TO COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF JOHN HARVARD'S BIRTH TODAY

To commemorate the three hundred and fourteenth anniversary of the birth of John Harvard, a special service will be held in Appleton Chapel this morning at 8.45 o'clock, which will be open to the public. The Reverend Augustus Mendon Lord '83, D.D., of Providence, Rhode Island, the regular preacher for the week, will conduct the service. Before chapel, Dean C. N. Greenough '98, President of the Harvard Memorial Society, will place a wreath on the statue of John Harvard in the Delta. Contrary to former custom in commemorating the birth of the founder of the University there will be no exercises this year in front of the statue.

In the Treasure Room of Widener Library, a special John Harvard exhibition, which has been arranged by the Memorial Society, will be open today and all of next week. The documents and pictures on view include a photograph of the Stratford Parish Register, showing the record of the marriage of John Harvard's mother; photographs of the signatures of John Harvard on the books of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which he attended; early views of London showing the houses in Southwark, in one of which he was born; original copies of "New England's First Fruits" and other early books and manuscripts containing accounts of his bequest and the founding of the college; photographs and accounts of the Harvard Chapel at Southwark Cathedral and of the Harvard House in Stratford; and the "John Harvard Book". This book is the only volume now in existence which is known to have been in John Harvard's Possession.

Although John Harvard was not actually the founder of the University, his interest in the college which had been established at Newtowne and his bequest to it made possible the existence of the University as it is today. John Harvard was an English scholar, who earned his bachelor's and master's degree, at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, England. He came to Massachusetts in 1637, and almost immediately donated his library and half of his estate to the college which had been established by order of the General Court. Shortly afterwards the colony failed to do even a portion of what it had promised, and the burden of responsibility fell almost wholly on John Harvard. The institution was named Harvard College in 1639.