49 Fun Facts About Harvard

In what year was Harvard, the oldest US institution of higher learning, founded?

It was not named Harvard College until 1639, in honour of the clergyman whose bequest kept it alive.

Which body voted the £400 that founded the college?

The vote came at a session that opened on 8 September and was adjourned to 28 October, the date Harvard treats as its birthday.

What did John Harvard leave the young college on his deathbed, alongside £780?

He was a Puritan clergyman who had emigrated from England, and he never taught at the school that bears his name.

What single Latin word appears on the three open books of Harvard's shield?

The seal was designed by William Sumner Appleton, class of 1860, though the older 1650 seal also carried 'In Christi Gloriam'.

Which of these is Harvard's official school color?

Its sports teams take the name Harvard Crimson and compete in the Ivy League without athletic scholarships.

How many US presidents are Harvard alumni, the most of any university?

The list runs from John Adams and John Quincy Adams through the Roosevelts and Kennedy to George W. Bush.

Harvard's endowment is the largest of any university in the world. Roughly how big was it as of 2023?

Even so, only about 22 percent of the university's revenue comes from tuition, fees, room and board.

Harvard's oldest surviving building, completed in 1720, is which one on Harvard Yard?

It still houses freshmen on its upper floors, with the president's offices below.

Which library, the anchor of the world's largest academic library system, sits in Harvard Yard?

The system as a whole holds more than 20 million items across dozens of libraries.

Harvard's great library is a memorial to a 1907 graduate who died in what event?

His mother Eleanor, who survived, funded the building; the story that she demanded a swimming test for graduation is a campus legend.

The main library's stacks hold about 3.5 million books along roughly how much shelving?

The stacks double as the building's structure, making it the last major self-supporting masonry building put up in the US.

Who sculpted the John Harvard statue that stands in Harvard Yard?

French later created the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.

With no likeness of John Harvard surviving, whose face inspired the sculptor of his statue?

The inscription 'John Harvard, Founder, 1638' is the basis of the tour-guide routine about the 'statue of three lies'.

What do tourists do to the John Harvard statue in the mistaken belief that it is a student tradition?

Curators restored the toe's patina in 2021 and predicted it would be rubbed off again soon.

After a 1968 rivalry game ended 29–29, the student newspaper ran which famous headline?

Harvard had scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds to salvage the draw.

During the 1982 rivalry game, a weather balloon inflated at midfield bearing the letters of which school?

The balloon grew until it exploded, spraying powder over the field in one of the most famous college pranks.

Harvard's undergraduate humor magazine, founded in 1876, is called what?

Its alumni include Conan O'Brien, John Updike and Robert Benchley, and it is housed in a mock-Flemish castle near Harvard Square.

In 1953 the Harvard Crimson stole the Lampoon's ibis statue and presented it to which government?

The two student publications have feuded for generations across Harvard Square.

Graduates of Harvard's humor magazine launched which magazine in 1970?

Founders Doug Kenney and Henry Beard had first drawn attention with the Tolkien parody 'Bored of the Rings'.

Hasty Pudding Theatricals, formed in 1795, holds what distinction?

It is also the third-oldest in the world, and its cast was all-male, often in drag, until 2018.

The Hasty Pudding has named a Woman of the Year since 1951 and a Man of the Year since which year?

Honourees are 'roasted' at a banquet where hasty pudding is served for dessert.

Mark Zuckerberg launched 'TheFacebook' from his Harvard dorm on which date?

Months earlier his Facemash site, which rated students' attractiveness, had landed him in front of the Administrative Board.

Zuckerberg's earlier site Facemash asked users to do what?

By the end of launch day roughly 450 users had cast at least 22,000 votes.

Which 2010 film dramatised the founding of Facebook at Harvard?

Harvard would not allow filming on campus, so other colleges stood in for it.

The 1970 film 'Love Story' pairs a wealthy Harvard hockey player with a student from which college?

Radcliffe was Harvard's women's counterpart and was formally merged into the university in 1999.

Who became Harvard's first female president in 2007?

She was the university's 28th president and had been dean of its institute for advanced study.

Which Harvard president resigned in January 2024 after the shortest tenure in its history?

Provost Alan Garber took over as interim president and was later appointed through 2026–27.

For how many years was Charles William Eliot, who modernised Harvard, its president?

A chemist who had studied in Germany, he founded the graduate department that awarded Harvard's first PhDs in 1873.

Who in 1708 became the first Harvard president who was not also a clergyman?

His predecessor Increase Mather, a Puritan minister, had held the post from 1681 to 1701.

Harvard Law School, founded in 1817, was made possible by a 1779 bequest from whom?

It is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.

Harvard's school of medicine, founded in 1782, had what original name?

It moved from Cambridge to Boston in 1810 and now sits in the Longwood Medical Area.

Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration was later renamed for which president?

The Kennedy School had an endowment of $1.7 billion as of 2021.

Harvard Business School and Harvard Stadium sit in which Boston neighbourhood?

The university now owns more land there than in Cambridge itself.

How many residential houses accommodate Harvard upperclassmen?

Nine sit near the Charles River and three on the Quadrangle, each with its own dining hall and library.

The Blaschka Glass Flowers are a celebrated exhibit at which Harvard institution?

They belong to the Harvard University Herbaria collection housed within the museum.

Harvard's first intercollegiate ice hockey game, in 1898, was a 6–0 loss to which school?

Harvard later pioneered the line change, swapping whole forward lines in a 1923 game.

Every two years, Harvard and Yale field a combined track team against which pair of universities?

It is billed as the oldest continuous international amateur competition in the world.

Which Harvard women's team won an NCAA Division I national championship in 1990?

Men's ice hockey had won the school's first Division I title in 1989; women's rowing followed in 2003 and men's fencing in 2006 and 2024.

Who in 1895 became the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard?

He went on to co-found the NAACP and write 'The Souls of Black Folk'.

Which future US president was the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review?

The attention led to a publishing contract that became 'Dreams from My Father'.

Which 1904 Radcliffe graduate was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts?

She lived in Briggs Hall and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

The grassy centre of Harvard Yard where commencement is held is known as what?

It is bounded by the main library, Memorial Church, University Hall and Sever Hall.

Which religious movement originally shaped Harvard's undergraduate college?

It trained Congregational clergy until the curriculum was gradually secularised in the 18th century.

What was Harvard's inadequate pre-1915 library, completed in 1841, called?

It was declared full by 1863, more than half a century before its replacement opened.

Who was Harvard's first headmaster, taking office in 1637?

The following year the college acquired English North America's first known printing press.

How many intercollegiate sports teams does Harvard field, more than any other US college?

Like the other Ivy League schools, it is barred from offering athletic scholarships.

Which former Harvard fencing coach was at the centre of a 2020 bribes-for-admission scandal?

The fencing team had won the 2006 NCAA combined men's and women's championship.

Which of the Harvard Art Museums was formerly known as the Germanic Museum?

It covers central and northern European art, while the Fogg focuses on Western art and the Sackler on Asian, Mediterranean and Islamic art.

In which year did Radcliffe College formally merge into Harvard?

Harvard had already controlled admission, instruction and housing for Radcliffe's women since 1971.