Cambridge

One of the highlights of our trip to new England was visiting the campus of Harvard. We happened upon the most incredible tour guide, a Harvard history graduate from the class of 1978. He walked us through the campus and told us so many interesting facts and stories.

John Harvard, the university's first president.

We thought it fitting that this lovely building was covered in Ivy. This lovely plant is not the reason Harvard is considered Ivy League. The name actually came from the Roman numeral four. I V. There were four original founders of Ivy League schools, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia.

Harvard has the third largest library in the world. They hold the treasures such as the Gutenberg Bible, and a collection of books bound in a human skin. The collection below ground under where I am standing houses 50 miles of shelving. There is a phone system in the underground library that students can use to call for help if they get lost, which apparently happens regularly. 

Here is Topher sending over the bridge where the Charles River flows. Men on campus are expected to jump off the bridge into this river before graduating. All of the graduates should be able to swim, thanks to an endowment provided by a woman whose son and husband were lost in the titanic. Her son was a great lover of books, and his died trying to fetch one of his books from the sinking ship. She gave millions of dollars to the university after his death, along with his collection of books, and because he died drowning, she insisted that all Harvard graduates be able to swim. Until the 1970s, every Harvard graduate had to swim 50 yards before being granted their diplomas.

Here I am with our wonderful tour guide, Dan. Harvard offers a full ride scholarship to the top 10 members of the graduating class in the neighboring high schools in Cambridge. Dan was the recipient of one of the scholarships, along with Matt Damon. Both of them were number 10 in their class. We also learned that Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were roommates at Harvard. 

We learned about the freshman dining hall is modeled after the dining hall in England where JK rolling got her inspiration for the dining hall at Hogwarts. She was one of the most famous commencement speakers at Harvard in the last hundred years.

This building is referred to Hogwarts at Harvard.

Harvard has produced eight presidents, four more than Yale. We went to this burger joint right off-campus, which was one of John F. Kennedy's favorite places to eat.

We particularly enjoyed this advertisement hanging above our table, of Ronald Regan smoking.

After our campus tour, we enjoyed visiting the Museum of Natural Historyand looking at the collections there.

Afterward, we strolled through the neighborhoods in Cambridge, and visited this home of Longfellow, where General Washington Took command of the colonial Army in 1776. 

In an act of love, at the end of our day, Topher took me to search for some darling little houses, of which there are no shortage.