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Harvard University Walking Tour

This post covers how to tour Harvard University and the surrounding Cambridge area, including our pay-what-you-wish tour and our audio tour which you can take any time.

There is also a tour guided by students, as well as a self-guided option.

Harvard University is the oldest college in the United States (1636).

Eight U.S. presidents attended Harvard University and the name is known worldwide.

WHERE IS HARVARD?

Harvard University is located in the City of Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston.

It's located approximately 4 miles (6.5 km) away from the Boston Commons (or 15 min on the subway).

Regardless of how you decide to get here, we recommend using this Google Maps link for directions to Harvard Square .

Be sure to read our how-to guide on riding the Boston T (subway).

TIP: If you are considering purchasing a hop-on-hop-off trolley ticket, be aware that Old Town Trolley has a stop for Harvard University.

GUIDED HARVARD WALKING TOURS

To start with, our 2-hour, pay-what-you-like tour not only covers Harvard University but also the surrounding area of Cambridge.

Below us, you can read about a shorter tour led by current Harvard students.

FREE TOURS BY FOOT

Reservations:  REQUIRED.  Click here to reserve . Groups of 6 or more must  contact us  before booking.

Where:  At the Cambridge Tourism Information Booth in Harvard Square ( map ).

Cost:  This tour is free to take, and you get to decide what, if anything, the tour was worth when it's done. A  name-your-own-price tour  is a tour for anyone's budget.

Duration:  Approximately 2 hours. Tour distance is approximately 1 mile (1.6K)

When: 

• Jan. to Feb. : No Tours
• March to April:   Saturdays and Sundays 10 am
• May to June 20:   Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays 10 am
• June 20th to Labor Day : Everyday 10 am
• Sept. to Oct:   Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays 10 am
• Nov. to Dec .  Saturdays and Sundays 10 am

You can also take this tour as a self-guided GPS enabled audio tour .

Here is how it works:

• Purchase an  audio tour from our Booking Page .
• You'll receive a confirmation email with a .pdf, Google Map link, and audio tour.
• Enjoy the tour(s).

Listen to a sample of the Harvard and Cambridge audio tour.

Hahvahad Tours (that's phonetically spelled) 

This company offers 70-min tours several times each day that are led by current Harvard students, enthusiastic ambassadors of the university.

Tours are inexpensive, light-hearted, but are limited to the university grounds, so you won't see much of Cambridge. 

Tours run daily at 10:30 am, 11:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 1 pm.  

$19.50/adults | $18.50/students, seniors and children (Free with the Go Boston tourist concession card )

Book your tour here .

SELF-GUIDED TOUR OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND CAMBRIDGE

You can also take this tour as a self-guided GPS-enabled audio tour .

How to Get to Harvard University

Reaching the start of this tour is easy.

The best way to access the area is by mass transit. You can take the red line T to Harvard Square MBTA Station.  

Use this Google map for directions to Harvard Square .  

Click on the map for a larger version.

Out of Town Newsstand

Your tour starts outside the Harvard Sq. MBTA (subway) Station.

Notice the Out of Town Newsstand which is a Cambridge landmark. 

The newsstand since it opened in 1955, has been providing Harvard professors, students, and Cambridge Residence with newspapers and magazines from all over the world.

The building is a national historic landmark.

From Out of Town News walk up JFK Street (to your right if you are facing Out of Town News).

Follow JFK St. to Mt. Auburn St. and take a left down Mt. Auburn St. to the Harvard Lampoon Building at 44 Bow St.

1. Lampoon Building

The Lampoon Building is also known as the Lampoon Castle.

The best place to view this building is by standing on the island where Bow St. and Mt. Auburn St. meet.

This building houses Harvard's comedy magazine The Lampoon, where students like Cohan O'Brien and John Updike wrote while undergraduates at the university.

John Updike also served as president of The Lampoon at his time there.

This is one of the most unique buildings on Campus.

Opened in 1909 the building is designed in the form of a human face wearing a Prussian helmet. The front door looks like a bow tie turned sideways.

Notice the Ibis on top. This is made of copper and weighs about 70 pounds. The Ibis was stolen a few times by members of Harvard University's newspaper The Crimson as a prank.

The bird is now said to have an electrified wire attached to it to prevent future thefts.

Costing $40,000 to construct in 1909, at the time the building was the most expensive headquarters for a student publication in the nation. Look to your right you will see Lowell House, the structure with the white bell tower.

This undergraduate dorm is where Matt Damon stayed while a student at the university.

Notice the bell tower of Lowell House. The tower houses 18 bells ranging in size from 22 pounds (the smallest bell) to 27,000 pounds (the Mother Earth bell).

After what is known as The Game, the annual Harvard vs. Yale football game, the Harvard team score is rung out on the Mother Earth Bell.

The Yale score is chimed on what is known as the bells of Pestilence, Famine, and Despair.

As you walk around the Lampoon Building you will notice two dates, 1909 and 1876. 1909 is when the building opened and 1876 is when the Harvard Lampoon Magazine was first published

Continue walking up Mt. Auburn St following the Lampoon Building and take a left onto Plympton St. At 26 Plympton St. you will see the undergraduate dorm of the Adams House.

2. Adams House

Opened in 1900 the dorm is named in honor of the United State's 2nd President John Adams and his son, America's 6th President John Quincy Adams, who both graduated from the university.

