European Custom Causes Indefinite Date of 1636 for Harvard Founding

If Old World universities had not had the habit of picking any convenient boarding house as a class-room, Harvard probably wouldn't be celebrating its three hundredth birthday in 1936.

For in 1636 there was not a building, a teacher, or a pupil to which the historians might point as the beginning of the University that celebrates September 3, 1636 as the date of its origin. On that day, no official document was issued, no plans were laid, and no founders gathered around a council table.

Indeed, it seemed reasonable to believe that no academic course of any kind began until 1638, and it was this year that Pierce in his "History of Harvard University" said that "historians fix as the date of the foundation of the college." Early almanacs were accustomed to place the foundation in the year 1642.

Until nearly a hundred years ago, almost any date seemed to suffice. But in 1855, Harvard contemplated celebrating its bicentenary and began to wonder about its age. Consequently, a committee was appointed to determine the facts. President Quincy, Joseph Story, and James Walker were chosen, and the records that remain suggest that their investigation stirred up some very polite but sharp dissension. Some of the letters exchanged show a pronounced tinge of bitterness.

It was determined that on October 8, 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts met and considered things of vast moment. As the day progressed, they awarded five pounds to George Munnerys to compensate for the loss of his eye on a voyage to Block Island. They decreed that no lace be worn and stipulated the penalties for a Breach of this order. After taking care of several matters that are generally handled by police courts at the present time, they apparently had an afterthought. As the last act of the day before closing up the court and going home, the court voted this statement, familiar to all Harvard men:

"To give $400 towards a school or college whereof $200 to be paid the next years, & $200 when the work is finished, & the next Court to appoint wheare and what building."

Scoffers have said that while the Massachusetts General Court voted a sum of money to be used in the future to build a school, there still wasn't any school.

But here, Samuel E. Morison, official Harvard historian, explained to the CRIMSON, is where the man in the street goes wrong. It was decided by historians, he says, that the college dates from the time of the first official charter or action. In a footnote to his history of the University now in preparation, he says, "Colleges of the British Isles and Latin America date their foundation from the first charter, papal bull or formal act authorizing the institution; for it is nearly impossible to ascertain the dates of breaking ground for the first building or of first receiving scholars."

This difficulty, he said, was largely due to the origins of medieval universities which often had no buildings of their own and met in any convenient room that could be hired. He asserted that the date 1636 is without doubt the only one that can be considered. But as to taking September 8 as the day, as was done in the bicentennial, Professor Morison was not so sure.

With surprising logic, the committee appointed in 1835 observed that the Massachusetts General Court must have begun its regular fall session before October 28, the day on which they issued the order for 400 pounds. So they took the first day of the session, September 8, and called that Harvard's birthday.

That definitely settled the date, except that in the next century the Georgian calendar was introduced and the entire situation is scrambled by Old Style and New Style dates. Historians, Professor Morison says, just ignore that