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Historical Tour of Harvard

The free, student-led public walking tour through Harvard Yard provides a history of the University, general information, and a unique view on the student experience.

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Exploring harvard's history.

An inside look at the University’s new virtual historical tour

By Livia Goldschmitt Harvard Summer Youth Employment participant, and rising junior at the German International School Boston

With nearly four hundred years since its founding, Harvard undoubtedly has a fascinating history.

This history, the university's path from its founding in 1636 until the present day, is captured for listeners around the world in the Virtual Historical Tour of Harvard offered by the Harvard Visitor's Center.

"This isn't just Harvard's history, but also Boston's history and even America's'', said the Visitor Center and Digital Content Manager, Maggie Dawson. Dawson manages many aspects of the Visitor Center’s operations, especially working with student staff on tours and other special projects.

The Harvard tours on campus are well known to many local residents. But in March 2020, Dawson and her team were confronted with a new challenge: "How can we welcome people to Harvard in the passionate way we have so far, with these new circumstances?" Together they created the virtual student-led tour.

The result that was created undoubtedly meets the challenge.

Harvard has one of the largest libraries in the country, which is in fact just one in a system of libraries on campus. Besides the well-known Widener Library, there is also Schlesinger Library and Radcliffe Library, and all of these are connected online.

Dawson and the students worked with information from all of these sources, to check the information they use in tours, as well as use resources such as pictures, to bring the tour to life.

This assures that during the tour, the audience is given far more than a cursory look at the campus. The origins of buildings covered during the tour are thoroughly explained, as well as modern day functions.

An example of this would be Massachusetts Hall. Built in 1720, it is the second oldest academic building in the country and was originally used as dormitories for soldiers during the American Revolutionary war.

The modern purposes of Massachusetts Hall include the offices for Harvard University's president, as well as the dormitories for 14 freshman students.

The tour is given by those who get daily insight into life at the university—the students. Harvard students hail from over 80 different countries and all of the 50 states. Those giving the tour each come from a different background, while sharing common interests like history and public speaking.

"These students are a part of Harvard's history in the making", said Dawson. "You get to see passionate, genuine people who want to represent their university".

Besides the factual parts of history, the student-guides include anecdotes about student life and the Harvard experience.

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The Harvard University Visitor Center offers in-person tours daily. Additional tour offerings include the self-guided historical tour on the Visit Harvard mobile app, available to download on  iOS  and  Android  devices. During business hours you may purchase a Self-Guided Tour Map for $3 available in multiple languages.

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Harvard Campus Tour: 15 Best Places to Visit at Harvard

From lofty libraries to picturesque walks, from Harvard Square to Charles River, here are the 15 best places to include on your Harvard campus tour!

Whether you’re a new Harvard student starting your school year, or visiting Harvard University on a campus tour, there is so much to discover. My lovely university is a heaven for students, tourists and photographers alike. During my time at Harvard, I got plenty of visitors, both friends and family. And for everyone, it was an overwhelming experience taking in all the beauty of our breathtaking campus.

Harvard University is one of the most visited places in Boston, and even all of East Coast. A Harvard University tour is a memorable experience, since every visitor has seen parts of the campus either in movies, pictures or places that have been inspired by Harvard architecture.

Harvard Campus Tour – Where to Go

Harvard University is full of new and old buildings, beautiful architecture and iconic spots to take your pictures. Of course, some of the best places at Harvard are reserved for the students, so if you aren’t one, it’s best to visit with a student or during the Open House.

But whether you have a Harvard ID or not, Harvard University will have a lot to offer you if you’re visiting. From hallowed libraries to historic dining halls, busy dorms to picturesque riverside walks, here is my list of the 15 best places to visit at Harvard.

Harvard Square and the Coop

Harvard Square may not be the most iconic place at Harvard if you’re just googling images of the university. But for every student and visitor, this is where the tour starts. Harvard has a whole T station (metro, subway or underground) dedicated to it, called Harvard Square, which can be the starting point of your Harvard university tour. It’s also the meeting point if you ever lose your tour partners!

Located at the junction of John F. Kennedy Street and Massachusetts Avenue is the building of Cambridge Savings Bank, which has become something of a landmark over the years. Along with this building, other structures and shops such as bookstores, toy stores, and a Bank of America also surround Harvard Square.

Harvard Square is unmissable, central and is the congregation point, where students run into old friends, meet new acquaintances and grab a bite to eat. The most popular and central spot is Starbucks, below the Cambridge Savings Bank, which is right at the corner of Mass Ave, and opened while I was a student at Harvard. Right outside is the Cambridge Visitor’s Information Center booth.

Some other popular spots next to it are the Au Bon Pain, next to Starbucks, and The Coop, across the road, where you can buy all possible books and official Harvard merchandise.

Harvard Yard & John Harvard statue

The green space between undergraduate dormitories is called Harvard Yard, which is enclosed by iron fences, walls and gates. Harvard Yard is the most iconic place at Harvard University, and is a must on any Harvard campus tour.

It is one of the oldest areas that became a part of Harvard University in the late 1600s, housing Harvard College dorms. Now it is also home to the famous John Harvard Statue, where you can see throngs of tourists taking pictures every time, everyday, touching his shoe to take pictures.

However, Harvard students would never touch it, because we all know that urinating on John Harvard’s shoe is one of three traditional deeds some Harvard College students strive to complete. It still remains the most touched spots of Harvard University. Sigh.

Harvard Yard is spread over 25 acres (10 ha) and it’s boundaries have 25 gates, opening at Mass Ave, Science Center. The yard is also home to libraries and memorial church, where the Harvard graduation ceremony takes place annually.

The Yard is the best place to soak the sun and read, be around College students. If you’re traveling in the fall season, it’s a beautiful place to take pictures. Here, you can see the New England fall colors in their full glory.

Widener Library

This is right in the part of Harvard Yard that is behind the John Harvard statue (called Tercentenary Theater). Widener library is the oldest one at Harvard University. And it’s the largest private and university-owned library in the United States. It is home to 3.5 million books, countless stacks and all types of reading spaces.

