HARVARD SCHOLARSHIPS.

The growth of scholarships at Harvard has extended over a period of more than two hundred and fifty years. There are now two hundred and thirteen scholarships having stipends which are available for students under the charge of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. This number does not include the John Harvard and Harvard College Scholarships, which are appointments without stipend and are given to students of distinguished merit.

The first scholarship ever bequested to Harvard was founded in 1643, by Lady Ann Mowlson, of London, by gift of a hundred pounds, "to be and to remain a perpetual stipend for the maintenance of some poor scholar until such time as such scholar doth attain the degree of a Master of Arts." This is unquestionably the oldest foundation of the kind in this country.

From 1643 to 1800 the College received about forty bequests for the aid of poor and deserving scholars, having an income of from $50 to $300 each. Up to this time the accounts of the College had been kept in a single entry and annual assignments were made of the specific incomes of the several scholarships. Just before the close of the eighteenth century the system of double entry book-keeping was adopted, and the existing bequests of which the Treasurer had any knowledge were bunched in a single account termed the "Exhibition Account." The records of some of the oldest scholarships were therefore lost. Most of them, however, are recorded either in the appendix of a "Sketch of the History of Harvard College" by Samuel A. Eliot, former treasurer of the College said: "Great as are the deficiencies of resources for many of the purposes of the College, none is so important as that in the amount which can be had for the aid of indigent and deserving students." He estimated the resources of the College for aid to under-graduates at $1400. This small amount may be accounted for by the fact that it represents only the income of the scholarships available at that time, there being doubtless many of those founded in the early years of the College, which for different reasons no longer existed.

The number of scholarship funds founded after 1850 is as follows: Between 1850 and 1860, 6; from 1860-1870,10; from 1870-1880, 17; from 1880-1890, 15; from 1890-1900, 25.

In the years 1890-1900 a greater number of scholarships have been added than in any previous decade. The bequests have come from all sources and represent, as nearly as can be estimated, an income of about $12,000 which is more than was realized by all the bequests up to thirty-five years ago.

It will be seen from the above figures that, during the history of Harvard, in all one hundred and twenty-six bequests, or thereabouts, were made in behalf of undergraduate students. It should be stated that many of the funds were applied to two or more scholarships, according the amount given. As a result, although in point of fact many of the funds are no longer in existence, the actual number of scholarships offered at the present time is more than half again as great as the total number of gifts bequeathed to Harvard for that purpose.

A list of scholarships offered today by the departments not under the charge of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is given below. Most of them have been given within comparatively recent years: Divinity School, sixteen scholarships. Law School, a limited number of scholarships with an annual income of $150 each. Medical School. Twenty-two scholarships. School of Veterinary Medicine, six Faculty scholarships. Radcliffe College offers fifteen scholarships for the year 1900-1901.

In addition to the scholarships, fellowships for the aid of students in the Graduate School are annually offered by the University to the number of thirty, having annual incomes varying from $300 to $725.