Headlines from Harvard’s history

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Illustration depicting a summer-school student sunbathing on the steps of Widener Library

Illustration by Mark Steele

1913

The Alumni Bulletin reports the laying of the cornerstone of the Harvard Club of Boston. A spokesman says the club will be “characterized by academic simplicity. We desire to be famous, not for our canvas-backs, but for our glorified corn-beef hash.”

1938

“A new function is developing” for the Harvard Summer School, state the Bulletin’s editors. “Thoughtful adults are discovering that the rapidly changing life of this dynamic world makes education a continuous process which can never be completed at any specified age or date. Many are turning to the summer school for opportunities to continue their intellectual growth, to increase their athletic enjoyment, and to gain new vitality for the obligations of modern life.”

1943

The Fogg Museum rearranges its storage areas to protect works of art in the event of an enemy bombardment of Cambridge.

1963

On the Peace Corps’ second anniversary, the 43 College alumni serving abroad place Harvard second only to Berkeley as a source of A.B.s in the Corps.

1978

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences discusses the proposed “Core Program,” described by its chief proponent, Dean Henry Rosovsky, as “not [going] back to basics—I detest that phrase—but forward to modern liberal education.”

2003 

President Lawrence H. Summers unveils a “down payment” on financial aid, focusing on the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the public-service-related professional schools, including a package of grants and no-fee, below-market-rate loans.

Related topics

You might also like

A theatrical reenactment explores a 1976 clash between science and democracy.

Nobel Prize recipient Joseph E. Murray dedicated much of his career to organ transplant surgery.

Harvard Releases Database of 1,613 People Enslaved by University Affiliates

Research continues to track down living descendants.

Most popular

The former economics concentrator brings his talent for crunching numbers to netminding.

Naval architect William Francis Gibbs, designer of the SS United States

Brief life of America’s greatest naval architect: 1886-1967

Human origins driven by technological and cultural revolutions

Ofer Bar-Yosef argues that cultural and technological revolutions have been more important than biological ones during the past 100, 000 years.

Explore More From Current Issue

Black and white photo of Joseph Murray in a white lab coat sitting in an office.

Nobel Prize recipient Joseph E. Murray dedicated much of his career to organ transplant surgery.

A woman with long, silver hair rests her chin on her hand, wearing a black top.

Author and Harvard Divinity School writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams finds beauty in the world around us.

Five individuals are posed in a monochrome outdoor setting near a cinderblock building, some standing, some seated.

Photographer and writer Morgan Smith chronicles life beyond the violence in Ciudad Juárez and other Mexican towns.