Harvard History

Stories that explore the institution’s rich history, from archival moments to evolving traditions.

A man sitting at a wooden table in a formal setting with portraits on the wall.

Cambridge Once Fought Harvard’s DNA Research. Now There’s a Play About It.

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

by Laurel M. Shugart

Harvard Business School logo on a campus cornhole board

Over the River Dept.

Cornhole at HBS, prayer and meditation at SEAS, minerologist’s meter, eclipse aficionado

by Primus VI

Bob Odenkirk and Jennifer Coolidge

Bob Odenkirk and Jennifer Coolidge Are Hasty Pudding’s Man and Woman of the Year

The honorees will visit Cambridge next week for a parade, a show, and a (loving) roast.

by Nancy Walecki

Elif Batuman

The “Harvard Novel” Enters the Twenty-first Century

On Elif Batuman’s fictions

by Beth Blum

Cover of Chinese edition of book, Harvard A to Z

Bookish

Course catalog redux, a Chinese take on Harvard “glitz and glamour,” and the mathmetician-movie buff

by Primus VI

Illustration of Cambridge in deep snow, not cleaned up

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Henry Rosovsky

Farewell

Remembering Henry Rosovsky

Fernando Zóbel-Montojo

Brief life of an abstract painter: 1924-1984

by Felipe Pereda

Official portrait of Lawrence H. Summers

Portraying Larry Summers

Celebrating the twenty-seventh president—and assessing his legacy

by John S. Rosenberg

Humorous illustration of campus police seeing late-night daters’ final kiss

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Headlines from Harvard’s history

George Reisner, 1924

George Reisner

Brief life of a pioneering Egyptologist: 1867-1942

by Peter Der Manuelian