‘A Very Fraught Moment’: How Elizabeth Holmes Joined the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows

In the aftermath of the exposé and months of investigations that followed, the Board grappled with an internal debate about whether to keep Holmes “on the board for a while out of fairness and due process” or request her resignation in order to “limit potential institutional reputational damage."

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A word cloud from an issue of The Rag.

The Radical Feminist Magazine You've Never Heard of

During the three years of its existence, The Rag played a powerful role in campus culture. The collective created a space for women to play with radical ideas and reckon with pressing issues, while the magazine added a distinct voice to the college’s fraught discourse. Despite its short life, The Rag expanded what feminism could be at Harvard.

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The January 1991 cover of The Rag.

Mandolin Club Design

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The May 1991 cover of The Rag, a short-lived radical feminist magazine run by a collective of Harvard undergraduates.

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Student race across the Charles in makeshift rafts.

William James Death Mask

The death mask of William James is preserved in Harvard's Houghton Library.

The Adams House Raft Race Sunk in The Charles River’s Past

To construct their rafts, racers collected materials from across campus. Some made intricate designs, while others threw together a hodgepodge of items.

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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Death Masks

Along with William James, Harvard’s archives also contain the death masks of Dante Alighiere, James Joyce, Edward Estlin Cummings, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Walt Whitman.

Something Worth Pfighting Pfor

During at least three separate points in the history of Harvard College, one line from the classic Harvard introduction could mean the difference between peace and war.

Redwoods, Resurrected

Though they grow peacefully now, dawn redwoods didn’t come to Harvard without “a big fight in the tree world,” as a 1952 Crimson article put it.

To Be A Frayed Knot of Victory

Harvard’s Tug-of-War team was on top of the world — until a rag-tag group of untrained, unpracticed, and untested MIT students pulled off an upset that left a stain on their prestigious reputation.

‘Deborah Was All About the Truth’: Remembering Deborah Batts, the First Openly Gay Federal Judge

Deborah A. Batts '69 — who unexpectedly died in February 2020 at age 72 due to complications from knee surgery — had an extraordinary legal career by any standard. But she also accomplished an important national first. With her confirmation to the federal bench in 1994, she became the first openly gay federal judge in the United States.

Hell Doesn't Seem So Hot From Up Here

Morisey looks back on her experience at Radcliffe with bittersweet pride. Even as she reminisces on the difficulty of being a Black Cliffie, I sense that she sees a bigger picture, one beyond each negative moment she experienced as an undergraduate. This doesn’t necessarily mean ignoring pain and strife or dismissing her 1969 self’s experiences, but Morisey refuses to let these moments define her.

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As I read about these students who’d navigated Harvard’s campus 53 years before me, they put words to the internal struggles that I’d brushed off as my own exaggerations. Whether it was misogyny within the Black community, the ever-present shade drawn over Harvard’s inner workings and how to navigate them, or the seemingly unbreakable fortitude of an unchanging institution.

1969 Black Editorials

The 1969 edition of the Harvard-Radcliffe yearbook contains a 24-page section entitled "BLACKS", featuring a collection of editorials by Black students at the time.

A Spring of Discontent

But before local school board members started contending with critical race theory, critical legal studies was fanning a flame that would spark one of the most tense periods in the history of Harvard Law School.

The Ghostly Outlines of Harvard's Fallen Foliage

Natural pests have plagued Harvard’s elms, while University administrators — more concerned with practicality than aesthetics — launched a plan to remove ivy from Harvard’s hallowed halls.

Housing Day Video Origins

Though Housing Day videos are now a treasured part of Housing Day festivities, the tradition is only about a decade long.

Black Nationalists in December

Some may know the story of Richard Theodore Greener, Class of 1870, the very first Black person to graduate from Harvard College. But before the courage of Greener, there was the persistence of Martin Robinson Delany.

The Spectacular and Scandalous History of Harvard Housing Day Videos

Housing Day videos are now as much of a tradition as Housing Day itself. While the tradition’s history is brief — the earliest videos on YouTube date back to 2009 —, it has garnered both mass celebration and incited widespread controversy.

“Look Back and See Who You Can Help Up”: A Glimpse into the Life of Archie C. Epps

Archie C. Epps III was one of few Black senior administrators in Harvard's history, becoming Dean of Students in 1971. At age 32, he was one of the youngest appointments in the school’s history — and his term as dean one of the most eventful.

‘Wonderful chaos’: The brief, brilliant rise of the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra

The Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra, a historic gem of the Cambridge music scene, had its glorious debut more than 40 years ago. Well known for their vibrant yellow jackets and laid-back attitudes, this group of musicians hopped between bars and music fests, bringing the blues harp to Cambridge and beyond.