Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Encyclopedia
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery joins the Freer Gallery of Art
to form the Smithsonian Institution
's national museums of Asian art
. The Sackler celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2012.
The gallery is located on the National Mall
in Washington, D.C.
, adjacent to the S. Dillon Ripley Center
and National Museum of African Art
and directly behind the Smithsonian Castle
. Its main gallery spaces are underground, and the building connects to both the Freer Gallery of Art
and the National Museum of African Art
. The Sackler's main entrance is situated off of the gardens of the Smithsonian Castle along Independence Avenue.
The Freer|Sackler holds in trust the nation’s collections of Asian art and of American art of the late nineteenth-century aesthetic movement. The Sackler Gallery hosts exhibitions of contemporary art from Asia, recent acquisitions, and international loans. More than 11,000 objects from the collections are available online.
, a research physician
, donated some 1,000 Asian art objects to the Smithsonian, as well as $4 million toward the gallery's construction. The highlights from his gift include early Chinese
bronzes
, jades
, paintings
and lacquerware
, ancient Near Eastern
ceramics
and metalware, and sculpture
from South
and Southeast Asia
.
The gallery's collections since have expanded to include the Vever Collection, an important assemblage of the Islamic art
s of the book from the 11th to the 19th century; 19th- and 20th-century Japanese prints and contemporary porcelain; Indian
, Chinese
, Japanese
, and Korean paintings
; arts of rural India
; contemporary Chinese ceramics; and photography
.
The museum was designed by Jean Paul Carlhan of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott
. Carlhan used pink granite exterior surfaces to relate to the Smithsonian Castle and gray granite to relate to the Freer.
The Sackler Gallery is connected by an underground exhibition space to the neighboring Freer Gallery of Art
. Although their collections are stored and exhibited separately, the two museums share a director, administration, and staff.
) and "Family Matters: Portraits from the Qing Court."
Unlike the Freer, the Sackler Gallery can accommodate international loan exhibitions. Past exhibitions include "Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan", "Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur
" and "The Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin
". International loan exhibitions have also included "Timur
and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the 15th Century"; "When Kingship Descended from Heaven: Masterpieces of Mesopotamian Art from the Louvre
"; "Court Arts of Indonesia"; "Korean Art of the 18th Century: Splendor & Simplicity"; and "A Basketmaker in Rural Japan."
The Freer|Sackler provides several online resources for exploring the art and culture of Asia and the Freer's American art collections. Besides the collections objects viewable online, thousands of photographs, archeological diaries, maps, and archaeological squeezes (impressions of carvings) have been digitized and are used by researchers from around the world.
The galleries' "Explore + Learn" pages go in-depth into some of the museums' most popular exhibitions, including Waves at Matsushima and Shahnama: 1000 Years of the Persian Book of Kings, with interactive high-resolution images, videos and galleries.
For educators and families, the museum provides project ideas and resources including printable handouts, teachers' guides, and lesson plans. F|S also produces podcasts of concerts, storytelling, and lectures, and videos on the F|S YouTube channel.
The Freer|Sackler also presents family programs such as ImaginAsia and ExplorAsia, as well as family festivals, such as the annual Nowruz
celebration in March. Hands-on workshops, including the popular Inner-Artist, Art ID, and educator workshops, allow visitors to tour and then create their own artistic responses.
Free drop-in tours guide visitors through both featured exhibitions and specific themes in both the Freer and Sackler galleries, and a wide range of public lectures provide in-depth experiences with prominent artists and scholars.
founder Charles Lang Freer
, which includes his purchase records, diaries, and personal correspondence with public figures such as artists, dealers and collectors. Freer's extensive correspondence with James McNeill Whistler
forms one of the largest sources of primary documents about the American artist. Other significant collections in the Archives includes the papers (notebooks, letters, photography, squeezes) and personal objects of the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld
(1879–1946), documenting his research at Samarra
, Persepolis
and Pasargadae
. The papers of Carl Whiting Bishop, Dwight William Tryon
, Myron Bement Smith, Benjamin March and Henri Vever are also located at the Archives. The Archives also holds over 125,000 photographs of Asia dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Highlights of photographic holdings include the Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of 19th century photography of Japan, the 1903-1904 photographs of the Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi
, and photographs of Iran by Antoin Sevruguin
.
