Editing Harvard University (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of Harvard University}}

===Colonial era===
{{see also|John Harvard (clergyman)|Nathaniel Eaton|Increase Mather}}
[[File:A Westerly View of the Colledges in Cambridge New England by Paul Revere.jpeg|thumb|left|A 1767 engraving of [[Harvard College]] by [[Paul Revere]]]]
Harvard was founded in 1636 during the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial]], pre-[[American Revolution|Revolutionary era]] by vote of the [[Massachusetts General Court|Great and General Court]] of [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], one of the original [[Thirteen Colonies]] of [[British America]]. Its first headmaster, [[Nathaniel Eaton]], took office the following year. In 1638, the university acquired [[British North America]]'s first known [[printing press]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Ireland |first=Corydon |date=March 8, 2012 |title=The instrument behind New England's first literary flowering |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard's-first-impressions/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200214002714/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard%27s-first-impressions/ |archive-date=February 14, 2020 |access-date=January 18, 2014 |website=harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard University}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Rowley and Ezekiel Rogers, The First North American Printing Press |url=http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123223546/http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf |archive-date=January 23, 2013 |access-date=January 18, 2014 |website=hull.ac.uk |publisher=Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull}}</ref> The same year, on his deathbed, [[John Harvard (clergyman)|John Harvard]], a [[Puritans|Puritan]] clergyman who emigrated to the colony from England, bequeathed the emerging college £780 and his library of some 320 volumes;<ref>{{cite web |last=Harvard |first=John |title=John Harvard Facts, Information. |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_Harvard.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090715230532/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_Harvard.aspx |archive-date=July 15, 2009 |access-date=July 17, 2009 |website=encyclopedia.com |publisher=The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008 |language=en-US |quote=He bequeathed £780 (half his estate) and his library of 320 volumes to the new established college at Cambridge, Mass., which was named in his honor.}}</ref> the following year, it was named [[Harvard College]].

In 1643, a Harvard publication defined the college's purpose: "[to] advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust."<ref>{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Louis B. |title=The Cultural Life of the American Colonies |publisher=Dover Publications |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-486-42223-7 |edition=1st |publication-date=May 3, 2002 |page=116 |language=en-US}}</ref> In its early years, the college trained many Puritan ministers<ref>{{cite book|last1=Grigg|first1=John A.|last2=Mancall|first2=Peter C.|title=British Colonial America: People and Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6REfahE4TkwC&pg=PA47|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-025-4|page=47|access-date=May 7, 2016|archive-date=January 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102050308/https://books.google.com/books?id=6REfahE4TkwC&pg=PA47|url-status=live}}</ref> and offered a [[Classical education in the Western world|classical curriculum]] based on the English university model many colonial-era Massachusetts leaders experienced at the [[University of Cambridge]], where many of them studied prior to immigrating to [[British America]]. Harvard never formally affiliated with any particular [[Protestantism|Protestant]] denomination, but its curriculum conformed to the tenets of Puritanism.<ref>{{cite web|author=Harvard Office of News and Public Affairs |url=http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/intro/index.html|title=Harvard guide intro|publisher=Harvard University|date=July 26, 2007|access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070726133429/http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/intro/index.html|archive-date=July 26, 2007}}</ref> In 1650, the charter for [[President and Fellows of Harvard College|Harvard Corporation]], the college's governing body, was granted.

From 1681 to 1701, [[Increase Mather]], a Puritan clergyman, served as Harvard's sixth [[President of Harvard University|president]]. In 1708, [[John Leverett the Younger|John Leverett]] became Harvard's seventh president and the first president who was not also a clergyman.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.president.harvard.edu/history/07_leverett.php |title=John Leverett – History – Office of the President|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612033858/http://www.president.harvard.edu/history/07_leverett.php | archive-date=June 12, 2010}}</ref> Harvard faculty and students largely supported the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] cause during the [[American Revolution]].<ref>[https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/10/harvards-year-of-exile/ "Harvard's year of exile"], ''The Harvard Gazette'', October 13, 2011</ref>{{failed verification|date=September 2024}}

