Harvard History & Traditions

A bride and groom in formal attire cut a tiered cake at a candlelit wedding reception table.

The College Pump | May-June 2025

We Were Students Once...

Young love: the poem, plus enduring lessons from a public-health pioneer

by Primus VI

Nuttall during his time at Harvard (the circa 1828 portrait is attributed to J. Whitfield)

Features | May-June 2015

Vita: Thomas Nuttall

Brief life of a pioneering naturalist: 1786-1859

by John Nelson

Calvert W. Watkins

The College Pump | May-June 2015

The Pump Overflows

Astonishing linguist Calvert Watkins

More than 20 pieces of type dug up in Harvard Yard have been dated to the seventeenth century.

Museums & Collections |

The “Little Object That Speaks Loudly”

Archaeologists examine printing type found deep in Harvard Yard.

by Stephanie Garlock

Marie Heaney, the poet's widow, in the newly dedicated Heaney suite.

Books & Literary Life |

A New Life for Heaney’s Home at Harvard

Adams House members, past and present, dedicate a suite to the Irish poet who lived among them.

by Sophia Nguyen

Treasure | March-April 2015

Early BMOCs

Harvard’s collection of early American paintings are mostly portraits, all men.

by Stephanie Garlock

John Harvard's Journal | March-April 2015

Yesterday’s News

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

Lafayette became a friend of American artist and inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, who depicted him with Revolutionary icons Washington and Franklin in this 1826 portrait.

Features | March-April 2015

Vita: Lafayette

Brief life of an American champion: 1757-1834

by Laura Auricchio

Here lies an eager patriot.

The College Pump | March-April 2015

Youthful Ardors

Love Story locale, and other passionate pursuits

See you. A much-admired pair of legs and shoes disappear into a window above the shops on Haight Street, San Francisco. The Reichardts have seen it all.

The College Pump | January-February 2015

So Long for a Time

Baez, Dylan, and more vignettes from Harvard’s class of 1964

Alumni | January-February 2015

LSD Testing in the 1950s

A researcher hopes to contact volunteer participants in “truth sera” experiments.