In the early part of this century, a student named Murphy could get a scholarship to Harvard merely by looking in the newspaper, where the University used classified ads to advertise a scholarship available only to men with that surname.

And that newspaper might also have been a ticket to free education for those on the other side of the newsstand counter--some of whom took advantage of a scholarship only for Boston newsboys.

These scholarships were paid out of Harvard's endowment, and enormous institutional nest egg whose sources of income are still as varied as the purposes for which they are given.

Over three and a half centuries of capital campaigns, Harvard has been the proud owner of an English farm, a Chelsea swamp, half a house in Salem and an island off the South Shore.

Except for the island, all these have been sold--but money from these and other donations doesn't just pile up together under Harvard's mattress.

Much of the endowment is made up of restricted gifts, money sometimes tied to purposes like the Boston News-boy's Scholarship, which are as old as the College water pump in front of Stoughton Hall and nearly as useless.

Trying to access these funds for cur-rent use is often a headache for Harvard's financial braintrust, and one of the main tasks of Development Office staff is to prevent the possibility that current gifts may become outdated.

Golden Oldies

Most of Harvard's endowment is made up of money given in the last century, but there are a few gifts still earning interest from a time when New England measured worth in pounds sterling and acres of land.

Lady Molson's 1643 gift of 100 pounds is still accounted for, as it is the legacy of Harvard's first female benefactor. (Lady Molson's maiden name was Ann Radcliffe.)

A few decades later, Samuel Ward one-upped other donors of land who had given Harvard farms, a slice of swampland and "half a house," leaving the College an entire island off the Massachusetts coast near Hingham in 1680.

The island was leased out for 500 years in 1899--a lease which will eventually net Harvard a total of $16,000 in 2399--just in time for 850th anniversary celebrations.

This money will end up in a fund for use at the college's discretion, but many older gifts were legally tied to specific uses when they were given and have become obsolete over the centuries.

For instance, the interest from Benjamin Wadsworth's 1737 bequest of "110 pounds for some poor scholar (tho' to no dunce or a rake)" now applies to general scholarships, without its dunce stipulation.

The Murphy scholarship and the Boston Newsboy's Scholarships have met the same fate--interest from these gifts now fills coffers used for general scholar-ships.