"The time has not yet come--will never come--when the higher learning in America can properly devote itself to the maintenance of positions won. Its task is still to build, and the time is always now."

These words of President Pusey at the opening of what promises to be the largest fund drive in Harvard history seem particularly apt. From its inception in 1636 to today's announcement, Harvard has been attempting to perfect itself, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, sometimes actively, sometimes not. But in the sum total of these movements lies the story of Harvard's growth from a small college in a cow pasture into one of the great universities of the modern world.

The first step in establishing the College came in 1636 when the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay appropriated one quarter of its tax levy "towards a schoale or college." Over a year elapsed before any further steps were taken, but late in 1637 the first Overseers purchased a slip of land from Goodman Peyntree on the southern edge of Cowyard Row. (The present Cambridge Common is all that remains of this great cow pasture.) Around this nucleus the Yard slowly expanded until reaching its present size in the first half of the eighteenth century.

For the first two years, the College struggled to get on its feet. It very nearly failed. The John Harvard gift of books and money arrived in 1638 to help with early financial difficulties, but in 1639 the first master, Nathaniel Eaton, was dismissed on complaints of brutality. The quality of food his wife dispensed was also an issue. For the next academic year (1639-40) the College was deserted. Many thought it would never reopen.

It was in the nature of a second founding, therefore, when the Overseers appointed Henry Dunster as President of Harvard College in 1640. With Dunster came an effort to build a real college, "in the Oxford and Cambridge sense." But building required money in those days, just as it does now, and Dunster's task was made more difficult by a depression.

Numerous expedients, providing an interesting comparison with today's high-powered fund drives, were used to raise money. Harvard had no endowment at the time, but the General Court of Massachusetts granted the revenues of the Boston-Charlestown ferry to the College. This amounted to about 30 pounds a year, mostly in fake wampum. More money came from gifts and, sometimes, from community subscriptions. But the chief source of revenue was the plain generosity of the people of New England. From 1644 to 1652 enough families contributed a peck of wheat or a shilling of money to support the entire teaching staff of the College, excluding the President, and to assist ten or twelve poor scholars.

Such generosity allowed Dunster to expand the College's physical plant. At his death the Yard consisted of a strip about 110 feet wide extending from Braintree Street (Massachusetts Avenue) to the Charlestown path (Kirkland Street).

In 1650 Dunster obtained from the General Court the Charter under which the University still operates. The purposes of the College stated in this document are "the advancement of all good literature artes and Sciences." It represented an early version of a liberal education.

Less Freedom

In Dunster's day, however, the student had much less freedom than now. Everyone who wished to graduate had to follow a rigidly prescribed program. There were no courses in the modern sense, nor were three professors. Instead, the tutorial method was employed, with one tutor for each class. Students were promoted or demoted on their tutor's opinion of their industry and ability. Degrees were a more serious matter. Students had to go through searching oral examinations to get them.

Out of this curriculum and these institutions, out of the liberal arts college which Dunster left, grew the modern Harvard.

In 1707, John Leverett became President. He made no important changes in the curriculum, which continued strong in logic, rhetoric, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, ethics, and metaphysics, and remained weak in mathematics and science.

But he put the College's finances on a firm basis for the first time, chiefly by snapping up the important Hopkins legacy, which may or may not have been intended for Harvard. He also set up the College's first endowed chair through convincing Thomas Hollis, a London merchant, to support a Professor of Divinity in 1721.

Massachusetts Built

Leverett, too, had housing problems, very similar to those faced by President Pusey today. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 had inaugurated an era of peace, prosperity, and expansion in New England. Classes rose rapidly to a high of 37 members in 1721. To house the crowd, Massachusetts Hall was built at the public charge in 1720.