Records of the Treasurer of Harvard University, 1669-2007
Overview
The Records of the Treasurer of Harvard University document the management and oversight of Harvard’s finances including income, expenses, and assets. The record is extensive. Reports are particularly so, extending from manuscript form in 1735 through published reports in 2007.
Dates
- Creation: 1669-2007
Creator
- Harvard University. Treasurer (Organization)
Conditions on Use and Access
Permission of the University Archives is required for access to records that have not been digitized. A variety of restrictions may apply to the records: some are fragile and/or confidential. Records are restricted for 50 years from the date of their creation. 80 year restrictions are noted when known to apply. Additional restrictions may apply.
Extent
127.42 cubic feet (124 legal document boxes, 49 flat boxes, 16 document boxes, 11 card boxes, 220 volumes, 2 half document boxes, 1 legal half document box, 202 folders, 4 record cartons, and 1 reel)The Records of the Treasurer of Harvard University document the management and oversight of Harvard’s finances including income, expenses, and assets from the late seventeenth century to the early twenty-first century. The records provide an extensive view of Harvard’s financial condition as affected by the overall economic climate in the United States, and in particular, highlight the colonial American economic landscape.
The collection spans the progression of Harvard’s financial recordkeeping from handwritten fund notes of the mid-seventeenth century to electronically issued reports in the early 21st century. The records trace Harvard’s transition from a small publicly-funded college to one of the world’s largest private universities.
The two most complete record series are the Reports and the University Accounts, which document the University’s core financial activities from 1669 to the present. The most extensive series in the collection, Real Estate, contains photographs, leases, mortgages, and related correspondence resulting from the University’s properties in thirteen states, the District of Columbia, and Bermuda. The other series in the collection are less comprehensive.
The Records of the Treasurer of Harvard University begin with the tenure of John Richards, 1669-1682. Limited records (in the form of annual reports) are available from 1825 to the present.
Historical note
The Treasurer, a member of the Harvard Corporation, is responsible for the management and oversight of Harvard’s finances including income, expenses, endowed funds, and other assets.
From the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries, the Treasurer shared some fiscal responsibilities with the Steward, later known as the Bursar. The Steward was responsible for collecting room and board fees and for paying for related goods and services. Since 1974, the Treasurer has chaired the Board of Directors of the Harvard Management Company, which is responsible for the University’s endowment, pension assets, working capital, and non-cash gifts.
References:
- Harris, Seymour E. The Economics of Harvard. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970.
- Morison, Samuel Eliot. Three Centuries of Harvard. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936.
Harvard Treasurers 1643-Present
- 1643-1650:
- Herbert Pelham
- 1650-1668:
- Thomas Danforth
- 1669-1682:
- John Richards
- 1682-1686:
- Samuel Nowell
- 1686-1693:
- John Richards
- 1693-1713:
- Thomas Brattle
- 1713-1715:
- William Brattle
- 1715-1721:
- John White
- 1721-1752:
- Edward Hutchinson
- 1752-1773:
- Thomas Hubbard
- 1773-1777:
- John Hancock
- 1777-1807:
- Ebenezer Storer
- 1807-1810:
- Jonathan Jackson
- 1810-1827:
- John Davis
- 1827-1830:
- Ebenezer Francis
- 1830-1842:
- Thomas Wren Ward
- 1842-1853:
- Samuel Atkins Eliot
- 1853-1857:
- William Turell Andrews
- 1857-1862:
- Amos Adams Lawrence
- 1862-1876:
- Nathaniel Silsbee
- 1876-1898:
- Edward William Hooper
- 1898-1929:
- Charles Francis Adams
- 1929-1938:
- Henry Lee Shattuck
- 1938-1948:
- William H. Claflin, Jr.
- 1948-1964:
- Paul Cabot
- 1965-1972:
- George Bennett
- 1974-1984:
- George Putnam
- 1984-1988:
- Roderick M. MacDougall
- 1989-2004:
- D. Ronald Daniel
- 2004-2014 :
- James F. Rothenberg
- 2014- :
- Paul J. Finnegan
Arrangement
The Treasurers records are listed below in the following groups:
- Reports,
- Collected papers, 1678-1896
- Correspondence,1778-1938
- Gifts and named funds, 1863-1937
- Inventories of College property, 1715-1827
- Records of the Massachusetts Professorship of Natural History, 1806-1830
- Payments to beneficiaries of exhibitions, 1804-1861
- Records of the Theological Institution, 1816-1830
- Records of the Trustees under the will of John Eliot Thayer, 1857-1898
- Records of the Trustees of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 1859-1877
- University accounts, 1669-1938
Acquisition Information
The majority of the records of the Harvard Treasurer were acquired by the University Archives directly from the Treasurer's office, although some early records remained the personal property of treasurers and were returned to the University at a later date.
Online access
The annual reports have been digitized and are available online. Link accompany report descriptions.
Digitization Funding
Collections and items have been digitized with the generous support of The Polonsky Foundation.
Inventory update.
This document last updated 2023 February 17.
Processing Information
Most of this material was first classified and described in the Harvard University Archives shelflist prior to 1980. In 2005, University archivists initiated a project to analyze and describe the Records of the Treasurer. This involved a full survey, extensive reorganization, and enhanced description, as well re-housing of the entire collection. This work was carried out by Michael Austin, Juliana Kuipers, Jennifer Pelose, and Kate Bowers.
In the course of the project, call numbers were retained only for record series beginning in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The call numbers that were not retained were simplified. A list of obsolete call numbers is available in the archives. For the convenience of tracking existing citations, former call numbers and box numbers are noted on many of the folders.
Within the finding aid, dates are routinely expressed in the format of month, day, year. Whenever possible, titles were taken from the title page, cover or spine of a volume, or from the original folder. Titles appearing in the finding aid reflect the original sequence and spelling of words, but not necessarily the original punctuation or capitalization. Abbreviations have been fully spelled out.
Published versions of the documents in this collection are noted in the folder lists.
Creator
- Harvard University. Treasurer (Organization)
- Title
- Harvard University. Treasurer. Records of the Treasurer of Harvard University : an inventory
- Author
- HarvardUniversity Archives
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua05009
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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Cambridge MA 02138 USA
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archives_reference@harvard.edu