The Hollis Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy was endowed in 1727, and under President Holyoke the curriculum was modernized and new texts introduced. Holyoke's most essential reform, however, was doing away with the old system of each tutor taking a class through all subjects in the curriculum. Instead, he made each tutor a specialist in charge of instruction in a given area.

There was a considerable turnover of tutors, but the staff was academically inbred. Except for the French instructors, the College did not have a single teacher before the nineteenth century who was not a Harvard graduate.

Toward the end of the century, in the face of increasing difficulty to obtain state grants, the College sought to make itself financially independent. By 1793 the endowment of the College had mounted to over $182,000, with $100,000 of this in unrestricted funds.

In the 1780's, Harvard became a university. The state Constitution of 1780 recognized it as such, and two years later Harvard actually attained that status by providing instruction in medicine. Conducting the Medical School in Cambridge was difficult because of lack of clinical facilities, however, so in 1810 the "Medical Institution of Harvard University" moved to Boston, where it is today.

Under President John Thornton Kirkland, the College further solidified its claim to university status with the establishment of the Law School in 1817 and the Divinity School in 1819.

The physical appearance of the University was immensely improved during the first part of Kirkland's administration. Holworthy Hall, completed in 1812 from the proceeds of a successful lottery, became the most popular place of residence. University Hall was completed in 1815, and pigs and other undesirable objects were driven out of the Yard to be replaced by elms and a lawn.

Widespread complaints against "despicable and inexperienced" tutors had started a movement even before Kirkland's time to replace tutorial instruction with that of professors on endowed chairs. Kirkland gave this movement a big boost by setting up 15 new professorships. He also helped eliminate some of the inbred nature of the Harvard faculty by sending various tutors abroad to study.

Kirkland's successor, Josiah Quincy,

The pictures on this page were obtained with the assistance of Antonio A. Giarraputo '50 of the University Archives. Many of them can be seen at a current exhibit in Widener Library. attained his chief fame for espousing the right of free speech on the slavery question. There can be no doubt, according to Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison '08, that the outstanding reason why Harvard pulled ahead of rival colleges in 1836 and, indeed reached her present eminence and stature, was her early and faithful adherence to the principle of academic freedom.

On the curriculum, however, President Quincy's influence was not good. The recitation system, which had gradually broken down, was hardened by the adoption of a horrible "Scale of Merit." Quincy required a daily mark on recitations for his rank list, thus reducing the faculty from a teaching body to one which merely saw that the boys got their lessons.

In 1829 the Corporation appropriated the then extravagant sum of $5,000 for the purchase of books, and in 1841 Gore Hall was completed as the new library. Though full by 1863, additions kept Gore going until the construction of Widener more than 50 years later.

With the passing of Quincy, the presidency fell into a rut, from which it was only rescued when the genius of Eliot transformed a respectable university into a great one. But in this period, which Morison calls the Age of Transition, there were many fore-shadowings of later Eliot reforms.

Written Exams

In 1847 the Lawrence Scientific School was opened with an initial donation of $50,000. Perhaps an even more important change, however, was the introduction of written final examinations instead or orals. From this point it was easy to procure the more important reform of allowing instructors to substitute personal examinations for some of the daily recitation grades, thus permitting instructors to spend more hours on actual teaching.

With the advent of Charles William Eliot, the University entered upon one of its most exciting periods of change. Standards were raised in the Medical and Law Schools, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was estab-