The following article, appearing in the current Alumni Bulletin, tells of the founding of the first endowed professorship at the University. These efforts to perpetuate chairs of learning in the University met with little approval at first, but their development and their ultimate success are the subjects of the accompanying article.

The professorships in Harvard University are for the greater part established and maintained by endowments. The names of the donors are in most cases perpetuated in the titles of the professorships. Some of the benefactions which were bestowed many years ago, although they were considered ample at that time, now amount to only a small fraction of what the professors receive.

The first endowed professorship for instance, was based on a annual income of about 200 dollars a year. There are many other cases where the salary for an endowed chair is paid largely by the University.

First Endowed Chair in 1721

The College had existed for 85 years before an endowed professorship was established. In 1721, Thomas Hollis gave the foundation fund for the professorship of divinity which still bears his name. He endowed Harvard outright with a sum of money, the interest of which 40 pounds per year, was to be the "honorable stipend" of Professor of Divinity, "to read lectures in the Hall of the College unto the students; the said Professor to be nominated and appointed from time to time by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; and when choice is made of a fitting person, to be recommended to me for my approbation, if I be yet living."

Ropes is Present Incumbent

Before the terms of the endowment were made satisfactory to all concerned, there was a good deal of wrangling and bitterness in Cambridge. However, at the end of 1721, Edward Wigglesworth was chosen the first professor under the amended articles of the endowment and he served long and honorably in that capacity. The present incumbent of the chair is Professor J. H. Ropes'89.

Hollis also established in 1727 a professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy. He had long meditated the subject, and wrote concerning it to his friend, Benjamin Colman, as follows: "Though jeered and sneered at by many I leave the issue to the Lord, for whose sake Isperform these offices and services, and hope I shall be enabled to continue firm and finish this affair, which I call a good work."

He called upon five learned friends to submit plans for the foundation of the professorships and handed these over to the Corporation for their selection and approval of the best. Isaac Greenwood '85 was appointed the first professor of this foundation. The present holder of the chair is Theodore Lyman '97.

Chair of Hebrew Founded

It was not until 1764 that a third endowed professorship was established at Harvard. In that year Thomas Hancock, uncle of the hero of the Revolution, founded by the terms of his will, a professorship of Hebrew and other oriental languages. For this purpose he bequeathed 1,000 pounds sterling, the income from which was to defray the expenses of the professor. Hancock, who was the first native American to lay the foundation of a professorship in any literary institution in this country, was born in Lexington. Stephen Sewall '21 was the first professor under this endowment. The present incumbent is W. R. Arnold.

Boylston Left 1500 Pounds

From this time onward the endowment of professorships at Harvard rapidly increased. Nicholas Boylston of Boston, when he died in 1771, bequeathed to the College 1,500 pounds for the foundation of a "Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory." The Corporation in rendering its thanks for the donation, asked the executors of the will to permit a full length portrait of Boylston to be drawn, at the expense of the College, and placed in Harvard Hall, with those of Hollis and Hancock. The painting, which was executed by Copley, is considered one of the most successful and finished examples of the work of that distinguished artist. The list of holders of the Boylston Professorships includes such famous names as John Quincy Adams '87, Francis James Child '46, Adams Sherman Hill '53, LeBaron Russell Briggs '16, and the present incumbent, Charles Townsend Copland '82.

Medical Teaching Starts in 1782

In 1782 the Corporation of Harvard College broadened the scope of the institution by establishing medical professorships. The money to finance the project was not in sight, but the officers of the college promised that complete anatomical and chemical apparatus, a proper place for dissections and chemical operations, as well as the requisite books, should be provided "as soon as there shall be sufficient, benefactions for these purposes," and that professors should be appointed "as soon as ways and means can be devised for raising sufficient sums for their encouragement." Meanwhile, the Corporation proposed to elect to the professorships. "Some gentlemen of public spirit and distinguished abilities, who would undertake the business, for the present, for the fees that may be obtained from those who would readily attend their lectures." Thus uncertainly were laid the first foundations of the present Medical School.