Introduction to Harvard History

Harvard University's history is a story of professors, students, courses, and research that has led to world-changing innovations. But it is also a story of student unrest, gender unease, and the exclusion of women and minorities, enslaved people, Native Americans, and working-class people. All of them helped to make Harvard and left traces in its archives, libraries, and museums; its buildings; and even in its soil. Some Harvard stories have been told; others have been forgotten. In this course, we uncover Harvard's past via exercises including creating an oral history and submitting it to the Harvard University Archives, in order to both learn about Harvard's history and add to it. This course changes the way students see Harvard and also gives them research and writing skills to aid them in their other courses.