Harvard tour guides aren't the only ones talking up the John Harvard statue in the Yard. Thanks to a new Wikipedia page created on Oct. 12, the Internet is talking, too.
The page outlines the basic history of "the statue of three lies." According to the always credible Wikipedia, the John Harvard statue cost $20,000 to build and originally stood by Memorial Hall.
The page acknowledges the three official lies about the statue—it is not actually modeled after John Harvard and Harvard did not found the University, which opened in 1636, rather than 1638.
But Wikipedia neglects to mention what tourists are actually touching when they rub John Harvard's shoe. Well, what they don't know won't hurt them.