The library is named after Harvard College alumus and book collector Harry Elkins Widener, who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

Although Harvard has many beautiful libraries, Widener is my favorite one. With high ceilings, chandeliers and royal chairs, it’s easy to forget Widener can also have so many hidden low-lit spots in its depths too. I used to spend all my free time there as much as possible, discovering new reading spots and books. My favorites were the comfy high-backed chairs that face the tall windows opening into Harvard Yard.

Memorial Church

Situated right across Widener Library, this is another iconic building in Harvard University and one of the best parts of Harvard. Most Harvard students see and pass by it daily, whether on their way to their dorms, dining halls or classes. And of course, almost all Harvard students graduate here, although not every student has been inside it!

The interiors themselves are often used for ceremonies, commemoration, etc. For example, the only time I ever went inside was for a candlelight vigil for Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Although every year, the Church is home to bittersweet memories for everyone. The area in front of Memorial Church, the central green of Harvard Yard, is known as Tercentenary Theater. This is where the Harvard commencement ceremony takes place every year. Many celebrities and famous Harvard alumni have delivered graduation speeches on its porch, such as Steven Spielberg, Mark Zuckerberg, J.K. Rowling and John F. Kennedy.

Memorial Hall & Sanders Theater

Memorial Hall is yet another iconic building in Harvard University. The building is located near the Yard, at the junction of Cambridge, Kirkland, and Quincy Streets. It has high Victorian Gothic architectural style. Constructed in 1878, the building has many stained glass windows, ribbed vaults, spires and pointed arches.

Also called Mem Hall or just ‘Mem’, the building used to be the background of the John Harvard Statue in the early 1920s and before. Mem Hall houses three parts: Sanders Theater, Annenberg Hall and Memorial Transept.

Memorial Transept is a vault that anyone can enter, and is serves as the congregation space for Sanders Theater. It has a high vaulted ceiling and large stained-glass windows above the entrance on either side. Great place to take pictures, if only it were better lit. Either way, it’s an important one to include in your Harvard campus tour.

The Sanders Theater is Harvard University’s largest indoor space. Used for lectures, concerts and most notably, the annual graduation ceremony for Harvard College students. Sanders is where they receive their diplomas.

Even Harvard students aren’t allowed inside, unless it’s for a mandatory lecture or they have a pass for a particular lecture or ceremony. Most lectures that take place in Sanders are by celebrities or famous alumni, such as Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Theodore Roosevelt have spoken there. One of the times I have attended a lecture there was when Bill Gates came to speak.

Although if you are accompanied by a Harvard student and you request, they may allow you to take a peek inside when the theater is not in use.

Annenberg Hall

Located inside the Memorial Hall, Annenberg Hall serves as the dining hall for freshmen of Harvard College. When it was constructed in 1874, people from all over the country came to visit, since it was one of the largest indoor meeting spaces ever constructed in the US.

It is also breathtakingly beautiful, and serves a large selection of food (yum!). With its large expansive, unobstructed space, Annenberg Hall is designed in Gothic style. It has stained glass windows, wooden trusses and vaulted ceiling. The hall is decorated with large hanging candelabras. Its walls have paintings of benefactors and presidents and its ceiling is so high I’m not even sure it exists!

Originally meant to be a place for alumni meetings, Annenberg was soon converted to a dining commons. Now it is used for the freshmen students only. And as a grad student, I only got the opportunity to eat there during the days my own dining hall was closed. (Of course, then my dorm mates and I loved it, because we were treated to their desserts, ice-cream and beautiful entrées.)

It is also used for dances, banquets, examinations and more. Also, Annenberg is what inspired the Great Hall in Harry Potter movies. Only Annenberg Hall is more beautiful.

Read more: Annenberg Hall & Harvard Memorial Hall: All You Need to Know

Science Center

Located north of Harvard Yard, Science Center is home to the computer labs, classrooms and science library for undergraduates. The first floor also houses a nice cafe where I frequently lunched.

To someone expecting the classic Harvard style of architecture, Science Center is not much to look at. In fact, not even many Harvard students find it pretty. That’s because it was constructed in the ’70s, amid the modernist movement, when designers sought to do something different than the existing antiquated Georgian architectural style.

The plaza in front of the Science Center is home to the beautiful Tanner fountain, where kids are often found playing and water-splashing! Students often put up Yard sales, College club events and protest rallies there. Oftentimes, you can also find food-trucks, farmers’ markets and even Quidditch practices there.

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Graduate School of Design or GSD is my alma mater, which is mainly located on 48 Quincy Street in a building named Gund Hall. The Gund is also constructed in glass, steel and concrete (just like the Science Center) and is different from the iconic Harvard architectural style.

Gund Hall has a stepped design, where different studios form the levels, called trays. The building has a lot of clear glass, allowing natural lights into the trays, where students have their drawing boards or desks.

GSD also has a yard where student works are often exhibited, including those using 3D printing, robotic machines, CNC machines, etc.

The area near the entrance at the first floor of GSD is used to exhibit student work throughout the year. These exhibitions are specifically designed to give a new “interior look” to the space with each exhibit, often theme-based or interactive. This space also houses temporary events, student performances and the spillage from the events happening in cafeteria called Chauhaus and the Piper Auditorium.

Harvard Law School & HLS Library

Harvard Law School (HLS) is located near the northwest of the Harvard Yard. The HLS library is a beautiful old building with a big yard in front of it. Named Langdell Hall, it is immediately recognizable with its large windows, columns and Harvardian architecture style.

HLS library has a large, high-ceilinged chandelier-lit reading space with countless stacks filled with law-books. But they serve free hot-chocolate at night, so it’s a good place for non-law-students to study, too. You can get in with a Harvard ID, and discover their chessboard coffee tables, too! HLS library is my second favorite library after Widener, and was also my first workplace after my Harvard graduation, where I worked for a whole year to create digital learning spaces.