The Freer|Sackler Library is the the largest Asian art research library in the United States. Open to the public five days a week (except federal holidays) without appointment, the library collection consists of more than 86,000 volumes, including nearly 2,000 rare books. Half the volumes are written and catalogued in Asian languages.
Originating from the collection of four thousand monographs, periodical issues, offprints, and sales catalogues that Charles Lang Freer donated to the Smithsonian Institution as part of his gift to the nation. The F|S Library maintains the highest standards for collecting materials an active program of purchases, gifts, and exchanges.
In July 1987 the library moved to its new home in the Sackler Gallery. Today it supports activities of both museums, such as collection development, exhibition planning, publications, and other scholarly and educational projects. Its published and unpublished resources—in the fields of Asian art and archaeology, conservation, painting, sculpture, architecture, drawings, prints, manuscripts, books, and photography—are available to museum staff, outside researchers, and the visiting public.
to the Freer. The East Asian Painting Conservation Studio and the Technical Laboratory merged in 1990 to form the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research.
The conservators in the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research care for and treat works of art in the collection and prepare them for exhibition. Conservation-restoration at the Freer|Sackler is broken into four sections: Asian Paintings (one of the only US-based East Asian painting conservation studios to use traditional methods), Objects, Paper, and Exhibitions. Together they work to ensure the long-term preservation and storage, safe handling, exhibition, and transport of artworks in the permanent collection, as well as those on loan.
Conservators are responsible for conducting technical examinations of objects already in the collection and those under consideration for acquisition. They also collaborate frequently with the department’s scientists on technical and applied research. Training and professional outreach efforts are an integral part of the department’s commitment to educating future conservators, museum professionals, and the public about conservation.
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...
to form the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
's national museums of Asian art
Asian art
Asian art can refer to art amongst many cultures in Asia.-Various types of Asian art:*Afghan art*Azerbaijanian art*Balinese art*Bhutanese art*Buddhist art*Burmese contemporary art*Chinese art*Eastern art*Indian art*Iranian art*Islamic art...
. The Sackler celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2012.
The gallery is located on the National Mall
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, adjacent to the S. Dillon Ripley Center
S. Dillon Ripley Center
The S. Dillon Ripley Center, better known simply as the Ripley Center, is one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Institution series of museums located in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The above-ground portion is only a small pagoda, and it descends into a larger underground portion...
and National Museum of African Art
National Museum of African Art
The National Museum of African Art is a museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. Located on the National Mall, the museum specializes in African art and culture...
and directly behind the Smithsonian Castle
Smithsonian Institution Building
The Smithsonian Castle, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. behind the National Museum of African Art, houses the Smithsonian Institution's administrative offices and information center...
. Its main gallery spaces are underground, and the building connects to both the Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...
and the National Museum of African Art
National Museum of African Art
The National Museum of African Art is a museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. Located on the National Mall, the museum specializes in African art and culture...
. The Sackler's main entrance is situated off of the gardens of the Smithsonian Castle along Independence Avenue.
The Freer|Sackler holds in trust the nation’s collections of Asian art and of American art of the late nineteenth-century aesthetic movement. The Sackler Gallery hosts exhibitions of contemporary art from Asia, recent acquisitions, and international loans. More than 11,000 objects from the collections are available online.
History and architecture
The Sackler Gallery opened in 1987 after Arthur M. SacklerArthur M. Sackler
Arthur M. Sackler was an American psychiatrist, entrepreneur and philanthropist....
, a research physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, donated some 1,000 Asian art objects to the Smithsonian, as well as $4 million toward the gallery's construction. The highlights from his gift include early Chinese
Chinese art
Chinese art is visual art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in China or by Chinese artists or performers. Early so-called "stone age art" dates back to 10,000 BC, mostly consisting of simple pottery and sculptures. This early period was followed by a series of art...
bronzes
Chinese bronzes
Bronzes are some of the most important pieces of Chinese art, warranting an entire separate catalogue in the Imperial art collections. The Chinese Bronze Age began in the Xia Dynasty, and bronze ritual containers form the bulk of the collection of Chinese antiques, reaching its zenith during the...
, jades
Chinese jade
Chinese jade is any of the carved-jade objects produced in China from the Neolithic Period onward. The Chinese regarded carved-jade objects as intrinsically valuable...
, paintings
Chinese painting
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...
and lacquerware
Lacquerware
Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. The lacquer is sometimes inlaid or carved. Lacquerware includes boxes, tableware, buttons and even coffins painted with lacquer in cultures mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.-History:...