=== 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>

=== 20th century ===
{{See also|A. Lawrence Lowell|James B. Conant}}
[[File:Rummell, Richard Harvard University.jpg|thumb|A 1906 aerial watercolor portrait of Harvard University<ref>{{Cite web|title=An Iconic College View: Harvard University, circa 1900. Richard Rummell (1848–1924)|url=http://grahamarader.blogspot.com/2011/07/iconic-college-view-harvard-university.html|access-date=January 24, 2022|website=An Iconic College View|archive-date=April 25, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425163107/http://grahamarader.blogspot.com/2011/07/iconic-college-view-harvard-university.html|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
In 1900, Harvard became a founding member of the [[Association of American Universities]].<ref name="AAU" /> For the first few decades of the 20th century, the Harvard student body was predominantly "old-stock, high-status [[Protestantism|Protestants]], especially [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians]], [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]], and [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]]," according to sociologist and author [[Jerome Karabel]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jerome Karabel|title=The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwf-Ofc--toC&pg=PA23|year=2006|page=23|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-77355-8|access-date=November 5, 2015|archive-date=January 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124132732/https://books.google.com/books?id=zwf-Ofc--toC&pg=PA23|url-status=live}}</ref>

Over the 20th century, as its endowment burgeoned and prominent intellectuals and professors affiliated with it, Harvard University's reputation as one of the world's most prestigious universities grew notably. The university's enrollment also underwent substantial growth, a product of both the founding of new graduate academic programs and an expansion of the [[Harvard College|undergraduate college]]. [[Radcliffe College]] emerged as the female counterpart of Harvard College, becoming one of the most prominent schools in the nation for women.

In 1923, a year after the percentage of [[Jews|Jewish]] students at Harvard reached 20%, [[A. Lawrence Lowell]], the university's 22nd president, unsuccessfully proposed capping the admission of Jewish students to 15% of the undergraduate population. Lowell also refused to mandate forced desegregation in the university's [[List of Harvard College freshman dormitories|freshman dormitories]], writing that, "We owe to the colored man the same opportunities for education that we do to the white man, but we do not owe to him to force him and the white into social relations that are not, or may not be, mutually congenial."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/11/4/housing-desegregation/ |title=Compelled to coexist: A history of the desegregation of Harvard's freshman housing|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928084627/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/11/4/housing-desegregation/ |archive-date=September 28, 2022 |newspaper=Harvard Crimson|date=November 4, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Steinberg|first1=Stephen|title=How Jewish Quotas Began|journal=Commentary|date=September 1, 1971|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/how-jewish-quotas-began/|access-date=September 10, 2017|archive-date=September 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911071351/https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/how-jewish-quotas-began/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Dirk|title=Yale's Limit on Jewish Enrollment Lasted Until Early 1960's Book Says|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/04/nyregion/yale-s-limit-on-jewish-enrollment-lasted-until-early-1960-s-book-says.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 4, 1986|access-date=December 3, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923074453/https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/04/nyregion/yale-s-limit-on-jewish-enrollment-lasted-until-early-1960-s-book-says.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Lowell Tells Jews Limits at Colleges Might Help Them|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/06/17/109843455.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 17, 1922|access-date=September 10, 2017|archive-date=March 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323102413/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/06/17/109843455.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1933 and 1953, Harvard University was led by [[James B. Conant]], the university's 23rd president, who reinvigorated the university's creative scholarship in an effort to guarantee Harvard's preeminence among the nation and world's emerging research institutions. Conant viewed higher education as a vehicle of opportunity for the talented rather than an entitlement for the wealthy, and devised programs to identify, recruit, and support talented youth. In 1945, under Conant's leadership, an influential 268-page report, ''[[General Education in a Free Society]]'', was published by Harvard faculty, which remains one of the most important works in [[curriculum studies]],<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1=Kridel |editor-first1=Craig |chapter=General Education in a Free Society (Harvard Redbook) |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=GgMyFqxsXWoC&pg=PA400 400]–402 |title=Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies |date=2010 |volume=1 |language=en |isbn=978-1-4129-5883-7 |publisher=SAGE  }}</ref> and women were first admitted to the [[Harvard Medical School|medical school]].<ref>{{cite report |title=First class of women admitted to Harvard Medical School, 1945 |publisher=Countway Repository, Harvard University Library |url=http://repository.countway.harvard.edu/xmlui/handle/10473/1782 |access-date=May 2, 2016 |date= |archive-date=June 23, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623235357/http://repository.countway.harvard.edu/xmlui/handle/10473/1782 }}</ref>