Wassterstein Hall Harvard Law School

Take a secret underground passage from the HLS library and it takes you to the newly built Wasserstein Hall. (You can also get to it from above the ground, tho, but where’s the fun in that?) It is one of the newest and most beautiful buildings in all of Harvard University, and was opened when I was a student.

The Wassterstein houses a large fireplace-lit study space with the coziest high-backed chairs, two cafeterias and a bar, pool table and the most gorgeous toilets you can find on-campus. Even balconies and a grand semi-circular staircase. What more reason could there be to include it in your Harvard campus tour? I used to lunch here everyday when I was an employee at the HLS library, and the first-floor cafe is great for an evening snack (they have great fries).

Natural History Museum

Located north of the Science Center and near the graduate dorms, the Natural History Museum is a great place where many students don’t even go throughout their time at Harvard! Although admission is open only to Harvard community.

It is such a hidden gem within the university, especially to go if you’re visiting harvard with kids. In fact, the only time I went here was when I was showing my parents around the campus the day before my graduation ceremony (they loved it!).

The museum is home to many permanent and temporary exhibits that any student will love. These include a paleontology exhibit, which has the fossils of Kronosaurus, a 42-foot-long prehistoric marine reptile. Also, there’s exhibits of birds, wildlife microbes and a famous glass-flower exhibition.

Radcliffe Quad

Located north of the Harvard campus, the Radcliffe Quad, or just “Quad”, is not much of a touristy spot, but is a great place to visit if you’re a Harvard graduate student and looking to explore the campus. The Radcliffe Quadrangle houses the Quad green and undergraduate dormitories, including the oft-photographed Cabot house and Pforzheimer house.

The walk from Cambridge Commons to Radcliffe Quadrangle is a beautiful one, and depending on the season, you’ll see brilliant tulips or fall colors.

Malkin Athletic Center & Harvard Stadium

Harvard stadium.

The Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) and the Harvard Stadium are located at completely different parts of the campus, but I have to include them together here.

The Harvard Stadium is south of the campus, across from HBS. The world-renowned stadium was built in 1903, and is a National Historic Landmark. It’s an essential part of any Harvard campus tour.

The Stadium is primarily a College football stadium, but they also use it for music festivals and other sports. It’s next to the humongous Blodgett Pool (one one that you see Robert Langdon swimming in in the Da Vinci Code movie).

Malkin Athletic Center (MAC)

The MAC is my favorite gymnasium at Harvard and is the perf spot for all Harvard students to work out. The gym is located south of the Harvard square, and is a large five story facility.

In the center is a large pool, and the upper floors have the cardio rooms with a view of the pool. Actually, I find the group exercise mezannine space overlooking the pool even prettier! This is where I discovered my passion for Zumba (miss it!). The building also houses many weight rooms, strength training equipment, basketball court and what not.

Charles River

The Charles river is an iconic body that divides the main Harvard campus. The north part of the campus on the north of Charles is the Cambridge campus, that borders at Memorial Drive. And the southern one is Allston campus, that starts at Soldiers Field Road. These two are connected by the Anderson Memorial Bridge, which is the perfect spot to take pictures and view both sides. It’s a must-see spot when visiting Harvard and MIT.

The space next to Memorial Drive is where you’ll see the bike path, students lounging around after classes, and skateboarders. The John F. Kennedy Memorial Park is right next to it, featuring a fountain. And while you’re here, also walk around to discover tiny lanes, tree-lined avenues. If you’re on a self-guided harvard tour, walk west, and enjoy a quiet cappuccino at Darwin’s, or go up north to have a cup of tea at Pete’s Cafe.

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School is the top-pick for MBA tourists or student-visitors who like business management. Located in Allston, the HBS campus is a bit separated from the main campus by the Charles River. However, it’s a beautiful campus that all students and visitors should check out on their Harvard campus tour.

Right from across the river, you’ll see the iconic Baker Library, a world-famous building. It has the best place to take a picture at Harvard – in the HBS yard, with Baker Library forming the backdrop. And if you want one with the Harvard sign, check out the HBS sign at the back entrance.

The next spot to check out is Spangler Center, which is the student center. A relatively new building, Spangler has the same Georgian architecture style that the old Harvard buildings have. Inside is a massive student lounge that’s actually the last place I can concentrate in, because it seems a bit daunting.

The HBS cafeteria is inside too, which is rather nice and serves different cuisines everyday. The dining hall is gorgeous with large tables and chandeliers (although nobody joins you if you’re eating alone). Step underground to their bar and also check out their underground passages while you’re at it. (It leads to the library).

– Experience the Harvard Student Life with Me: How is Life at Harvard – Is Harvard Worth It? Analyzing Costs to Benefits for a Degree – What Kinds of Students Get into Harvard?

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Tagging along on a student-led historical tour

On a recent crisp, sunny morning, Rachel “Rae” Gilchrist waited at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center for the first of two tours she would lead that day. For Gilchrist, a fast talker with the gift of gab, working as a campus tour guide is the perfect job.

“I like to talk to people,” says Gilchrist ’20. “I like to make them laugh and entertain them. I talk. They listen. It’s perfect.”

Gilchrist is among 20 students who work at the Harvard University Visitor Center , answering questions from guests and leading the University’s official historical tours .

So far this year, the center has served 34,000 visitors. The tours’ two biggest selling points? They’re free, and they’re led by Harvard students.

Gilchrist, a native of Bridgewater, Va., and the first in her family to attend college, earns extra money by working 30 hours a week as a guide on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at a computer lab on Sundays.

The tour job, though, is by far her favorite, she says, not only because it pays $16 an hour but because she gets to tell people about her School.

“Even if you go to Harvard for four years, you don’t necessarily know all the historical information about the University,” she says. “I don’t think I would have known the things I know if I hadn’t gotten this job.”

The Gazette followed Gilchrist on a tour, and here are some of the highlights.

