Quick note: I know this post is off-topic from what I usually blog about, but because it was such a pleasant experience, I wanted to share 3 cool facts that the Harvard tour guide talked about which I think you’ll find intriguing.
For the past couple of years, I kept delaying going to the Harvard University historical tour, which is a student-led guided walk across campus (mainly because I was too lazy).
However, this past Saturday morning, I decided that if I didn’t go on that day, I’ll probably never go before I graduate, so I charged up my Olympus camera, and headed over there to catch the 10am tour.
I’m really glad I went.
If you’re ever in the Boston/ Cambridge area, I highly recommend you sign up for it. It’s free and open for everyone (groups over 15 should make reservations). The tour lasts for around an hour, and you can check out the schedule here.
Here are the 3 secrets:
1) The Statue of Three Lies
John Harvard’s statue is the third most photographed statue in the USA (#1 is the Statue of Liberty, and #2 is The Lincoln Memorial).
It sits in Harvard Yard, and is a popular destination for tourists. Students call it the “statue of three lies” because the inscription underneath the statue reads “John Harvard, Founder, 1638.” The three lies are:
- John Harvard didn’t found Harvard (he was a benefactor of Harvard, and that’s why it was named in his honor).
- The university was founded in 1636 (not 1638).
- The statue is not of John Harvard! All pictures of John Harvard were burned down in a fire in nearby Harvard Hall, so the sculptor, Daniel Chester French, apparently used a random good-looking student as a prop (no one knows how John Harvard really looks like).
Oh and another cool fact. Here’s a close up of the statue of John Harvard’s foot:
Notice how it seems like it’s polished compared to the rest of the statue? That’s because tourists and visitors rub it for good luck.
2) The Main Gate that’s Nearly Always Closed
This is a picture of the Johnston Gate, which is considered the main gate of Harvard University.
Harvard has many other gates which are open 24/7 (anyone could visit the campus during regular days). However, Johnston Gate is closed for most of the year.
That’s because Harvard students should pass through it only twice. Once when they first arrive on campus during their Freshman year, and a second time after they graduate. It’s considered bad luck if they go through it more that those two times.
The guide who was giving us the tour was a second year Economics student, and she didn’t know that fact until it was too late. She’s still worried about making it to graduation.
3) The Library that Cannot be Altered
Widener Library (pictured below), is the flagship library of Harvard, and it was named after Harry Elkins Widener.
Harry was a book collector who graduated from Harvard in 1907. He later took a trip on a ship from France to New York. The ship was unfortunately called the Titanic and Henry wasn’t on one of the lifeboats.
After he drowned, his mother, Eleanor Elkins, gave Harvard $3.5 million to build a library in his name. One condition of the donation was that Harvard could not alter the exterior of the building – otherwise, the library would become the property of Cambridge city.
A few decades later, when Harvard wanted to expand the library to accommodate more books, architects solved the problem of expanding the library without altering it in the only way they could: by digging tunnels underground.
Today, the main inventory of its books (around 3 million of them) sits below ground, directly underneath the Old Yard.
Here’s another fact and a couple of cool pictures that I took. Incoming Freshmen are required to live on campus during their first year of college (they can move out later if they want), so naturally, all famous people who attended Harvard lived in one of the dormitories of Harvard Yard at one point in time.
This is where Mark Zuckerberg lived (Straus Hall), which means that this is where Facebook was officially born:
And this is where President John F. Kennedy lived (Weld Hall):
Hope you enjoyed the post! Let me know if you have any questions.