There is a suite inside Adam's House called the FDR Suite where the United States' 32nd president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) lived while a student at Harvard.

It is restored to the 1904 appearance to honor the president who stayed there as a student.

The FDR Suite inside Adams House is the only memorial to FDR on campus.

Including FDR, John Adams, and John Quincy Adams, Harvard University has had 5 other US Presidents who attended: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, and Rutherford B. Hayes for a total of 8 U.S. Presidents who attended the university.

Continue up Plympton St. to 14 Plympton St. to the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson.

3. Harvard Crimson

Founded in 1873 it was called The Magenta for its first two years, and in 1875 the paper changed its name to The Crimson when the University changed its color to crimson.

The Harvard Crimson is the only daily newspaper in the City of Cambridge and is run entirely by the university's undergraduate students.

It is also the only college newspaper in the United States that has its own printing press.

Some of the famous folks who wrote for the Crimson include US Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who served as the newspaper president) and John F. Kennedy (a business editor).

Look up to the second-floor glass door and you may be able to see the big chair inside.

This chair has small brass makers attached to the chair with the names of the former presidents of the newspaper.

Like the Ibis on top of the Lampoon Building, members of the Harvard Lampoon sometimes steal this chair as a prank and revenge for the Crimson's members' theft of their Ibis.

The chair is now chained to the floor to help thwart future thefts.

Continue up Plympton St. and cross Massachusetts Ave. and enter Old Harvard Yard through Dextor Gate.

Notice the carved inscription above the entrance and the words "enter to grow in wisdom" and on the exit/inside of the gate the words "depart to serve better this country and thy kind."

4. Wigglesworth Hall

After you enter Harvard Yard, take a left and will see the dorm, Wigglesworth Hall.

All freshmen who enter Harvard are required to stay in the Halls of Old Harvard Yard. All the freshman dorms are called Halls and the upper-class dorms are called Houses.

Some of the famous students who lived in Wigglesworth Hall include Leonard Bernstein, Senator Edward Kennedy, and Bill Gates.

Follow the path to the Henry Elkins Widener Memorial Library.

5. Henry Elkins Widener Memorial Library

This is the largest college library in the United States and is the nation's 3rd largest library. The library has 57 miles (92 km) of shelves along five miles of aisles on ten floors.

Only the US Library of Congress and the New York Public Library hold more volumes of books.

The Library is six floors high and four floors below and was built in honor of 1907 Harvard graduate Henry Elkins Widener who was killed in April 1912 at the age of 27 during the sinking of the Titanic.

The library was built with funds donated by Widener's mother Eleanor to honor her son's memory.

Look directly across the Old Yard and you will see Memorial Church. This church was built in 1932.

Inside these walls engraved alongside a sculptor named “The Sacrifice” are 373 names of alumni who were killed during WWI.

Since then other memorials have been established inside the church for Harvard Students and Alumni who were killed in WWII, The Korean War, and Vietnam.

Walk around the Widener Library and follow the path to the Dragon Statue.

6. Dragon Statue

This statue was donated to the university in 1936 by Chinese Alumni in honor of the university's 300 anniversary.

The statue is made of marble and weighs 27 tons. It was carved between 1796 and1820 in Beijing and formally resided in the Winter Palace before being donated and shipped to the university.

As you continue down the path look to your right and you will see Weld Hall where President John F. Kennedy lived during his freshman year at Harvard.

Follow the path around University Hall and you will see the most famous site on campus, the John Harvard Statue.

7. John Harvard Statue

This is also known as the Statue of "three lies".

The first one is on the statue's base and states Harvard was formed in 1638. Wrong, as we know Harvard was formed in 1636.

It says that John Harvard was the founder of Harvard. Wrong, Harvard was founded in 1636 by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Harvard endowed Harvard with books and money in 1638.

And the third and probably the biggest lie on the statue is that the man in the chair; not John Harvard.

When the statue was designed in 1884 by Daniel Chester French there was not any likeness of John Harvard.

French used a Harvard Student by the name of Sherman Hoar as the inspiration for John Harvard's face. Sherman Hoar was a descendant of the brother of Harvard's fourth president Leonard Hoar.

The statue is one of the most photographed statues in the United States, and you will notice the worn-out bronze of the statue's left foot where millions of visitors have rubbed for good luck.

There is also the legend that if you rub/touch the foot of the statue you will acquire some of the knowledge of Harvard.

Take the path away from the John Harvard Statue and towards the street. On the left, you will see Massachusetts Hall.

8. Massachusetts Hall

Opened in 1720, Massachusetts Hall is the second oldest college dorm in the United States.

Some of their legendary student residents include John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and America's second president John Adams.

During the siege of Boston in 1775, 640 members of the Continental Army led by George Washington were housed there.

Currently, Massachusetts Hall houses the office of Harvard's President, Treasurer, and Vice President, all of which have their offices on the first two floors and part of the third floor.

On the fourth floor are freshman dorms.

Exit the Old Yard through Johnston Gate.

9. Johnson Gate

Opened in 1890, Johnston Gate was the first gate constructed around Old Harvard Yard.

Johnston Gate cost $10,000 to construct in 1889-90 and was a gift to the university by 1855 Harvard Graduate Samuel Johnston.

