Harvard Presidents & Inaugurations

Listed below are links to descriptions of inauguration ceremonies and related material for many of Harvard's presidents. The link to term of office and name for each president leads to additional sources provided by the Harvard University History of the Presidency website.

1707/8-1724 John Leverett

• "An account of the inauguration of President John Leverett. Copied and written out by Benjamin Wadsworth, partly from originals left in the hands of Mr. Willard." Proceedings of the General Court concerning the College, 1700-1708. Harvard College Papers, First Series, UAI 5.100 Volume 1, Item 96. Transcribed in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume 49, Harvard College Records, Part 4, Document 155.   
• Address of Governor Dudley at the inauguration of President Leverett January 14, 1707/8. Transcribed in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume 49, Harvard College Records, Part 4, Document 154.   

1725-1737 Benjamin Wadsworth

• Account of installation in Wadsworth’s diary. Papers of Benjamin Wadsworth. Diary, 1725-1736. Page 6 (seq. 8) UAI 15.868 Box 1, Harvard University Archives. Transcribed in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume 31, Harvard College Records, Part 3. Installation account begins at section (p446).
• "Earlier Inaugurations." Harvard Graduates Magazine, Volume XVIII, 1909-1910 (article starts at bottom of this page)

1770-1773 Samuel Locke

• Account of Samuel Locke's inauguration, March 21, 1770. Harvard University. Corporation. College Books, 1636-1827. College Book 7, 1750-1778, pages 199-200. UAI 5.5 Box 5, Harvard University Archives.

• “President Locke's ‘Installment’ on March 21, 1770, was the first inauguration ceremony in the meetinghouse in the Square, and the last of the colonial era. A procession, led by the students and concluded by ‘The honorable House of Representatives,’ ‘The Reverend Clergy,’ and ‘A considerable number of respectable Gentlemen,’ marched from Harvard Hall to the meetinghouse, where Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson went through the usual ceremony of presentation, ‘and the Solemnity was concluded with an Hymn and an anthem performed by the young Gentlemen of the College.’ The procession then returned in reverse order to Harvard Hall, where Governing Boards, Representatives, ‘and the other Gentlemen who had honored the solemnity with their presence,’ were entertained at dinner.” -- Samuel Eliot Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, page 99.

1774-1780 Samuel Langdon

• Installed as president of Harvard on Commencement Day, October 14, 1774.

1781-1804 Joseph Willard

• "...the Reverend Joseph Willard (A.B. 1765) was chosen [as Harvard president] on September 20, 1781, and inaugurated three months later. Governor Hancock, who presided, 'in an elegant Latin Speech, congratulated the University...which he considered in some sense, the Parent as well as the Nurse of the late Happy Revolution, in this Commonwealth.’ Mr. Willard, being invested with seal, charter, keys, and records, delivered his inaugural address in Latin; and the Governor made a short reply. The president then ascended the pulpit, and announced that the University had conferred the degree of LL.D. on the Chevalier de la Luzerne, minister of Louis XVI to the United States, the Honorable Arthur Lee, Esq., and his Excellency John Adams, Esq. Elijah Paine (A.B. 1781) pronounced a Latin oration, the Revered Mr. Howard prayed, ‘and the solemnity was closed by an anthem, well performed by the young gentlemen of the University.’ The ‘Colleges’ were illuminated that evening, the lights disposed ‘in a variety of figures’ which exhibited a very pleasing and brilliant appearance.’” -- Samuel Eliot Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, page 164.

1846-1849 Edward Everett

• Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley's first-person account of President Everett's inauguration, in Sibley's private journal, entries for April 27 and April 30, 1846.
• Addresses at the Inauguration of the Hon. Edward Everett, LL.D., as President of the University at Cambridge, Thursday, April 30, 1846. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846.
• President Everett on the duties of a Harvard president, letter to Charles G. Loring, December 13, 1847. Papers of Edward Everett, College Letters, Volume I. UAI 15.884, Box 4, Harvard University Archives.
• See transcription in PDF LINKS section below

1849-1853 Jared Sparks

• Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley's first-person account of President Sparks's inauguration, in Sibley's private journal, entry for June 20, 1849. Note mention of "inauguration tree."
• Addresses at the Inauguration of Jared Sparks, LL.D., as President of Harvard College, Wednesday, June 20, 1849. Cambridge: Published by John Bartlett, 1849.