Wadsworth House

Gilchrist greets a group of 35 who hail from England, Argentina, Israel, and the U.S., among other places.

“Welcome to Harvard,” she says at the first stop: Wadsworth House, a 1726 Colonial that sits on Massachusetts Avenue, amid the buzz of students, buses, cars, and passersby.

Built initially for the president of the College, Gilchrist tells the group, the yellow clapboard House served as headquarters for George Washington when he led the Continental Army in 1775. Many people, including a number of students, don’t know that Washington slept there. The mention of Washington’s name elicits oohs and aahs.

Wadsworth, the second-oldest building in Harvard Yard, is considered the University’s “front door” and is now where the University Marshall receives foreign dignitaries and distinguished visitors.

Gilchrist calls the group’s attention to a plaque on the side of the structure that commemorates Titus, Venus, Bilhah, and Juba, slaves who lived and worked in the house during the 18th century and were owned by Harvard presidents Benjamin Wadsworth and Edward Holyoke. The plaque was dedicated during Drew Faust’s tenure as University president in a special ceremony attended by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a legendary leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

“Before the plaque was added in 2016, the contributions of Titus, Venus, Bilhah, and Juba to Harvard for a long time had been erased,” Gilchrist says. “Now we can remember them. Their hard work made this University what it is.”

Before moving to the next stop, Gilchrist offers some Harvard trivia, including when it was founded (1636), by whom (Massachusetts Bay Colony), and for whom it was named (John Harvard, the School’s first benefactor).

“In 1638, after John Harvard’s death, he bequeathed half his estate and all of his library and the institution was renamed after him, and that started a long-lasting trend of buildings being renamed after donors,” Gilchrist says with a grin.

Winking, she asks her group to pay attention to these pieces of information because “there will be a quiz at the end …”

Harvard Hall

The group moves to the heart of Harvard Yard. Gilchrist points to two old red-brick buildings and shares that those were the first-year dorms of Malia Obama ’21 and Matt Damon, drawing smiles and nods. She then notes where Harvard Indian College once stood. Founded in the mid-17th century, its mission was to educate Native American youth.

In front of Mass Hall, the oldest building in the Yard, Gilchrist recounts the history of the red-brick early Georgian structure, built between 1718 and 1720. Washington occupied the building with 640 soldiers in the late 1700s. It now serves as the offices for Harvard’s president, and the top floors are dorms where 12 lucky first-years live.

Washington occupied the building with 640 soldiers in the late 1700s.

A few feet away sits Harvard Hall, Gilchrist’s favorite stop because of its rich history. First built in 1644, it rotted to the ground about a quarter of a century later. The second building was put up in 1677, but it was destined to be only be the second of three.

It contained most of the College’s books, including those donated by Harvard, besides a collection of scientific instruments. “Until a cold and stormy night on Jan. 24, 1764,” says Gilchrist. “Students couldn’t check out the books; they had to be read in the library, but a student by the name of Ephraim Briggs had taken out a book, ‘The Christian Warfare Against the Devil, World and Flesh’ …

“And thank goodness he did,” she says, pausing for effect, “because the building burned down that night. He returned the book, which was the only surviving book of John Harvard’s collection. The president of Harvard thanked Briggs and then expelled him … No good deed goes unpunished.”

Science Center Plaza

A senior concentrating in astrophysics, Gilchrist has a soft spot for anything related to science. At Science Center Plaza, a major crossroad between Harvard Yard and the Science Center, she revels in describing the telescopes on the roof and the center’s significance for students.

The Science Center is the hub of first-year academics, Gilchrist says. “Almost every single freshman takes at least one class in this building. There are five large lecture halls where a lot of introductory classes are taught, and they don’t necessarily have to do with science.”

Over the course of the tour it becomes apparent why having students lead the tours is a major draw. Interest is high in what classes and campus life are like, and the tours give people a chance to chat with students about it, said Robin Parker, associate director of the visitor center.

“Who better to represent Harvard University than a Harvard student?” asked Parker.

When people ask Gilchrist how she feels about being a Harvard student, she is not shy about it. “I love it here,” she says. “But I also feel a strong obligation to make my Harvard degree count by using it to help others.”

People react with surprise when Gilchrist tells them the price tag of a Harvard education (about $70,000 a year) and also when she explains how financial aid works at the University.

“It’s entirely need-based,” she says. “If your family makes less than $65,000 a year, Harvard will offer you a very generous package with an almost 99 percent discount, and if your family makes more than $65,000, it can still offer you a very considerable financial aid, but first you have to apply and be accepted.”

If anyone asks Gilchrist any detailed admission questions, she reminds them she is doing a historical and not an admissions tour, which are handled by the Office of Admissions and include an information session. When doing private tours for high school students, Gilchrist tends to offer a little more information about the process, but she refrains from going deep.

Gilchrist highlights the social clubs — the College recognizes about 400 of them — which help students put some balance in their busy lives. “I myself am in the Harvard University Band,” she says. “And we specialize in shenanigans, and occasionally play instruments.”

To graduate, students must take 32 courses, one-third in their field of concentration, another third in general education, and the final third in anything they’d like to explore. “That’s the beauty of a liberal arts education,” she says.

Memorial Hall and Church

On the outside, Memorial Hall resembles a church. Built between 1870 and 1878 to honor 136 Harvard graduates who fought for the Union and died in the Civil War, the building is an example of high Victorian Gothic architecture and is a National Historic Landmark.

As Gilchrist’s group enters the building, heads tilt back as the visitors look up to admire the high, vaulted ceiling, the stained-glass windows, and the black-walnut paneling inside. The stop is one of the most popular for selfies.

Memorial Hall also houses Sanders Theatre, which is used for concerts, classes, and special ceremonies, and Annenberg Hall, the first-year dining hall that can seat more than 1,000 students at a time and bears a resemblance to the Great Hall in Hogwarts Castle.

“Can we take a peek at Annenberg?” is a common request.

