Harvard Square & Harvard Yard

Why It’s Worth Your Time

Harvard (founded 1636, sixteen years after Plymouth — the oldest continuously operating university in the Western Hemisphere outside Europe). Harvard Yard — the original quad enclosed by the oldest buildings (Massachusetts Hall, 1720) — is freely accessible and the most historically weighted college campus in America. The John Harvard statue is the 'Statue of Three Lies' (he wasn't the founder, wasn't the person depicted, and the founding year is wrong). The Harvard Art Museums (Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, Sackler combined in a Renzo Piano building) house one of the finest teaching collections in the world. The Harvard Museum of Natural History contains the Glass Flowers (3,000 botanically accurate glass models, made by the Blaschka family 1887–1936) — the most technically astounding single exhibit in Boston. Harvard Square's bookshops (Harvard Book Store, Grolier Poetry Book Shop — America's oldest poetry bookshop) make it the best walk for book lovers in the US.

What Stands Out

• Oldest university in America (founded 1636): 400 years of accumulated history in Harvard Yard's freely accessible campus
• John Harvard statue's three documented lies: the finest story attached to any university monument in America
• Harvard Art Museums (Renzo Piano): one of the finest teaching collections in the world, open to the public
• Glass Flowers at Harvard Museum of Natural History: 3,000 botanically perfect glass models, the most technically extraordinary single exhibit in Boston
• Harvard Square bookshops: Harvard Book Store, Grolier Poetry Book Shop (oldest in America), Porter Square Books — the finest bookshop quarter in the US