Harvard University has an exceptionally long and storied history. From its use as a barracks for Continental troops in the Revolutionary War to its use as a target for protesters during the Vietnam years--through coeducation, racial integration and randomization--the University has seen both strife and success.

Unfortunately, time blurs the memory and obscures the past. In our four short years as undergraduates, preoccupied with sections and social life, we tend to forget our place in the University's history. We know Harvard as it is, but none of us know Harvard as it used to be. None of us were here when Harvard's football team won its last national championship; none of us were here when Lamont Library went co-ed; none of us were here when students charged into University Hall.

But The Crimson was. And for the last 128 years, The Crimson has been there to cover these events--large and small, important and trivial, long-remembered and quickly forgotten. As the University changed, The Crimson faithfully recorded each day's news, creating a record that lives to this day. The crumbling, dusty volumes that line the shelves of 14 Plympton St. preserve a wealth of information on our shared past.

And so The Crimson offers "Crimson History" as a way for the students of today to read what the students of yesteryear wrote. Crimson History is a collection of news articles from past years, edited for space but otherwise untouched, reflecting on both the grave and the light-hearted events of the University's history.

Crimson History is a window into the past, a chance to explore "history's first draft" with the benefit of hindsight. And perhaps, browsing these articles, one might find that Harvard hasn't changed much after all.

100 Years ago