, ancient Near Eastern
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
ceramics
Ceramic art
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
and metalware, and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
from South
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
.
The gallery's collections since have expanded to include the Vever Collection, an important assemblage of the Islamic art
Islamic art
Islamic art encompasses the visual arts produced from the 7th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited by or ruled by culturally Islamic populations...
s of the book from the 11th to the 19th century; 19th- and 20th-century Japanese prints and contemporary porcelain; Indian
Indian painting
Indian painting has a very long history, although the seasonally humid Indian climate was difficult for the long-term preservation of paintings and there are far fewer survivals than of other forms of Indian art. The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of pre-historic times, the...
, Chinese
Chinese painting
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...
, Japanese
Japanese painting
is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competition between native Japanese aesthetics and adaptation of...
, and Korean paintings
Korean painting
Korean painting includes paintings made in Korea or by overseas Koreans on all surfaces. It includes art as old as the petroglyphs through post-modern conceptual art using transient forms of light...
; arts of rural India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; contemporary Chinese ceramics; and photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
.
The museum was designed by Jean Paul Carlhan of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott
Shepley Bulfinch
Shepley Bulfinch is an international architecture, planning, and interior design firm with offices in Boston and Phoenix...
. Carlhan used pink granite exterior surfaces to relate to the Smithsonian Castle and gray granite to relate to the Freer.
The Sackler Gallery is connected by an underground exhibition space to the neighboring Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...
. Although their collections are stored and exhibited separately, the two museums share a director, administration, and staff.
Exhibitions
The Sackler Gallery hosts a broad range of exhibitions highlighting aspects of Asian art. In 2011, the museum's exhibition schedule included "Power|Play: China's Empress Dowager" (featuring rare portraits of Empress Dowager CixiEmpress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi1 , of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908....
) and "Family Matters: Portraits from the Qing Court."
Unlike the Freer, the Sackler Gallery can accommodate international loan exhibitions. Past exhibitions include "Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan", "Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...
" and "The Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
". International loan exhibitions have also included "Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the 15th Century"; "When Kingship Descended from Heaven: Masterpieces of Mesopotamian Art from the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
"; "Court Arts of Indonesia"; "Korean Art of the 18th Century: Splendor & Simplicity"; and "A Basketmaker in Rural Japan."
Online
The Freer|Sackler provides several online resources for exploring the art and culture of Asia and the Freer's American art collections. Besides the collections objects viewable online, thousands of photographs, archeological diaries, maps, and archaeological squeezes (impressions of carvings) have been digitized and are used by researchers from around the world.
The galleries' "Explore + Learn" pages go in-depth into some of the museums' most popular exhibitions, including Waves at Matsushima and Shahnama: 1000 Years of the Persian Book of Kings, with interactive high-resolution images, videos and galleries.
For educators and families, the museum provides project ideas and resources including printable handouts, teachers' guides, and lesson plans. F|S also produces podcasts of concerts, storytelling, and lectures, and videos on the F|S YouTube channel.
Public Programs
The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Auditorium, located in the Freer, provides a venue for a broad variety of free public programs relating to the collections, including exceptional concerts of Asian music and dance, lectures, chamber music, and dramatic presentations. It is also known for its well-curated film series, highlighting a wide variety of Asian cultures.The Freer|Sackler also presents family programs such as ImaginAsia and ExplorAsia, as well as family festivals, such as the annual Nowruz
Nowruz
Nowrūz is the name of the Iranian New Year in Iranian calendars and the corresponding traditional celebrations. Nowruz is also widely referred to as the Persian New Year....
celebration in March. Hands-on workshops, including the popular Inner-Artist, Art ID, and educator workshops, allow visitors to tour and then create their own artistic responses.
Free drop-in tours guide visitors through both featured exhibitions and specific themes in both the Freer and Sackler galleries, and a wide range of public lectures provide in-depth experiences with prominent artists and scholars.
Archives and Library
The Freer|Sackler Archives houses over 120 important manuscripts collections. The core collection is the personal papers of Freer Gallery of ArtFreer Gallery of Art
The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...
founder Charles Lang Freer
Charles Lang Freer
Charles Lang Freer was an American railroad-car manufacturer from Detroit, Michigan who gave to the United States his art collections and funds for a building to house them. The Freer Gallery of Art founded by him is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C..-Early life:Freer was...