For several hundred years, on Harvard's commencement day, sheriffs from Middlesex and Suffolk Country have entered Harvard Yard on horseback before the Middlesex Sheriff's call to order.

It has become a tradition that they enter through Johnston Gate. Another tradition at Harvard regarding Johnston Gate is that after the commencement ceremony, graduates exit Harvard Yard using only Johnston Gate.

As you exit Harvard Yard through Johnston Gate you can now consider yourself an honorary graduate of Harvard University.

After exiting Johnston Gate, cross Massachusetts Ave. to the island in the middle and you will be at the sculpture of Charles Sumner (1811-1874).

10. Charles Sumner Statue

He was a lawyer, abolitionist, orator, and US Senator from Massachusetts.

One of the many things he is known for is while a US Senator he was an incident that took place on the Senate floor when he was arguing against the Kansas/Nebraska Act.

This was an 1854 legislative act that would allow the expansion of slavery in the new states of Kansas and Nebraska.

On May 20th, 1856, Sumner was auguring against the Act, and during his diatribe, Sumner called US Senator Andrew Butler from South Carolina a slave pimp and went on a tirade against the senator and his state of South Carolina.

During the tirade, he mocked Butler's manner of speech and physical mannerisms as Butler previously suffered a stroke which left him physically impaired.

Two days later, US Congressman Preston Brooks, the cousin of Senator Butler walked on the Senate floor and approached Sumner.

As Sumner rose to meet the Representative, Preston beat Sumner nearly to death with a cane until the cane finally broke.

The beating rendered Sumner unconscious on the Senate floor. It took almost two years before Senator Sumner recovered from the beating.

The event showed how divided the United States was at that time over the issue of slavery.

Continue across Massachusetts Ave. , take a right and follow Massachusetts Ave. and you will be outside the Cambridge Burial Ground (1635).

11. Old Burial Ground

This burial ground was the only burial ground in Cambridge for nearly 200 years and includes a cross-section of Cambridge residents from paupers to Harvard presidents.

Like all the old burial grounds, there are many more bodies beneath than the 1218 headstones above, as many of the headstones did not survive the centuries and some of the earliest burials were unmarked.

The oldest headstone in the burial ground is that of Anne Eriton which dates to 1653.

The tomb of John Vassel is the most elaborate in the burial ground and contains 25 caskets and including the body of Andrew Craigie who was the first Apothecary General of the Continental Army. He was also a former owner of the Longfellow House on Tory Row.

Craigie also developed much of what is known as East Cambridge and also organized the construction of the Canal Bridge which connected East Cambridge to Boston.

The bridge was later rebuilt as the Charles River Dam but is also known as Carigie's Bridge.

The Old Burial Ground also contains the remains of 8 Harvard presidents including Harvard's first president Henry Dunster.

It's also home to the remains of 19 Revolutionary War Soldiers including John Hicks, William Macy, and Moses Richardson who were buried there after the first Battles of the American Revolution on April 19th, 1775 in Lexington and Concord.

The burial ground also houses the tomb of the Dana Family. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was an abolitionist who worked with Charles Sumner.

Continue up Massachusetts Ave. and once you cross Garden St. look down on the sidewalk and you will see a series of horseshoes embedded along the sidewalk of Massachusetts Ave.

These show the route that William Dawes, the second rider with Paul Revere on his midnight ride took on his way up to Lexington, MA on the night of April 18, 1775.

The ride to "Midnight Ride" by Paul Revere, William Dawes, and others which warned the towns along the way that the British Troops were on the move resulted in the start of the American Revolution in Lexington/Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775.

Cross at the crosswalk ahead and you are at the gates of Cambridge Common. Rather than walk through the gates, take the sidewalk to the left along Garden Street.

12. Cambridge Common

This 16-acre park was where George Washington and the Continental Army camped in 1775 while British Troops occupied Boston until March 1776.

The first site you will see when entering the Common is a memorial for the Irish Famine which was dedicated on July 23, 1997, by then-Irish President Mary Robinson.

The sculpture was created by Maurice Harron a resident of Derry, Northern Ireland who has sculptures in Ireland, The UK, and The United States.

Continue walking through the Common keeping Garden Street on your left and you will come to a series of cannons.

These cannons were abandoned at Fort Independence (also known as Castle William) on March 17, 1776, when the British Troops evacuated from Boston.

There is also a plaque to Henry Knox, a Boston and bookseller before the American Revolution, he would become the first Secretary of War under President George Washington.

Henry Knox in January of 1776, dragged cannons and other military supplies from the captured British Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point in Upstate New York and led the mission to carry the 60 tons of cannons and other arms on ox-drawn sleds 300 miles across snowy and frozen ground to Boston.

What was expected to take two weeks, took six weeks as the caravan of men where faced storms and delays as the cannons broke through the ice and got stuck in the mud and snow, but in the end, they were able to deliver the munitions to Boston.

The cannons were placed on Dorchester Heights, (the hills surrounding Boston) on the night of March 16, 1776.

When the Occupying British Troops woke the next morning on March 17th, they realized they were surrounded by artillery and withdrew their ships to Halifax and retreated out of Boston.

The siege of Boston was ended as a result. March 17th is a holiday in Boston called Evacuation Day as a result of the efforts of Henry Knox and his men.

Henry Knox went on to be in charge of improving the defenses in Rhode Island and New York during the American Revolution where in New York he met Alexander Hamilton who was the commander of the local artillery.