1853-1860 James Walker

• Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley's first-person account of President Walker's inauguration, in Sibley's private journal, entry for May 24, 1853.
• Addresses at the Inauguration of the Rev. James Walker, D.D., as President of Harvard College, Tuesday, May 24, 1853. Cambridge: John Bartlett, 1853.

1860-1862 Cornelius Conway Felton

• Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley's first-person account of President Felton's inauguration, in Sibley's private journal, entry for July 19, 1860.
• Addresses at the Inauguration of Cornelius Conway Felton, LL.D., as President of Harvard College, and at the Festival of the Alumni, Thursday, July 19, 1860. Cambridge: Sever and Francis, 1860.

1862-1868 Thomas Hill

• Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley's first-person account of President Hill's inauguration, in Sibley's private journal, entry for March 4, 1863.
• Addresses at the Inauguration of Thomas Hill as President of Harvard College, Wednesday, March 4, 1863. Cambridge: Sever and Francis, 1863.

1869-1909 Charles William Eliot

• Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley's first-person account of President Eliot's inauguration, in Sibley's private journal, entry for October 19, 1869.
• Addresses at the Inauguration of Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard College, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1869. Sever and Francis, 1869. Includes program and description of event.
• A turning point in higher education; the inaugural address of Charles William Eliot as president of Harvard College, October 19, 1869. With an introduction.. by Nathan M. Pusey. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1969

1909-1933 Abbott Lawrence Lowell

• "Inauguration of President Lowell. Wednesday, October 6, 1909." Harvard Graduates Magazine, Volume XVIII, December 1909, pages 270-293. Includes images.
• Programme for the inauguration of Abbott Lawrence Lowell, LL.D., as president of Harvard University, October 1933.
• Inauguration of President A. Lawrence Lowell, [photograph], 1909
• Scrapbook on the inauguration of President Lowell, 1909. Find it @ Archives
• Letter from Edmund March Wheelwright to George Lyman Kittredge regarding a menu used at a dinner given in honor of Abbott Lawrence Lowell before his inauguration as President of Harvard University, March 2, 1909 Find it @ Archives

1933-1953 James Bryant Conant

• "President Conant Installed [Monday October 9, 1933]." Harvard Alumni Bulletin, October 13, 1933, pages 68-69. See full text of article in PDF LINKS section below
• Installation: James B. Conant, Oct. 9, 1933. Folder in Records of the President of Harvard University, James Bryant Conant, 1933-1955 Official Correspondence, 1933-1934. UAI 5.168 Box 4, Harvard University Archives Find it @ Archives

1953-1971 Nathan Marsh Pusey

• [Installation of Nathan Marsh Pusey as President of Harvard, Tuesday, October 13, 1953.] Harvard Alumni Bulletin, October 24, 1953, pages 107-110. See full text of article in PDF LINKS section below
• Records relating to the installation of Nathan Marsh Pusey as the Twenty-Fourth President of Harvard University, 1953 October 13. UAI 20.953.10  Find it @ Archives  Nathan Marsh Pusey was invested with the powers and privileges of his office at an installation ceremony on October 13, 1953 in the Faculty Room in University Hall. This collection includes a reel-to-reel audio recording and a disc recording of the occasion, transcripts of the remarks given by the president of the Harvard Board of Overseers Charles Edward Wyzanski, Jr. and Nathan M. Pusey, and notes written by Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison recounting the installation. Morison notes, for example, that that the 20-minute ceremony was scheduled for 3:30 “so that some of the Fellows and Overseers could catch the five o’clock train for New York.” 
• See full text of inauguration address in PDF LINKS section below

1971-1991, 2006-2007 Derek Bok

• "A President is installed." Harvard Alumni Bulletin, November 1, 1971, pages 10-12. See full text of article in PDF LINKS section below

• See full text of inauguration address in PDF LINKS section below

1991-2001 Neil L. Rudenstine

• Rudenstine, Neil. "The Values of Education: Presidential Installation Address, October 18, 1991," in Pointing our thoughts: reflections on Harvard and higher education, 1991-2001 by Neil Rudenstine, Harvard University, 2001.

2001-2006 Lawrence Summers

• Powell, Alvin. "Summers' Installation 2001." The Harvard Gazette, October 11, 2001 
• Presidential Installation 2001: Address made by President Summers at his Installation ceremony on Oct. 12, 2001

2007-2018 Drew Gilpin Faust

• Inauguration of Drew Faust, October 12, 2007 Harvard University website

PDF LINKS