The Harvard Collection

Harvard College was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The College was named for its first benefactor, a young minister, John Harvard. In 1708, John Leverett became the first president of Harvard who was not a clergyman. marking the turning of the College toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. Under Charles W. Eliot, who served as president from 1869 to 1909, the institution was transformed into a modern university. The Harvard Corporation is the oldest corporation in the western hemisphere.