7 September 2018 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General, Architecture, Universities, Colleges, Academies
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Harvard Law School Library in Langdell Hall at night © Chensiyuan/cc-by-sa-4.0
Harvard University is a private
Ivy League research university in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1636 and named for clergyman
John Harvard (its first benefactor), its history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the world’s most prestigious universities. Harvard is the
United States’ oldest institution of higher learning, and the
Harvard Corporation is its first chartered
corporation. Although never formally affiliated with any
denomination, the early College primarily trained
Congregational and
Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, and by the 19th century, Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among
Boston elites. Following the
American Civil War, President
Charles W. Eliot‘s long tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern
research university; Harvard was a founding member of the
Association of American Universities in 1900.
A. Lawrence Lowell, who followed Eliot, further reformed the undergraduate curriculum and undertook aggressive expansion of Harvard’s land holdings and physical plant.
James Bryant Conant led the university through the
Great Depression and
World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with
Radcliffe College.
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5 September 2018 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General, Architecture, Universities, Colleges, Academies
Reading Time: 5 minutes
East Campus, looking towards Boston Harbor © Nick Allen/cc-by-sa-4.0
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a
private research university located in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing
industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted an European
polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and
engineering. The Institute is traditionally known for its research and education in the
physical sciences and
engineering, but more recently in
biology,
economics,
linguistics and
management as well. MIT is often
ranked among the world’s most prestigious universities.
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