They would remain close friends until Hamilton died in 1804.

Knox would later become the first Secretary of War under George Washington.

Henry Knox died in 1806 at the age of 56 after swallowing a chicken bone which caused an infection that killed him three days later on Oct. 25th.

Also located in the area of the cannons and marked with a plaque is the Washington Elm.

Legend has it (although is disputed) that under this tree on July 3, 1775, General George Washington took control of the Continental Army.

The army struck camp there and stayed until March 1776 when British Troops evacuated Boston.

The original tree lived about 210 years and finally fell in 1923. The tree was cut up into 100 pieces and sent to all the US States and their legislatures.

Other pieces were sent to fraternal organizations throughout the US and root shoots were also sent throughout the nation, and some still live today.

The cross-section of the tree was sent to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's plantation in the state of Virginia.

Turn around and head back down the sidewalk, you'll see a white church to your right across the street.

13. Christ Church

This 1759 church was formed by the members of King's Chapel in Boston who lived in Cambridge.

This church provided church of England Services to students attending Harvard and was designed by Peter Harrison who also was the architect of Boston's King's Chapel.

During the American Revolution, the church which sits across the street from the Cambridge Common where the Continental Army was camped out at the start of the war, soldiers camp there fired shots at the then Loyalist Church.

If you walk into the front doors of the church and look above the inside door frame a musket hole is visible from that time.

Later George and Martha Washington would attend a prayer service there and as the war wore on the church was closed and the organ of the church was melted down for bullets for the Continental Army.

In April 1967, the church hosted speeches from Dr. Benjamin Spock and Martin Luther King, Jr. who were denied access to a building on Harvard's Campus.

They planned to hold a press conference against the Vietnam War. They were welcomed by the Reverend Murray Kenney. Jesse Jackson also spoke at the church in 2004 celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Continue walking towards Massachusetts Ave. and back to the Cambridge Burial Ground. At the burial ground, take a right down Massachusetts Ave. and cross Church Street. Follow Massachusetts Ave. and you will come to the Harvard Coop.

14. The Harvard Coop

The Harvard Coop was opened in 1882 to supply books and school supplies for the students at Harvard.

In 1916 after MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge, MIT opened a branch of the Coop to serve its students and is still present on MIT's campus today.

This Coop is one of the largest college bookstores in the United States. The store is run by Barnes and Noble today and the public is welcome to come in the shop and browse Harvard Swag and books.

However, membership to the Coop is limited only to students, faculty, alumni, and employees as well as personnel of hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

In 1882 membership cost $1.00 and that cost is the same today.

Cross Massachusetts Ave. to the Harvard MBTA Station and you will be where the tour started outside the Harvard Sq. MBTA Station and Out-of-Town Newsstand.

We hope you enjoyed your Self-Guided Tour of Harvard!

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Introducing the visit harvard mobile app.

By Amy Kamosa

The Harvard Visitor's Center has launched a new Visit Harvard mobile app that will provide free, self-guided, self-paced themed walking tours of the University. The first tour released on the app is a historic walking tour of the Cambridge Campus. It incorporates 14 locations throughout campus that highlight some of the most important buildings and events of the University's nearly 400-year history.

In 2019, approximately 8 million people visited Harvard Square, and more than 35,000 visitors took part in public and private tours of the Harvard Campus. When the campus shut down in early 2020 due to the pandemic, Robin Parker, Associate Director of Harvard's Visitor Center, worked with colleagues and a small team of undergraduate tour guides led by Fari Mbaye '22 and Madi Fabber '22, to create a series of live, student-led online virtual tours as an option for would-be visitors who were no longer able to come to the Square.

The mobile app tour builds on the content developed for those virtual offerings, but provides a more accessible option that visitors can use to guide themselves while they visit campus in-person, or from the comfort of their own couch anywhere in the world.

"Our student tour guides really led the charge on the creation of these tours. Some of the images they've included have never been seen before, and the content weaves a really compelling story through Harvard's history," said Parker.

It was that storytelling aspect of the mobile tour that Mbaye said was the most challenging and important aspect of translating the live tour content to the app. "When we, as tour guides, give live tours, we're really just working off bullet points and we weave our own details and jokes in as we go. With the app, we had to turn the content into a complete story that people would want to read and listen to," she explained.

If app users choose to visit the campus, they can follow the geo-location tags on the app to travel point-to-point. The total distance of the tour is approximately one mile and should take approximately one hour to complete—including travel between stops, but the self-guided nature of the app means that users can complete this circuit at their own pace.

According to Visitor Center Manager Maggie Dawson, the ease of use and simplicity of design was an intentional choice to ensure that the app was as accessible as possible. Additional features like geo-location tagging, audio tracks with transcript, and image alternative text for visually-impaired users, all enable a large range of users to interact with the app in their own way, and according to Dawson, inclusion will continue to be a priority as more content is added. "Our hope is to tell many parts of the Harvard story to as many audiences as possible. Not only are additional tours in development, including a Black History Tour, and Arts Walk, and a Women's History tour, but we are expanding the tour languages as well," she explained.

The Visit Harvard App is available for download through the Apple Store and Google Play . There is also a desktop version of the app you can access here .

