1638
John Harvard bequeathed half his money and his entire library (several hundred volumes) to the recently founded college in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The college was re-named for him. Other donations quickly followed
1638-1642
Harvard’s first academic building was constructed. Often it was referred to simply as “The College” or “Old College.” The library (still under 1,000 volumes) occupied a room on the second floor. Poorly constructed, the building began to deteriorate: the roof decayed, the floors sagged, and wind blew through cracks in the walls.1
1667
The first Library Laws addressed problems such as security and collections care. A patron who damaged or failed to return a book was obligated to pay double the cost of the book and may have had borrowing rights revoked. Library records, manuscripts, and “books of extraordinary value” were kept under tighter security than the regular collection. During this period, a new Library Keeper was appointed every two years. It was his responsibility that “the Library be kept in good repair, that no damage come to any of the books by the weather or want of convenient shelving &c. Also he shall keep the Library duly swept, & the books clean & orderly in their places.” Solomon Stoddard was the first Librarian of Harvard.2
1671-8
Harvard Hall (or “New College”) was built to hold the library, a collection of scientific apparatus, a chapel, dormitories, a kitchen, and a buttery. The library was transferred to Harvard Hall from the collapsing Old College building.3
1682
John Cotton, Librarian of Harvard, suggested at a Corporation meeting that “double books”—or multiple copies—be sold in order to buy other books for the Library.4
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1 Bainbridge Bunting and Margaret Henderson Floyd, Harvard: An Architectural History (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985), 5-13.
2 Alfred Claghorn Potter and Charles Knowles Bolton, The Librarians of Harvard College, 1667-1877 (Cambridge: Library of Harvard University, 1897), 43.
3 Bunting, Harvard: An Architectural History, 11 and18-21; Alfred Claghorn Potter, The Library of Harvard University: Descriptive and Historical Notes (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934), 12-13; Samuel Eliot Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636-1936 (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994), 21.
4 Potter and Bolton, The Librarians of Harvard College, 10.