Institutions training the world's elite welcome yearly crowds
These elite campuses welcome crowds of visitors who never set foot in a lecture hall, prestige turned into an attraction and the crest into a souvenir.
The statue lends the benefactor the face of a student who posed for the sculptor. It presents him as the founder of a university that he merely…
Institutions that train the world's elite welcome crowds of visitors every year. Many will never pass through the doors of a lecture hall.
These campuses have turned their prestige into an attraction and their coat of arms into a souvenir. Being there matters as much, for these visitors,…
The statue lends the benefactor the face of a student who posed for the sculptor. It presents him as the founder of a university that he merely endowed with his library, and dates that founding to 1638.
Institutions that train the world's elite welcome crowds of visitors every year. Many will never pass through the doors of a lecture hall.
These campuses have turned their prestige into an attraction and their coat of arms into a souvenir. Being there matters as much, for these visitors, as the teaching dispensed there.
The ritual repeats. Everyone rubs the tip of the left shoe of a statue, a reputed good-luck charm. The gesture is so frequent that the metal has turned golden.
Dig deeper
Which statue is it?
It is the statue of John Harvard, in Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, near Boston, which has become a must-see stop for visitors.
Who is John Harvard?
This English minister, who died young, bequeathed his library and part of his fortune to the Massachusetts college, which took his name even though he did not found it.
Why does the statue mislead viewers about its subject?
The face is that of a student who posed for the sculptor, John Harvard is not the founder, and the date of 1638 does not correspond to the college’s founding in 1636.
What is Harvard University?
Founded in 1636 in Massachusetts, it is the oldest university in the United States and an institution that educates part of the world’s elite, heavily visited by tourists.
Why is the left shoe golden?
Visitors rub its toe as a good-luck charm, and this repeated wear has polished the bronze until it shines.