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How to cheat your way around Harvard

Sep 20, 2018 • 6 min read

Enrollment in Harvard doesn't come easy, but a stroll around the campus can be enriching if you know where to look © Roman Babakin / Getty Images

If ever there was a place where Einstein, Edison or Eisenhower would feel at home it’s Cambridge, Massachusetts. When the autumn leaves begin to crinkle and fall, the city’s alumni return to this city within greater Boston, on the west bank of the Charles River, to start another semester. So many incredible brain waves occur here. So many eureka moments. And the center of this cerebral universe is Harvard University.

Joining Harvard’s ultra-exclusive alumni club, at an annual cost of around $60,000, is the privilege of the few. But with a cheat sheet on where to go and what to see, strolling its sprawling, stunning campus is gratifyingly free.

Harvard history 101

By anyone’s margin, Harvard is a long way from normal. The world’s richest academic institution , with a $42bn endowment, it is where presidents-in-waiting are tutored and future heads of state are inspired. Count eight US commanders-in-chief and 157 Nobel laureates over the years. Forty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners. One hundred and eight Olympic medalists. It’s an unstoppable return that has shaped world history on an epic scale.

The Harvard empire has been nearly four centuries in the making. Once a cow pasture, it was established in 1636 for the same reason many other Ivy League universities in New England were: to train puritan ministers and clergy. But it’s the stories on a perspective-popping walkabout of Harvard’s 209-acre Cambridge campus that truly set it apart.

'John Adams, John Quincy Adams, George Washington: they all passed through here,' says Trent Bryan, a 21-year-old psychology, neuroscience and philosophy senior who regularly leads campus tours. Past the gates of Harvard Yard, a revered hush falls and the college reveals itself as if a book flipping through its back pages. Georgian gatehouses and gardens retain centuries-old grace, while the storied mansion houses and memorial halls, best seen on approach from Johnston Gate, offer a lesson in colonial architecture and the American Revolution. At every level, the university bears the Harvard imprimatur: red-brick buildings intersected by leafy pathways and Ivy League charm.

Must-see spots (and the secrets behind them)

An indication that Harvard has earned its place in the glamorous zeitgeist beyond the ‘nerdom’ is the popularity of the sculpted bronze statue of John Harvard . It is the third most-photographed statue in the United States, and every day, as clockwork as the hourly lectures, visitors queue at its base for a selfie with America’s most famous benefactor.

But what outsiders don’t realize is that despite Harvard’s Latin motto veritas , or truth, all of these visitors have been duped. Sculptor Daniel Chester French based its appearance on a random student, as no known image of Harvard exists. The date inscribed at the figure’s base is wrong, too. It should read 1636, not 1638. Also incorrect is the description of Harvard as the college’s original founder; that was actually the Massachusetts General Court. Be that as it may, a long-held superstition holds that if you rub Harvard’s shoe it’ll bring good luck. 'If people knew what students have put on it over the years they wouldn’t dare touch it,' says Trent matter-of-factly.

Everyone agrees you must see the lavish Memorial Hall, a Victorian Gothic basilica built for fallen soldiers during the Civil War. It’s Harvard’s spiritual antennae to the north of Bradstreet Gates, yet seems set apart from academia. A hard-earned silence exists inside the transept, and there are stenciled walls and stained-glass windows, which in the right light filter a spectrum of New England colors onto the floor. Maple reds burn and yellows glow. Next door, above the basement student pub, is Annenberg dining hall. The soaring, trussed ceiling of this impressive 1874 structure recalls Hogwarts, without the pointy wizard hats. It’s a student-only affair, but come at meal time for a glimpse into the realities of graduate life.

Anchoring the university grounds is the Widener Library, one of more than 70 libraries on campus. Skirted by steep stairs and braced by Corinthian columns, it’s the world’s largest private library and has been the preserve of America’s literati for centuries. The floors are a bamboozling warren of nearly 60 miles of bookshelves, although non-students are relegated to admiring the elegant facade. There are 3.5 million volumes in its collection, including a sheepskin-covered original Shakespeare and a priceless Gutenberg Bible. TS Eliot has borrowed books from its vaults, as has Gertrude Stein, who took philosophy classes at nearby Emerson Hall.

'The library was named by Lady Widener after her son, Harry, who died on the Titanic,' says Trent. 'She survived, but he refused to leave the sinking ship until he’d packed one of his favorite books. That’s how obsessive a collector he was.'

Potted highlights from American history linger elsewhere. The Pusey Library, open to the public, holds America’s oldest collection of maps and atlases. Nearby, the Harvard Art Museums – a triumvirate of the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger and Arthur M Sackler museums – make up a miniature Louvre, with an encyclopedia of sculpture, watercolors and prints. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology , meanwhile, tells the story of North America’s indigenous peoples, from thunderbird-topped totem poles to Native American canoes.

Famous people and places

Pop-culture fans are also drawn to Harvard, thanks to its many famous past students and connections to cultural moments. 'Matt Damon was a member of the class of ’92 and he wrote the script [for Good Will Hunting] in Matthews Hall,' says Trent, pointing to a red-brick dorm. 'John F Kennedy lived in Winthrop House, but his room was destroyed by the installation of an elevator. You know, Harvard can still shaft you after you’ve left!'

