Harvard College

Timeline

1. 1636–1638Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts Bay · CambridgeThe General Court passed a resolution 'for a school or college' with a £400 appropriation, sited at Newtown, later renamed Cambridge in honor of the English university town. Eaton was appointed head in 1637; buildings and curriculum modeled on Puritan Cambridge colleges aimed to train locally ministers who could speak Latin and interpret scripture, reducing dependence on English universities.
2. 1638–1639Charlestown/Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay · BostonThe Reverend John Harvard, a native of Cambridge, died shortly after arriving in America; his will left about half his estate (his total property was roughly £1,600) and over 400 books to the New College, saving it from foundering. In 1639 the General Court ordered it named Harvard College after the donor. He was not a founder, but the first major benefactor.
3. 1640–1642Harvard College, Cambridge · CambridgeAfter Eaton was accused of abusing students and dismissed, Dunster became the first president, reorganized the curriculum around classical humanities and theology, and held the first commencement in 1642. That same year legislation established the Board of Overseers, with colonial officials and church elders supervising the college, forming the prototype of the later two-tier governance.
4. 1650Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay · CambridgeThe 1650 charter, drafted by Dunster and approved by the General Court, created a corporation of the president, five fellows, and a treasurer, empowered to hold property, sue and be sued, and enact college statutes, with the purpose of educating English and Indian youth. This corporation became one of the oldest college governing bodies still operating in the Western Hemisphere, and the college continued to supply New England with ministers, officials, and scholars.