Today we ventured across the Charles River over into Cambridge, Massachusetts to visit Harvard University.
We drove by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) on the way. It was huge and very impressive. The really brainy science nerds go to this school.
The ones that couldn’t get into M.I.T. continue down the avenue to the other school…
“Hahvahd” as the locals pronounce it, is the oldest university in America, having been founded in 1636, one hundred and forty years BEFORE the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That makes it 381 years old!
The oldest part of the sprawling University campus is Harvard Yard. It’s a beautiful 22 acre park-like crossroads surrounded by historic buildings. It’s quite a beautiful setting.
Our student tour guide, Julie, walked us into the “Yard” though these gates.
She quickly stopped at one of the old buildings to inform us that early Colonial super-patriots John Adams and John Hancock had lived there.
Patriot Samuel Adams, who also invented beer, I think, also lived in that building.
Of course, many famous Americans have attended Harvard University over the years. As we walked the Yard and the rest of the campus, Julie couldn’t help name-dropping and pointing out what dorm building that they occupied. I seem to recall John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama among the Presidents. Then, there were Henry Kissinger, Yo-Yo Ma, Tommy Lee Jones, Helen Keller, Matt Damon, etc. Also, some drop-outs like Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) who eventually became successful. On the other hand, the Unibomber also matriculated from Harvard.
There’s lots of impressive buildings here.
There’s a statue in front of that building commemorating the founder of the place, John Harvard. Except, as Julie pointed out, the guy in the statue is not really Mr. Harvard, because all painting of his likeness were lost in a fire. So, the sculptor, Daniel Chester French (the same guy who did the Lincoln Memorial) had to fudge the job; the guy sitting there might be him.
Admission standards here are pretty strict; the average incoming GPA is 4.1. It’s expensive, too; tuition, room and board is about $63,000 per year. There are only 1,600 first-year students allowed each year. Those lucky/rich kids are definitely the “best and the brightest”.
If you were lucky to graduate from Harvard, your ceremony would be held at this building, while you stare out at 20,000 people, and have to listen to some boring alum like Al Gore give a speech.
Across that lawn is a structure called the Widener Library. It’s huge.
The magnificence of this library is due to the generosity of the family of book collector Harry Widener, who was a victim of the Titanic disaster in 1912. His estate donated $3 million to Harvard University (current value: $100 million), to be used to enhance the existing library. It houses 3.5 million volumes, including a perfect Gutenberg Bible.
The Harvard University campus has expanded over the years to include a great swath of Cambridge. The Business School and football stadium are actually across the Charles River (in Boston).
The buildings in and around the University are varied, including very old and brand new.
The modern one below is the Science Center, built with money donated by the Edward Land family (i.e. the Polaroid camera people). If you look closely, you can see that the building was designed to look like…a Polaroid camera!
Here are a couple of nerd geniuses playing chess outside that building.
This is something that I saw here in Cambridge that I’ve noticed in the Boston area: bikes for rent. They are available at kiosks all over the city. I believe you can rent them one-way, to be dropped off at one of the other 60 kiosks in the city. Pretty cool, like a personal-powered Uber.
The tour today was so-so. Julie was great, but it would have been nice to actually go into a few of the buildings, particularly the Memorial Hall. Julie said that it looks a lot like the Great Dining Hall at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. Huge, impressive, with stained glass, etc.
Damn.
it was cold today, too. Around 49 degrees for most of the tour. Charlie was “frozen”, even though it was a sunny day.
I did get a “H” baseball hat. Now, when I’m wearing it, if anyone asks, I can honestly say, “Yeah, I went to Harvard.”