Billionaire Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard before becoming one of the world’s richest men. Satire magazine National Lampoon was born at the Harvard Lampoon Building. And you if you walk past Kirkland House, you’ll see where a social media phenomenon was born. 'I live in Kirkland, just above the room that Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in,' says Trent, pointing to H33, a ground-level dorm barracks. 'He and Bill Gates are the only two to receive honorary diplomas without graduating.'

Understandably, a place like this inspires scholarship. But it’s not always an empirical and rational place, as an insight into the realities of late-night student life shows. One such notorious ritual is the Primal Scream, a midnight run through the Yard on the last night of reading period before final exams. Needless to say, it’s a lowbrow combo of streaking and stripping, making as much of an impression on a visitor as any of the college’s more virtuous traditions.

Make it happen

Self-guided walking tour maps, offered in nine different languages, can be picked-up from the Harvard Information Center. And for an undiluted view on the student experience, the one-hour tour is also wonderfully free. All buildings except the Widener Library and, of course, student dorms, can be viewed by the public, although the dining hall is closed to visitors outside of guided tours.

Mike MacEacheran travelled to Cambridge with assistance from Visit Massachusetts . Lonely Planet contributors do not accept freebies in exchange for positive coverage.

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Where can i find a tour of harvard’s campus.

A tour is a great way to get to know the campus! Harvard Information Center, located in the Smith Campus Center, offers free student-led walking tours through Harvard Yard. Tours are one hour and provide a general overview of the main Cambridge camps and University history. The Information Center also has maps for self-guided walking tours. For details and schedule, as well as links to tour information at the graduate schools go here . The Admissions Office offers separate tours for prospective students.

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Visit Harvard 4+

Harvard university, designed for ipad.

• 3.8 • 13 Ratings

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Description.

You’ve heard of Harvard University, but do you know its nearly 400-year history? On this self-guided walking tour, you'll be taken to some of the most iconic places across Harvard's campus and learn the stories behind them. Tour stops features facts, some never-before-seen images, and immersive videos! Follow along for an inside look into the University's historical and modern legacy.

Version 9.0.95

Bug Fixes and Improvements

Ratings and Reviews

This tour app is not what one would expect from Harvard. The narrator is monotone and boring. The app gives no walking directions to each location. Don’t waste your time with this app.

Needs some work and I

The app and tour had some interesting facts and trivia. That’s about the only compliment the app earns. The map does not show direction; seems like only someone who is already familiar with the points of interest would know where to go. Some stops’ physical locations are not correlated correctly with where their places are on the map. As a visitor, I walked past several spots that look interesting but there is not even a name overlayed to use for navigation. Some stops do not have pictures and identifying markings on buildings are difficult to find. Definitely does not project academic excellence.

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The developer, Harvard University , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

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Getting there

Harvard University Campus

1376 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, 02138

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Harvard’s Tour App Highlights Overlooked History

Veritas , the Latin word for “truth” and Harvard’s motto, is visible all around the University’s campus—indoors and out and in myriad forms. Look above the door of Widener Library and it appears sculpted in stone. It is etched in stained glass in Memorial Hall’s transept and worked in metal on a Harvard Yard fence and a gateway to Harvard’s Soldiers Field in Allston, to name just a few places and forms.

Nearly four centuries after it was first adopted as Harvard’s official motto , Veritas will take on even greater weight and meaning when the Presidential Initiative on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery (H&LS) report and recommendations are released.

To help make the report’s findings more tangible, Alexandria Russell, the HL&S research fellow focused on digital humanities, worked with colleagues at Harvard Radcliffe Institute to create a tour that participants can explore virtually or in real life. The tour connects historical sites on and off campus to the University’s involvement with enslavement, and it also honors Black excellence and achievement.

“The H&LS initiative’s goal was to convey major themes of the report while also allowing visitors to reconceptualize spaces and historical narratives that they likely have already encountered,” said Russell, who chose an impressive and diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students to serve as virtual tour guides. “The students walk past these tour stops daily and certainly have opinions about many of them. These students are exploring the University’s past, and changing and growing in each phase of their educational journey here.”

Keep reading to get a sneak peak of some of the featured sites and to hear the students’ illuminating perspectives about Harvard and Veritas .

Discovering a Hero

Each day on his way to class during the 2019–2020 academic year, Noah Gold ’22 would dash across Cambridge Common solely focused on getting to class on time. Before submitting an application to be a voice actor for the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative tour app, he never realized the park is a “veritable outdoor museum.”

Gold, who hails from Potomac, Maryland, was also surprised to learn Harvard University had anything to do with slavery. “I feel like it’s an important enough topic that everybody should have heard of it,” he explained. “It made me think more in-depth about how Harvard and slavery coexisted and how the University clearly benefited from slavery.”

Once Gold received his assignment for the tour, he conducted research on Prince Hall, a Black Bostonian who the City of Cambridge commemorated in 2010 with a memorial in Cambridge Common for his efforts to abolish slavery and support enslaved and freed Blacks.

“He hosted all these events and raised funds to make sure that even the people who were still enslaved had a better quality of life,” Gold said. “He brought the fight to the political realm, to the judicial realm. Unfortunately, slavery in the United States didn’t end until about 100 years later, but he still made a lasting impression.”

Newly armed with this knowledge, Gold discovered that his friends were just as uninformed about Harvard’s role in slavery and the slave trade as he was. He also has discussed the tour with his entire family, and he is committed to walking the tour with them when they attend his graduation.