Between 1945 and 1960, admissions were standardized to open the university to a more diverse group of students. Following the end of [[World War II]], for example, special exams were developed so veterans could be considered for admission.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Class of 1950 |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2000/6/5/the-class-of-1950-pin-a/ |access-date=August 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329172148/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2000/6/5/the-class-of-1950-pin-a/ |url-status=live }}</ref> No longer drawing mostly from prestigious [[College-preparatory school|prep schools]] in [[New England]], the undergraduate college became accessible to striving middle class students from public schools; many more Jews and Catholics were admitted, but Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians remained underrepresented.<ref>{{cite news|first=Malka A. |last=Older |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=217911 |title=Preparatory schools and the admissions process |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911160531/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=217911 |archive-date=September 11, 2009 |newspaper=[[The Harvard Crimson]]|date=January 24, 1996}}</ref> Over the second half of the 20th century, however, the university became incrementally more diverse.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Powell|first1=Alvin|title=An update on Harvard's diversity, inclusion efforts|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/an-update-on-harvards-diversity-and-inclusion-efforts/|newspaper=The Harvard Gazette|date=October 1, 2018|access-date=December 14, 2019|archive-date=August 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814075610/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/an-update-on-harvards-diversity-and-inclusion-efforts/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1971 and 1999, Harvard controlled undergraduate admission, instruction, and housing for Radcliffe's women; in 1999, Radcliffe was formally merged into Harvard University.<ref>{{cite report |title=Radcliffe Enters Historic Merger With Harvard |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard |access-date=May 6, 2016 |date= |archive-date=October 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011031437/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
{{See also|Drew Gilpin Faust|Lawrence Bacow|Claudine Gay|Alan Garber}}
[[File:Harvard Yard at Night 03.jpg|thumb|An aerial view of Harvard University at night in 2017]]
On July 1, 2007, [[Drew Gilpin Faust]], dean of [[Harvard Radcliffe Institute]], was appointed Harvard's 28th and the university's first female president.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press|title=Harvard Board Names First Woman President|date=February 11, 2007|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17103390|access-date=August 8, 2015|work=NBC News|archive-date=January 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124132732/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17103390/ns/us_news-education/t/harvard-board-names-first-woman-president/|url-status=live}}</ref> On July 1, 2018, Faust retired and joined the board of [[Goldman Sachs]], and [[Lawrence Bacow]] became Harvard's [[President of Harvard University|29th president]].<ref>{{Cite news |agency=Associated Press |date=February 11, 2018 |title=Harvard University names Lawrence Bacow its 29th president |language=en-US |work=Fox News |url=https://www.foxnews.com/us/harvard-university-names-lawrence-bacow-its-29th-president |url-status=live |access-date=February 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215084210/http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/11/harvard-university-names-lawrence-bacow-its-29th-president.html |archive-date=February 15, 2018}}</ref>

In February 2023, approximately 6,000 Harvard workers attempted to organize a union.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Quinn |first1=Ryan |title=Harvard Postdocs, Other Non-Tenure-Track Trying to Unionize |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/02/07/harvard-postdocs-other-non-tenure-track-trying-unionize |date=February 6, 2023 |publisher=Inside Higher Education |access-date=December 8, 2023 |archive-date=December 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208233548/https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/02/07/harvard-postdocs-other-non-tenure-track-trying-unionize |url-status=live }}</ref>

Bacow retired in June 2023, and on July 1 [[Claudine Gay]], a Harvard professor in the Government and African American Studies departments and Dean of the [[Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences|Faculty of Arts and Sciences]], became Harvard's 30th president.

In January 2024, just six months into her presidency, Gay resigned following [[Claudine Gay#Congressional hearing on antisemitism|allegations of antisemitism]] and [[Claudine Gay#Plagiarism investigations|plagiarism]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=HARVARD PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY RESIGNS, SHORTEST TENURE IN UNIVERSITY HISTORY |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/1/3/claudine-gay-resign-harvard/ |access-date=January 3, 2024 |archive-date=January 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102223704/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/1/3/claudine-gay-resign-harvard/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Gay was succeeded by [[Alan Garber]], the university's provost, who was appointed interim president. In August 2024, the university announced that Garber would be appointed Harvard's 31st president through the end of the 2026–27 academic year.