Statue of John Harvard

John Harvard
A bronze sculpture, on a tall granite plinth, of a man sitting in a chair with an open book in his lap. The statue as a whole is darkly weathered, but the toe of the figure's left shoe is shiny as if from frequent rubbing.
"He ... gazes for a moment into the future, so dim, so uncertain, yet so full of promise, promise which has been more than realized", said George Ellis at the dedication. [note 1]
Artist
Year1884 (1884)
TypeBronze
Dimensions
  • Figure: 71 by 38.6 by 65 in
    (180 by 98 by 165 cm)
  • Plinth: 61 by 72 by 12 in
    (155 by 183 by 30 cm)[1]
LocationHarvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

John Harvard is an 1884 sculpture in bronze by Daniel Chester French at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It honors clergyman John Harvard (1607–1638), whose substantial deathbed[2] bequest to the "schoale or Colledge" recently undertaken by the Massachu­setts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that the Colony resolved "that the Colledge agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shalbee called Harvard Colledge." [3] There being nothing to indicate what John Harvard had looked like, French took inspiration from a Harvard student collaterally descended from an early Harvard president.

The statue's inscription‍—‌JOHN HARVARD  •   FOUNDER  • 1638‍—‌is the subject of an arch polemic[4] traditionally recited for visitors, questioning whether John Harvard justly merits the honorific founder. According to a Harvard official, the founding of the college was not the act of one but the work of many, and John Harvard is therefore considered not the founder, but rather a founder, of the school, though the timeliness and generosity of his contribution have made him the most honored of these.

Tourists often rub the toe of John Harvard's left shoe for luck in the mistaken belief the doing so is a Harvard student tradition.[5]


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