To the sightseers’ chagrin, neither the theater nor the dining hall is open to the public. “This is the moment when I have to break hearts,” says Gilchrist.

“Annenberg Hall is exclusive for first-years only,” says Gilchrist. “If it makes you feel any better, I can’t go inside there myself. They are very strict about it.”

On a recent tour of high school students from India, Shobhna Aggarwal, a ninth-grader at Apeejay School, Punjab, was intrigued by Annenberg.

“I’d love to see the dining hall,” Aggarwal says. “I’m a huge ‘Harry Potter’ fan. It must be amazing.”

After Memorial Hall, Gilchrist leads the group to the center of the Yard. As they stand on the steps of Memorial Church, she points to the green expanse between the church and Widener Library, where Commencement Exercises take place every May.

“Fun fact,” she says. “Every building in Harvard, including Memorial Church, has classrooms.”

Nearly 7,000 students graduate every year, and the Yard is filled with about 20,000 folding chairs for students, their relatives, and guests. The festivities feature centuries-old traditions and notable speakers. In recent years graduates have heard from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, and two of Harvard’s most famous dropouts, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Both Gates and Zuckerberg received honorary degrees when they came to speak.

The weather can be awful, says Gilchrist, “but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event as a Harvard student. They give you two guest tickets as a graduate. My family right now is fighting to the death.”

Widener Library

Directly across from Memorial Church sits the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, an imposing building whose entrance is graced with 12 Roman pillars and stands atop a 27-step granite staircase. Widener has 10 floors filled with 3.5 million books and is the largest university library in the world.

Gilchrist tells the group the library’s tragic origin story. Widener, a Philadelphia businessman and book collector who graduated from Harvard in 1907, died on the Titanic in 1912.

“Harry is about to board a lifeboat with his father and mother, but he realizes he had forgotten the second edition of Francis Bacon’s ‘Essais’ in his room in the Titanic and he goes back, followed by his dad,” says Gilchrist. “Neither of them is ever heard from again.”

Widener’s mother, Eleanor Elkins Widener, donated her son’s rare-book collection, including a Gutenberg Bible and a Shakespeare Folio, and $2 million to the College to build a library in honor of her son’s memory. But she set two conditions: that no stone, brick, or mortar of the outside of the building ever be changed and that a replica of Widener’s home study be situated in the center of the library.

“In the center of the room, there’s his Gutenberg Bible,” Gilchrist said. “And every day, somebody turns a page of the Gutenberg Bible, and every day, somebody places fresh flowers in a vase on his desk.”

Some say there was a third condition: that every incoming student pass a swim test (Widener didn’t know how to swim). But that’s a myth.

John Harvard Statue

As the tour wraps up, Gilchrist leads the group to the last stop: the iconic namesake statue.

Located in front of University Hall, the life-size bronze can’t be missed. It is often surrounded by tourists and visitors who line up to take pictures with it. Along with the Statue of Liberty and Lincoln Memorial, it’s one of the most-photographed statues in the country, says Gilchrist.

Following a superstition of unknown origin, most visitors touch the figure’s feet hoping it will bring good luck. The constant rubbing, which has prevented a patina from developing, has buffed the left foot shiny.

Attired as a 17th-century clergyman, the young man sits on a chair, a book balanced on his right knee, with three lines inscribed: “John Harvard. Founder. 1638.”

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“This statue is also known as the ‘statue of three lies,’” says Gilchrist. “Can anyone tell me what those lies are?”

After a brief silence, Gilchrist reminds the group the University was founded in 1636, not 1638, and by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, not John Harvard. And the third lie?

“That’s not John Harvard,” Gilchrist says, as people erupt in laughter. “That’s some guy, a particularly regal-looking guy.”

All portraits of Harvard were lost in the fire of 1764. Unveiled in 1884, the model for the statue was Sherman Hoar, a Harvard student and descendant of Harvard’s fourth president, Leonard Hoar.

The tour left Maria Laura Santarelli, a tourist from Argentina, with a desire to come back. After taking a picture next to the statue, she expressed a feeling common among visitors: “I wish my son could come here.”

When Gilchrist announces the tour’s end, people clap enthusiastically. While they linger to take pictures, Gilchrist walks back to the Smith Center. She has to get ready for her next tour.

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Learn from current students, stroll through Harvard Yard, and discover historic Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

We offer daily information sessions and campus tours, Monday through Friday, starting at 9:30 am. Registration is required, so remember to sign up before you arrive. View upcoming dates at https://apply.college.harvard.edu/portal/campus-visit

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Historical Places

The Nashua River Valley was the home territory of the Nashaway Indigenous people. The first colonial building in the area now called Harvard was in 1667-72 when John Prescott built a grist mill on Nonacoicus, or Bowers Brook, at Old Mill Road. The town of Harvard was incorporated in 1732 from land formerly belonging to Lancaster, Groton, and Stow.

Significant historic places in Harvard.

The original town common was much larger than it is today. The current bounds of the Common were set by 1830, comprising around only nine acres and the burial ground. By the end of the 19th century, the Common was a bustling commercial center located along important routes of the day, with a beautified Common, two churches, a public library, a general store, and retail shops. Today the town Common is a Historic District valued for its beauty and history.

Still River

Still River is a village located on the southwest side of Harvard. Noted for its views across the Nashua River valley to Mount Wachusett, Still River is home to the Harvard Historical Society, the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge, and St Benedict’s Abbey. Major Simon Willard, an original settler whose large family included nine grandsons, held a major portion of the land in Still River. It was once known for its large dairy farms.

Shaker Village

Harvard’s history includes many experiments with alternative lifestyles, beginning with Shadrach Ireland in the northeast corner of town. He fled to Harvard to establish his own religious community, proclaiming his immortality. When he was proved mortal, his Square House was bought by Mother Ann Lee, whose group of Shakers established a small village that occupied the area from the 1781 to 1919. Now private homes, the Shaker Village Historic District preserves the aura of the historical Shaker settlement.

