Historic
John Harvard statue
Since 1884
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
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."
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
traditionally recited for visitors,
questioning whether John Harvard justly merits the honorific founder.
Source: Wikipedia / Wikidata
Nearby
Here Before Us