Gold would like to see Harvard make its historical entanglement with slavery and its legacies part of its future core curriculum. He expressed shame about passing the Prince Hall Monument daily without a thought, without knowing who Hall was, because he feels it reflects a powerful bias in American history classes and textbooks.

“I think people really need to know that Cambridge—and, I mean, the colonies in general—were not just a place where revolution happened, where the freedom of America was born, but where even in the midst of their fight for the nation’s freedom, there were people who were actively enslaved by those same people who were arguing for life, liberty, and justice for everybody,” Gold said.

Noah Gold '22, who voices the Cambridge Common stop on the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery tour, was surprised to learn the history of slavery in Boston. Photo by Kris Snibbe

Reconciling the Memory of an Enslaved Past

Memorial Hall is a striking Victorian structure completed in 1878 to commemorate Harvard students, alumni, and faculty who died serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. In addition to the transept, a breathtakingly beautiful inner space with stained glass windows and a marble floor, Memorial Hall is home to Harvard’s first-year dining room, Annenberg Hall. Also a memorial, Annenberg honors Harvard’s renowned graduates and administrators in portraiture and sculpture—all white men until 1993, when a marble bust of W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard, was added to the collection.

“Memorial Hall was Harvard’s attempt to support abolition in the abstract without doing the work that it needed to do to actually advance racial equality in this country,” said first-year Harvard Law School (HLS) student Robert Clinton, who narrates the site in the tour. “It’s a memorial to the people who fought in the Civil War, but not a memorial to the people who were impacted by what the Civil War was about, which is slavery.”

The Richmond, California, native chose Harvard Law School (HLS) in part because, well, “Harvard is Harvard,” and a degree from HLS will help position him to influence public policy and make an impact as a criminal defense attorney. “But I also did some research on the ways that Harvard was reacting to racial inequality in the aftermath of the 2020 killing of George Floyd,” he explained. “I wanted to know that I was going to a university that was thinking critically about its relationship with racial inequality.”

That’s when Clinton dug up information about the law school’s former shield, which incorporated the family crest of Isaac Royall Jr., whose family wealth came from slavery and helped establish the law school. This sparked a desire in him to help build awareness about Harvard and slavery for himself and his peers.

“The fact that this institution is here because of exploitation and slavery is something that people are often surprised by. People who were enslaved were on this campus that we go to, so I wanted to help out however I could,” he said. “There are lots of [different kinds of] memorials to lots of different people here already, so clearly there’s a willingness to engage with the institution’s history—but not with the entirety of the history, so I’m glad it’s finally happened.”

The University should be mindful of that history when reviewing Black students’ applications for admission and financial aid, said Clinton. “I’m not exactly sure what that looks like, but I do think that it’s worth acknowledging that there were years and years when the University didn’t admit Black people and years and years when the University was able to grow and sustain itself on the backs of Black labor. We need to help right that by making sure that this place right now is not only welcoming for the Black people who are here but also encourages Black people to apply while thinking specifically about that exclusion and exploitation from the past when evaluating [future] Black candidates.”

Kyra March '22 found an intellectual community when she worked as a research assistant at the Hutchins Center, and she was excited to narrate that stop on the tour. Photo by Kris Snibbe

A Space to Intellectually Engage Black History

Under the leadership of Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Hutchins Center draws scholars from all over the world to celebrate Black history, culture, and artistry. Originally established in 1975 as the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, the Hutchins Center was established in 2013 to house not only the Du Bois Institute, but also the Image of the Black Archive & Library, the Celia and Henry W. McGee III Black Film Poster Collection, and innovative learning resources like the Hiphop Archive & Research Institute.

The center boasts a wide range of programs and some of the nation’s most renowned scholars of Black studies but also is a space that provides both refuge and joy to students like Kyra March ’22, who is concentrating in African and African American studies and studies of women, gender, and sexuality, with a citation in Gullah, the creole language of African Americans living in the Lowcountry from North Carolina to Florida.

In Summer 2021, March received a grant from the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative to work on her thesis about the Cambridge home of Harriet Jacobs , a formerly enslaved woman who famously published an autobiography documenting her experiences, and the absence of memorials to Black women. This semester, with support from a second H&LS grant, she’s working on digitizing her project.

March, who aims to become a museum curator, leapt at the opportunity to voice a stop for the tour and was thrilled to learn she would introduce the Hutchins Center, where she had previously worked as a research assistant.

“It is a place where you can engage with Black people and Black history on an intellectual level, and [which you can] also use as a safe space for Black people on this campus,” she said. Deeply grateful to both the Hutchins scholars and staffers she has gotten to know and work with these past four years, she said the center “is a really good community space where I felt like I had people around me who cared and that I could talk to.”

March, a South Carolina native, has been researching her family’s connection to slavery with her grandmother. So far, they’ve uncovered a great-grandfather and a great-great-grandfather who were born on plantations, presumably into enslavement. Coming from the South, she was not surprised to learn of Harvard’s ties to enslavement, although she was disappointed. March hopes the University will use the forthcoming report as well as physical memorials that still honor enslavers to educate the Harvard community and the public about University benefactors whose great wealth was built from slavery. While there are plaques and monuments acknowledging enslaved people at Harvard Law School and at Wadsworth House, she also hopes the University will add more memorials to honor the lives of other enslaved people to provide a fuller picture of the University’s history.