, which includes his purchase records, diaries, and personal correspondence with public figures such as artists, dealers and collectors. Freer's extensive correspondence with James McNeill Whistler
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
forms one of the largest sources of primary documents about the American artist. Other significant collections in the Archives includes the papers (notebooks, letters, photography, squeezes) and personal objects of the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld
Ernst Herzfeld
Ernst Emil Herzfeld was a German archaeologist and Iranologist.-Life:Herzfeld was born in Celle, Province of Hanover...
(1879–1946), documenting his research at Samarra
Samarra
Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700....
, Persepolis
Persepolis
Perspolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire . Persepolis is situated northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid...
and Pasargadae
Pasargadae
Pasargadae , the capital of Cyrus the Great and also his last resting place, was a city in ancient Persia, and is today an archaeological site and one of Iran's UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-History:...
. The papers of Carl Whiting Bishop, Dwight William Tryon
Dwight William Tryon
Dwight William Tryon was an American landscape painter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work was influenced by James McNeill Whistler, and he is best-known for his landscapes and seascapes painted in a tonalist style.-Biography:Tryon was born in Hartford, Connecticut...
, Myron Bement Smith, Benjamin March and Henri Vever are also located at the Archives. The Archives also holds over 125,000 photographs of Asia dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Highlights of photographic holdings include the Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of 19th century photography of Japan, the 1903-1904 photographs of the Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi1 , of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908....
, and photographs of Iran by Antoin Sevruguin
Antoin Sevruguin
Antoin Sevruguin was a photographer in Iran during the reign of the Qajar dynasty .-Early life:Born into a mixed Armenian-Georgian family in the Russian embassy of Tehran, Persia: Antoin Sevruguin was one of the many children of Vassil de Sevruguin and a Georgian Achin Khanoum. Vassil de Sevruguin...
.
The Freer|Sackler Library is the the largest Asian art research library in the United States. Open to the public five days a week (except federal holidays) without appointment, the library collection consists of more than 86,000 volumes, including nearly 2,000 rare books. Half the volumes are written and catalogued in Asian languages.
Originating from the collection of four thousand monographs, periodical issues, offprints, and sales catalogues that Charles Lang Freer donated to the Smithsonian Institution as part of his gift to the nation. The F|S Library maintains the highest standards for collecting materials an active program of purchases, gifts, and exchanges.
In July 1987 the library moved to its new home in the Sackler Gallery. Today it supports activities of both museums, such as collection development, exhibition planning, publications, and other scholarly and educational projects. Its published and unpublished resources—in the fields of Asian art and archaeology, conservation, painting, sculpture, architecture, drawings, prints, manuscripts, books, and photography—are available to museum staff, outside researchers, and the visiting public.
Conservation
Care of the collections began before the museums came into existence as Charles Lang Freer, the founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, hired Japanese painting restorers to care for his works and to prepare them for their eventual home as part of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1932, the Freer Gallery of Art hired a full-time Japanese restorer and created what was to become the East Asian Painting Conservation Studio. The Technical Laboratory, and the first use of scientific methods for the study of art at the Smithsonian Institution, started in 1951 when the chemist Rutherford J. Gettens moved from the Fogg Museum at Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
to the Freer. The East Asian Painting Conservation Studio and the Technical Laboratory merged in 1990 to form the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research.
The conservators in the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research care for and treat works of art in the collection and prepare them for exhibition. Conservation-restoration at the Freer|Sackler is broken into four sections: Asian Paintings (one of the only US-based East Asian painting conservation studios to use traditional methods), Objects, Paper, and Exhibitions. Together they work to ensure the long-term preservation and storage, safe handling, exhibition, and transport of artworks in the permanent collection, as well as those on loan.
Conservators are responsible for conducting technical examinations of objects already in the collection and those under consideration for acquisition. They also collaborate frequently with the department’s scientists on technical and applied research. Training and professional outreach efforts are an integral part of the department’s commitment to educating future conservators, museum professionals, and the public about conservation.
See also
- Arthur M. SacklerArthur M. SacklerArthur M. Sackler was an American psychiatrist, entrepreneur and philanthropist....
- Arthur M. Sackler MuseumArthur M. Sackler MuseumThe Arthur M. Sackler Museum joins the Fogg Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum as part of the Harvard Art Museums. Its postmodern building was designed by British architect James Stirling, generally regarded as the greatest British architect of the 20th century, and recipient of the Pritzker...
at Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...