Johnston Gate

Johnston Gate. Translated from Latin, the inscription on the tablet at left reads: "Samuel Johnston of Chicago  · Graduate in the year 1855  · Who was born in Cincinnati in the year 1833  · Lived 53 years  · By his will he ordered this."

Johnston Gate is one of several entrances to Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The gate, which was completed in 1889 in a Georgian Revival design by McKim, Mead & White, opens onto Peabody Street just north of Harvard Square. Its cost of approximately $10,000 was the gift of Samuel Johnston, an 1855 Harvard College graduate.

Each Harvard Commencement Day for several hundred years, the sheriffs of Middlesex and Suffolk Counties have arrived at Harvard Yard on horsebac for the Middlesex Sheriff's ritual calling of the celebrants to order. It has become traditional for them to enter via the Johnston Gate.[1][2]

Tablets flanking the gate's exterior
  1. ^ Sweeney, Sarah (May 26, 2010). "Commencement wonderment". Harvard Gazette. Open access icon
  2. ^ Cromie, William J. (May 31, 2007). "Commencement feasting, customs, color date to medieval Europe". Harvard Gazette. Open access icon