Harvard University

Harvard University, which celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1986, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Seven presidents of the United States - John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and George W. Bush - were graduates of Harvard. Its faculty have produced more than 40 Nobel laureates.

Initially called Harvard College, the school was established in 1636 through a vote by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was named Harvard College in honor of its first benefactor, a young minister named John Harvard of Charlestown. When he died in 1638, he left his library and one-half of his estate to Harvard College. In 1643 the first scholarship fund of Harvard College was created from the gift given by Ann Radcliffe, Lady Mowlson. In the first few years of the institution, the academic course being offered was based on the English university model. However it is still coherent with the existing Puritan philosophy of the first colonists. Harvard University is the oldest institution of advanced education in the United States. Proof of its existence was evident in a primitive brochure that was published in 1643. To date, Harvard University was able to produce seven presidents of the United States. Note: The picture above is a shot of the Harvard University canteen.