How old is Harvard University?
Where can I learn more about your history?

The Harvard News Office has prepared a brief history of Harvard for our visitors.

Visitors might also be interested in browsing the online version of the Harvard Book (http://pds.harvard.edu/pds/servlet/PageDeliveryService?id=124445&type=leaf&seqno=first). This extensive 2-volume work was published in 1875 and contains lots of history, anecdotes, and rare photos of the Harvard campus at that time. The Harvard Book was scanned and made available online as part of a pilot project exploring the issues of digitized library collections at Harvard.

The Handbook for Parents published by the Freshman Dean's Office includes a brief history of Harvard College at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~fdo/publications/0203/parents.html#history.

Additional sources are available through the Harvard/Radcliffe Online Historical Reference Shelf, including some primary sources, like financial reports, and documents important to Harvard's history, like the text of the Charter of 1650 at http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/.

Harvard University Archives has compiled a list of books about Harvard's history, also, at http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/bibliography.shtml.

For more information and help with specific queries relating to Harvard history, see the Harvard University Archives' web site at http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/.