“I think that when the H&LS report comes out, people will want to engage more with the subject and do a lot more research to figure out how to honor them,” said March. She believes it will be a reality check for people who tend to put Harvard on a pedestal and “will force people to think about how there are so many important aspects of history that have been hidden that we should be seeking.”

The Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative will also celebrate African American excellence and the achievements of the University’s Black alums, including Alberta V. Scott, Radcliffe’s first Black graduate. March says that “seeing people like them and their lives and accomplishments just encourages me and reminds me that we have a place here and we deserve to be here.”

Mini Saxena LLM ’22, who introduces Widener Library on the tour, hopes the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery report will spark more substantive changes. Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

Widener Library’s Foundation in Black and White

Widener Memorial Library is the centerpiece of Harvard’s library system and one of the nation’s largest libraries—but how many people know that it sits on land donated by a slaveholder? Or, on the other hand, that Julian Francis Abele, the first African American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s architecture program, was one of the chief architects of this iconic Harvard building?

As Mini Saxena LLM ’22 walked through Harvard Yard toward Widener to prep for her tour assignment, she was immediately struck by how imposing the limestone and red brick structure is. Peering through the pillars that envelop it, she gazed up and saw Harvard’s motto, Veritas , etched in stone above the building’s heavy doors. 

“It made me feel that this building houses not just the truth but all the truth that there is in the world,” Saxena recalled. “At the same time, I also was struck by this question of access. Who feels at home here, and who has access to this slightly intimidating structure?”

As she explored the building’s different levels, she pondered that some of the knowledge found in Widener’s more than three million books is available to just a certain group of people. More importantly, she thought, what would or could people who do not have this access do with that knowledge? She thought of the caste system in her native India, which historically denied members of lower classes access to knowledge or books not meant for them.

Throughout her self-guided tour, Saxena felt a strange kinship with Abele and wondered whether the lack of credit for his work grated on him or was taken in stride. It also made her wonder whether she is giving enough credit to scholars of color who are cited in her own work. Once people learn that Widener was designed by a Black architect whose work was co-opted, they may process the building differently.

“I think it’s important to reconstruct that memory and keep it alive,” said Saxena. “[Abele] is an example of someone who overcame challenges to get a good education and contribute to a really significant architectural piece of his time, but he also is an example of how those contributions get overshadowed.”

Saxena hopes that Harvard will make changes, both big and small, after the release of its H&LS report.

Harvard Law School students would like the student lounge in the Caspersen Student Center to be named after Belinda Sutton, whom HLS benefactor Isaac Royall had enslaved. In fact, as a form of protest, students have been referring to it as Belinda Hall for years.

“It’s a really small measure, and the fact that it hasn’t been accepted is indicative of the battle we have ahead of us,” she said. “I would like to see much more substantive changes,” including syllabus overhauls and a more diverse faculty.

“Once the report comes out, I want people to read it and realize that this institution not just has a legacy of slavery but has been complicit in slavery—and to some extent is still complicit, not so much in slavery but certainly in oppression of other kinds,” Saxena said. If she is ever in a position of pedagogical power, the future scholar added, she will work to ensure that everyone in her classroom feels like they belong and hopes that, moving forward, Harvard will support students who, for whatever reason, may feel they don't belong and consider what the University can do to change that.

Learn more about and download the tour.

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Maps and directions

Find addresses, directions and parking information for your next visit to Harvard.

Transportation and parking

Public transportation to harvard square.

For directions to our Allston and Boston campuses, find the School websites below.

By subway you can find us at the Harvard stop on the Red Line of the MBTA subway system, which brings you right across the street from Harvard Yard.

From Logan Airport you can get to the Harvard stop by taking the Blue Line or the Silver Line downtown and transferring to the Red Line.

By train you can get to our Red Line stop either by taking a train to South Station and transferring to the Red Line or by taking a train to North Station and transferring to the Orange and then Red Line.

Learn more from the MBTA

Visitor parking

Parking is extremely limited around Harvard Square. There are metered parking spaces available around the square, though they are usually quite full. All garages are privately run (with the exception of the Broadway Garage).

View private garages around Harvard Square

Harvard building addresses

Please use these addresses in your preferred way-finding app (keep in mind that parking may be limited).

Harvard Business School : 117 Western Ave, Boston, MA

Harvard College : 1350 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA

Harvard Division of Continuing Education : 51 Brattle St, Cambridge, MA

Harvard School of Dental Medicine : 188 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA

Harvard Divinity School : 45 Francis Ave, Cambridge, MA

Harvard Graduate School of Design :  48 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA

Harvard Graduate School of Education :  13 Appian Way, Cambridge MA

Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences : 1350 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences : 150 Western Ave, Boston, MA

Harvard Kennedy School :  79 John F. Kennedy St, Cambridge, MA

Harvard Law School : 1563 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA

Harvard Medical School :  25 Shattuck St, Boston, MA

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study :  10 Garden St, Cambridge, MA

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health : 677 Huntington Ave, Boston ,  MA

• More libraries
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• Malkin Athletic Center
• Roberto A. Mignone Field
• Jordan Field
• More facilities

Miscellaneous

• David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
• Harvard Faculty Club 
• Harvard Film Archive
• Harvard Herbaria
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• Harvard Memorial Church
• Harvard University Police Department
• Health Care Policy Department  (Medical School)
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