In 1910 Clara Endicott Sears, a wealthy and well educated woman, built a summer home on the summit of Prospect Hill. Her vast acreage included the abandoned farmhouse to which Bronson Alcott had brought his family, including 10-year-old Louisa May, from Concord in 1843 to establish a utopian community. The experiment lasted only seven months. In admiration for what Alcott had tried to do, Miss Sears restored the farmhouse and opened it as a museum in 1914. She went on to create three more museums on the property, which has magnificent views of the Nashua River Valley.

Bare Hill Pond

Still the place to relax. Once upon a time, people  sold chunks of cut ice.

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Harvard’s Tour App Highlights Overlooked History

Veritas , the Latin word for “truth” and Harvard’s motto, is visible all around the University’s campus—indoors and out and in myriad forms. Look above the door of Widener Library and it appears sculpted in stone. It is etched in stained glass in Memorial Hall’s transept and worked in metal on a Harvard Yard fence and a gateway to Harvard’s Soldiers Field in Allston, to name just a few places and forms.

Nearly four centuries after it was first adopted as Harvard’s official motto , Veritas will take on even greater weight and meaning when the Presidential Initiative on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery (H&LS) report and recommendations are released.

To help make the report’s findings more tangible, Alexandria Russell, the HL&S research fellow focused on digital humanities, worked with colleagues at Harvard Radcliffe Institute to create a tour that participants can explore virtually or in real life. The tour connects historical sites on and off campus to the University’s involvement with enslavement, and it also honors Black excellence and achievement.

“The H&LS initiative’s goal was to convey major themes of the report while also allowing visitors to reconceptualize spaces and historical narratives that they likely have already encountered,” said Russell, who chose an impressive and diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students to serve as virtual tour guides. “The students walk past these tour stops daily and certainly have opinions about many of them. These students are exploring the University’s past, and changing and growing in each phase of their educational journey here.”

Keep reading to get a sneak peak of some of the featured sites and to hear the students’ illuminating perspectives about Harvard and Veritas .

Discovering a Hero

Each day on his way to class during the 2019–2020 academic year, Noah Gold ’22 would dash across Cambridge Common solely focused on getting to class on time. Before submitting an application to be a voice actor for the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative tour app, he never realized the park is a “veritable outdoor museum.”

Gold, who hails from Potomac, Maryland, was also surprised to learn Harvard University had anything to do with slavery. “I feel like it’s an important enough topic that everybody should have heard of it,” he explained. “It made me think more in-depth about how Harvard and slavery coexisted and how the University clearly benefited from slavery.”

Once Gold received his assignment for the tour, he conducted research on Prince Hall, a Black Bostonian who the City of Cambridge commemorated in 2010 with a memorial in Cambridge Common for his efforts to abolish slavery and support enslaved and freed Blacks.

“He hosted all these events and raised funds to make sure that even the people who were still enslaved had a better quality of life,” Gold said. “He brought the fight to the political realm, to the judicial realm. Unfortunately, slavery in the United States didn’t end until about 100 years later, but he still made a lasting impression.”

Newly armed with this knowledge, Gold discovered that his friends were just as uninformed about Harvard’s role in slavery and the slave trade as he was. He also has discussed the tour with his entire family, and he is committed to walking the tour with them when they attend his graduation.

Gold would like to see Harvard make its historical entanglement with slavery and its legacies part of its future core curriculum. He expressed shame about passing the Prince Hall Monument daily without a thought, without knowing who Hall was, because he feels it reflects a powerful bias in American history classes and textbooks.

“I think people really need to know that Cambridge—and, I mean, the colonies in general—were not just a place where revolution happened, where the freedom of America was born, but where even in the midst of their fight for the nation’s freedom, there were people who were actively enslaved by those same people who were arguing for life, liberty, and justice for everybody,” Gold said.

Noah Gold '22, who voices the Cambridge Common stop on the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery tour, was surprised to learn the history of slavery in Boston. Photo by Kris Snibbe

Reconciling the Memory of an Enslaved Past

Memorial Hall is a striking Victorian structure completed in 1878 to commemorate Harvard students, alumni, and faculty who died serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. In addition to the transept, a breathtakingly beautiful inner space with stained glass windows and a marble floor, Memorial Hall is home to Harvard’s first-year dining room, Annenberg Hall. Also a memorial, Annenberg honors Harvard’s renowned graduates and administrators in portraiture and sculpture—all white men until 1993, when a marble bust of W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard, was added to the collection.

“Memorial Hall was Harvard’s attempt to support abolition in the abstract without doing the work that it needed to do to actually advance racial equality in this country,” said first-year Harvard Law School (HLS) student Robert Clinton, who narrates the site in the tour. “It’s a memorial to the people who fought in the Civil War, but not a memorial to the people who were impacted by what the Civil War was about, which is slavery.”

The Richmond, California, native chose Harvard Law School (HLS) in part because, well, “Harvard is Harvard,” and a degree from HLS will help position him to influence public policy and make an impact as a criminal defense attorney. “But I also did some research on the ways that Harvard was reacting to racial inequality in the aftermath of the 2020 killing of George Floyd,” he explained. “I wanted to know that I was going to a university that was thinking critically about its relationship with racial inequality.”

That’s when Clinton dug up information about the law school’s former shield, which incorporated the family crest of Isaac Royall Jr., whose family wealth came from slavery and helped establish the law school. This sparked a desire in him to help build awareness about Harvard and slavery for himself and his peers.

“The fact that this institution is here because of exploitation and slavery is something that people are often surprised by. People who were enslaved were on this campus that we go to, so I wanted to help out however I could,” he said. “There are lots of [different kinds of] memorials to lots of different people here already, so clearly there’s a willingness to engage with the institution’s history—but not with the entirety of the history, so I’m glad it’s finally happened.”

