Editing Harvard University (section)

===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}}