Title: John Harvard
Description: John Harvard is a sculpture in bronze by Daniel Chester French in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts honoring John Harvard (1607 – 1638), whose deathbedbequest to the"schoale or Colledge"recently undertaken by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was so gratefully received that it was consequently ordered "that theColledgeagreed upon formerly tobeebuilt atCambridg shalbeecalled HarvardColledge."There being nothing to indicate what John Harvard had looked like, French used a Harvard student collaterally descended from an early Harvard president as inspiration. The statue's inscription——is the subject of an arch polemic,traditionally recited for visitors,questioning whether John Harvard justly merits the honorific founder.According to a Harvard official, the founding of the college was not the act of one but the work of many;John Harvard is therefore considered not the founder, but rather a founder, of the school, though the timeliness and generosity of his contribution have made him the most honored of these. Tourists often rub the toe of John Harvard's left shoe for luck, in the mistaken belief that doing so is a Harvard student tradition.
Author(s): Daniel Chester French