The University should be mindful of that history when reviewing Black students’ applications for admission and financial aid, said Clinton. “I’m not exactly sure what that looks like, but I do think that it’s worth acknowledging that there were years and years when the University didn’t admit Black people and years and years when the University was able to grow and sustain itself on the backs of Black labor. We need to help right that by making sure that this place right now is not only welcoming for the Black people who are here but also encourages Black people to apply while thinking specifically about that exclusion and exploitation from the past when evaluating [future] Black candidates.”

Kyra March '22 found an intellectual community when she worked as a research assistant at the Hutchins Center, and she was excited to narrate that stop on the tour. Photo by Kris Snibbe

A Space to Intellectually Engage Black History

Under the leadership of Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Hutchins Center draws scholars from all over the world to celebrate Black history, culture, and artistry. Originally established in 1975 as the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, the Hutchins Center was established in 2013 to house not only the Du Bois Institute, but also the Image of the Black Archive & Library, the Celia and Henry W. McGee III Black Film Poster Collection, and innovative learning resources like the Hiphop Archive & Research Institute.

The center boasts a wide range of programs and some of the nation’s most renowned scholars of Black studies but also is a space that provides both refuge and joy to students like Kyra March ’22, who is concentrating in African and African American studies and studies of women, gender, and sexuality, with a citation in Gullah, the creole language of African Americans living in the Lowcountry from North Carolina to Florida.

In Summer 2021, March received a grant from the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative to work on her thesis about the Cambridge home of Harriet Jacobs , a formerly enslaved woman who famously published an autobiography documenting her experiences, and the absence of memorials to Black women. This semester, with support from a second H&LS grant, she’s working on digitizing her project.

March, who aims to become a museum curator, leapt at the opportunity to voice a stop for the tour and was thrilled to learn she would introduce the Hutchins Center, where she had previously worked as a research assistant.

“It is a place where you can engage with Black people and Black history on an intellectual level, and [which you can] also use as a safe space for Black people on this campus,” she said. Deeply grateful to both the Hutchins scholars and staffers she has gotten to know and work with these past four years, she said the center “is a really good community space where I felt like I had people around me who cared and that I could talk to.”

March, a South Carolina native, has been researching her family’s connection to slavery with her grandmother. So far, they’ve uncovered a great-grandfather and a great-great-grandfather who were born on plantations, presumably into enslavement. Coming from the South, she was not surprised to learn of Harvard’s ties to enslavement, although she was disappointed. March hopes the University will use the forthcoming report as well as physical memorials that still honor enslavers to educate the Harvard community and the public about University benefactors whose great wealth was built from slavery. While there are plaques and monuments acknowledging enslaved people at Harvard Law School and at Wadsworth House, she also hopes the University will add more memorials to honor the lives of other enslaved people to provide a fuller picture of the University’s history.

“I think that when the H&LS report comes out, people will want to engage more with the subject and do a lot more research to figure out how to honor them,” said March. She believes it will be a reality check for people who tend to put Harvard on a pedestal and “will force people to think about how there are so many important aspects of history that have been hidden that we should be seeking.”

The Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative will also celebrate African American excellence and the achievements of the University’s Black alums, including Alberta V. Scott, Radcliffe’s first Black graduate. March says that “seeing people like them and their lives and accomplishments just encourages me and reminds me that we have a place here and we deserve to be here.”

Mini Saxena LLM ’22, who introduces Widener Library on the tour, hopes the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery report will spark more substantive changes. Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

Widener Library’s Foundation in Black and White

Widener Memorial Library is the centerpiece of Harvard’s library system and one of the nation’s largest libraries—but how many people know that it sits on land donated by a slaveholder? Or, on the other hand, that Julian Francis Abele, the first African American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s architecture program, was one of the chief architects of this iconic Harvard building?

As Mini Saxena LLM ’22 walked through Harvard Yard toward Widener to prep for her tour assignment, she was immediately struck by how imposing the limestone and red brick structure is. Peering through the pillars that envelop it, she gazed up and saw Harvard’s motto, Veritas , etched in stone above the building’s heavy doors. 

“It made me feel that this building houses not just the truth but all the truth that there is in the world,” Saxena recalled. “At the same time, I also was struck by this question of access. Who feels at home here, and who has access to this slightly intimidating structure?”

As she explored the building’s different levels, she pondered that some of the knowledge found in Widener’s more than three million books is available to just a certain group of people. More importantly, she thought, what would or could people who do not have this access do with that knowledge? She thought of the caste system in her native India, which historically denied members of lower classes access to knowledge or books not meant for them.

Throughout her self-guided tour, Saxena felt a strange kinship with Abele and wondered whether the lack of credit for his work grated on him or was taken in stride. It also made her wonder whether she is giving enough credit to scholars of color who are cited in her own work. Once people learn that Widener was designed by a Black architect whose work was co-opted, they may process the building differently.

“I think it’s important to reconstruct that memory and keep it alive,” said Saxena. “[Abele] is an example of someone who overcame challenges to get a good education and contribute to a really significant architectural piece of his time, but he also is an example of how those contributions get overshadowed.”

Saxena hopes that Harvard will make changes, both big and small, after the release of its H&LS report.

Harvard Law School students would like the student lounge in the Caspersen Student Center to be named after Belinda Sutton, whom HLS benefactor Isaac Royall had enslaved. In fact, as a form of protest, students have been referring to it as Belinda Hall for years.

“It’s a really small measure, and the fact that it hasn’t been accepted is indicative of the battle we have ahead of us,” she said. “I would like to see much more substantive changes,” including syllabus overhauls and a more diverse faculty.

“Once the report comes out, I want people to read it and realize that this institution not just has a legacy of slavery but has been complicit in slavery—and to some extent is still complicit, not so much in slavery but certainly in oppression of other kinds,” Saxena said. If she is ever in a position of pedagogical power, the future scholar added, she will work to ensure that everyone in her classroom feels like they belong and hopes that, moving forward, Harvard will support students who, for whatever reason, may feel they don't belong and consider what the University can do to change that.

Learn more about and download the tour.

