In this volume Professor Morison describes the background and founding of Harvard College and its history before the granting of the Charter of 1650. The story of Harvard has never before been told in such detail, and it is difficult even to suggest in this brief paragraph the wealth of historical information here laid before the reader. A glance at mediaeval universities, a description of the University of Cambridge in the half century before Harvard was founded, the exact circumstances and motives of founding Harvard, the inspiring story of John Harvard’s brief life in America, the sad but amusing tale of Nathaniel Eatoh, first head of Harvard College, the eventful first ten years of Henry Dunster’s presidency—these are only a few of the chief topics discussed. The volume is lavishly illustrated with portraits, prints, facsimiles, plans, maps, and coats of arms.

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Samuel Eliot Morison traces the roots of American universities back to Europe, providing “a lively contemporary perspective…a realistic picture of the founding of the first American university north of the Rio Grande” [Lewis Gannett, New York Herald Tribune].

In 1859 John Langdon Sibley projected and began a series of biographical sketches of all Harvard graduates; at his death in 1885 he had published three volumes, covering the Classes from 1642 through 1689. In 1930 the work was resumed by Clifford K. Shipton, who carried the series through Volume XII and the Class of 1750. This book offers a representative selection from the nine volumes of Shipton’s biographies. In these sketches there appear royal governors, counterfeiters, college presidents, bootleggers, Indian fighters, Revolutionary leaders, Loyalists, mariners, lawyers, drunkards, and clergymen of four persuasions. Together they form a cross-section of Colonial life in which the Harvard tie is often only incidental.

This one-volume history of Harvard is not so much a summary of Samuel Eliot Morison’s monumental work [The Tercentennial History of Harvard College and University, 1636–1936] as it is an entirely fresh handling of his vast material.

With a mind saturated in the lore and tradition at his command, Professor Morison has sat down to tell the whole story of Harvard informally and briefly. Documentation and all the learned apparatus of scholarly research are therefore omitted; but the same genial humor, the same ability to see the human implications of past events, that characterize his larger, multi-volume series on Harvard are preserved in this. The result is a marvelously entertaining volume, the history of Harvard that everyone has been waiting for, a model of vitalized historical writing.

How Harvard College looked, from its beginnings to 1860, is shown in this collection of views, many heretofore unpublished, of its buildings and grounds. These lithographs, watercolors, charcoal drawings, and engravings on copper, steel, and wood include works by Paul Revere, Justice Joseph Story, and Jonathan Fisher. The accompanying text describes the changing scene and the buildings as they appear, and gives a description of all known Harvard views prior to the age of photography. This is an interesting book for anyone interested in early New England buildings, as well as for bibliophiles and collectors of prints.