Black students at Harvard, 1905-1913: excerpts from an exhibition
An online exhibition of selections from the Archives' collections, including photographs, correspondence, and memorabilia documenting the lives of Black students in the early 20th century.
This collection contains transcriptions and audio recordings of oral history interviews conducted with Harvard and Radcliffe alumni and alumnae by students as a class project for HIST 1636 Intro to Harvard History: Beyond the Three Lies in Spring 2021.
Interview topics include the alumnus/a's decision to attend Harvard/Radcliffe, the admission process, life in freshman dormitories and Houses, socializing and parties, food on campus and the surrounding community, courses, the relationship between Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, LGBTQ life, extracurricular activities, activism/pacifism and Harvard’s connection to the military, the presence or lack of diversity, and Harvard Commencement.
Open for research and available online with two exceptions. Individual restrictions, when applicable, are noted in the description of each oral history.
In April 1969, Harvard students, acting under the leadership of Students for Democratic Society, staged a sit-in at University Hall to protest the Vietnam War, the role of ROTC on Harvard’s campus, and the lack of response from the Harvard administration. This collection includes 81 protest posters; two protest arm bands; an examination booklet with handwritten notes; and a 1970 issue of the Gargoyle Enquirer, a Harvard Lampoon publication. The posters, examination booklet, and strike apparel were made exclusively for the 1969 strike, and emphasize the protesters' demands for the abolishment of the ROTC on campus, the inclusion of a Black Studies program, the prevention of university expansion, the solution to the housing crisis, and the end of the Vietnam War. Some posters from 1969 and 1970 also reference the creation of a Free University at Harvard, the Kent State shootings, the bombing of Cambodia, the invasion of Laos, and anti-war rallies in Boston and Washington, D.C.
Open for research, with the following exception: some posters are fragile and may require special handling.
Harvard University Strike Posters Collection, 1969 and [ca. 1984?] (HUA 969.100.2)
Includes posters demanding Black Studies at Harvard. During April 1969 students took over University Hall in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, evicted the administrators whose offices were in the building, and eventually were expelled themselves by Massachusetts State Police. During the protests, posters were used in many ways: to express dissent, as notices of meeting places, and as announcements of events.
Open for research.
Harvard University Student Strike, 1969: General File (HUA 969.100)
Includes subject files on Afro-American Studies. In April 1969, Harvard University experienced a two-week period of almost daily crisis. Harvard students vehemently expressed their concerns regarding the Vietnam War and other social and political issues with protests, including the take-over of a university administration building. The collection documents the both sides of the conflict and the student unrest of April 1969.
Open for research.
1990 student poster from the Women’s Alliance and Minority Student Alliance calling to boycott lectures in protest of inaction on recruiting minority and women faculty.
Open for research.