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Revolutionary cambridge walking tour (private event), date: , location: , private event for 2024 harvard ukrainian summer institute (husi) students:, a walking tour led by tom johnson , associate lecturer of history, umass boston.

Accompanied by  Serhiy Bilenky , Research Associate at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Editor-In-Chief of East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies,  and Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI)

About the Tour

This walking tour explores the history of the Harvard Square area and much more. Conducted as a lecture-in-motion, it is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Prof. Johnson's hometown for over 40 years. Cambridge was the headquarters of George Washington and the American Continental Army during the siege of Boston in 1775-76. Thus, the tour includes an exploration of the Revolutionary War era, along with elements of urban and environmental history, slavery and race, gender relations, migrations, etc.

The tour is interactive. Together with brief presentations by Prof. Johnson at selected sites, participants will gain experience “reading” a landscape, as if reading a historical document.

The tour will start promptly at 3:30pm. Meet in front of The Harvard Coop at 1400 Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square, Cambridge. Please plan on about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of walking with a few stairs. You should bring anything you need to be comfortable in summer weather (heat or light rain showers): water, snack, hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, umbrella, sneakers, etc. Have fun!

About the Speaker

Tom Johnson is an Associate Lecturer in the History Department at UMass Boston. His research interests include the social, economic and cultural history of Africa and colonial societies, world history, slavery, labor, and environmental history. He teaches courses on Africa, world history, the United States, Western Civilization, globalization, and leadership, giving special attention to gender relations and field research. [ Source ]

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This event is organized by Harvard's  Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) as part of the 2024 Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute.

Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Megan Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Coordinator, at  [email protected]  at least two weeks  in advance of the session.

Watch videos of past HURI events on our  YouTube Channel  and  subscribe  to our email list to receive announcements about events and other activities.

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Performing & Recorded Arts | 6.26.2024

New Home for ART Underway

American repertory theater’s allston construction announced..

A new home for the American Repertory Theater is under construction at 175 North Harvard Street in Allston | PHOTOGRAPH BY NIKO YAITANES/ HARVARD MAGAZINE

Harvard ’s American Repertory Theater (ART) announced the start of construction on its new building at 175 North Harvard street in Allston today, heralding the project as a more modern, spacious, and accessible successor to the Loeb Drama Center, its current home. Site work began in March.

The project, which the University expects to complete by 2026, will relieve the pressures the Loeb’s limited space and aging facilities have put on the ART, a prominent American theater company which has won multiple Tony Awards. Executive director Kelvin Dinkins Jr. said in an interview that the company’s productions had nearly always been rehearsed in New York City, rather than at the ART’s current Cambridge location, due to lack of space. For some shows, the theater has had to bring in outside generators to support technical elements. “We’re bursting at the seams over here,” he said.

At its new location—enabled by a $100-million gift from David Goel ’93 and Stacey Goel —the theater will become a more community-facing institution, housed in a building the theater’s leaders have also praised for being more sustainable.

The complex, to be called the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance, is designed to be more open to the public and a place to linger once performances end, according to Dinkins. The lobby will feature cafétables, a kitchen, and concessions, helping add an “energy and buzz” ART leaders hope to achieve within the venue. Many parts of the Goel Center, such as its outdoor performance yard and the smaller-scale East Stage, will intentionally be visible to people outside the building or at the entrance, in another effort to make both more inviting.

Roger Watts, director of Haworth Tompkins, the architectural firm that designed the new space, said that “Through an inspiring and collaborative design process, our building aims to extend that open invitation to Allston and the wider world, and to provide a framework that supports the expansion of creative practices within a radical yet simple architecture of adaptable space, natural tactile materials, fresh air, and light.”

The Goel Center’s site in Allston will also be significant amid Harvard’s continuing expansion in the neighborhood. Surrounding the center in Barry’s Corner (the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue) are Harvard’s Science and Engineering Building, the residential Continuum complex built on Harvard land (also housing the Allston Trader Joe’s), and what is soon to be another residential building on Harvard land at 180 Western Avenue.

Amid residents’ concern about the overall development of their neighborhood —much of it focused on Harvard, which now owns about one-third of Allston—the Goel Center promises to enliven the area for the wider public, as purely academic uses do not. The Center will be available for use by other Harvard stakeholders and by external producers of everything from comedy shows to installations and other kinds of performances.

Dinkins added that the ART is also planning engagement and outreach programs specifically for Allston, but he did not provide details. “That is very much something that we are invested in, as part of that effort with the BPDA to serve as a community resource,” he said. (The Boston Planning & Development Agency, regulates development in the city.)

Like Harvard’s other new developments, the building aims for a high level of environmental performance, featuring natural ventilation and construction materials meant to “minimize its lifetime carbon budget,” according to a press release. The building will also have solar panels and a green roof, and rely on the University’s lower-carbon District Energy Facility (adjacent to the Enterprise Research Campus now under construction in Allston) for heating and cooling.

Once the ART relocates to its new home, the Loeb, a Faculty of Arts and Sciences facility, will remain available for University uses. That will likely include the theater, dance and media concentration , the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club, (both of which currently make partial use of the space), and other undergraduate arts initiatives. It could also serve as a useful locus for lectures, ceremonies, and screenings otherwise funneled into facilities such as the Science Center and Sanders Theatre.

The Loeb itself will be renovated as part of the Goel’s gift. For artists, the transition will bring an upgraded experience, too, with private bathrooms and showers, above-ground dressing rooms (more often on the lower level of theaters in the industry), an on-site costume shop, and spacious rehearsal studios. The auditoriums themselves—West Stage for larger productions, East for “more intimate” shows—will have retractable seats, allowing hundreds more audience members to be accommodated for standing events.

Interim president Alan M. Garber praised the “future full of creative potential” the theater would bring. “David and Stacey stepped forward at an important moment for the A.R.T.,” he said in a statement, “giving generously not because of the strong foundation that already exists but because they see what is possible. The incredible community their vision sustains and expands will have a profound effect on arts and culture throughout our region.”

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