyi6WoC|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|1–4}} Following the death of [[Hollis Professor of Divinity]] [[David Tappan]] in 1803 and that of [[Joseph Willard]], Harvard's eleventh president, the following year, a struggle broke out over their replacements. In 1805, [[Henry Ware (Unitarian)|Henry Ware]] was elected to replace Tappan as Hollis chair. Two years later, in 1807, liberal [[Samuel Webber]] was appointed as Harvard's 13th president, representing a shift from traditional ideas at Harvard to more liberal and [[Arminianism|Arminian]] ideas.<ref name=Dorrien />{{rp|4–5}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Field|first=Peter S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HXHbEWJacwwC|title=Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual|date=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8476-8843-2|language=en|access-date=June 27, 2015|archive-date=September 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906021119/https://books.google.com/books?id=HXHbEWJacwwC|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|24}}

In 1816, Harvard University launched new language programs in the study of [[French language|French]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and appointed [[George Ticknor]] the university's first professor for these language programs.

From 1869 to 1909, [[Charles William Eliot]], Harvard University's 21st president, decreased the historically favored position of [[Christianity]] in the curriculum, opening it to student self-direction. Though Eliot was an influential figure in the secularization of U.S. higher education, he was motivated primarily by [[Transcendentalism|Transcendentalist]] and [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] convictions influenced by [[William Ellery Channing]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], and others, rather than secularism. In the late 19th century, Harvard University's graduate schools began admitting women in small numbers.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Stephen P.|last=Shoemaker|title=The Theological Roots of Charles W. Eliot's Educational Reforms|journal=Journal of Unitarian Universalist History|year=2006–2007|volume=31|pages=30–45}}</ref>