HENRY DUNSTER (1609-1659), HARVARD'S FIRST PRESIDENT
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Dunster's first biographer, Jeremiah Chaplin, wrote in 1872 that, in the more than two centuries that had then elapsed since Dunster's death, "no special effort [had] been made to gather the scattered materials of [Dunster's] life into a fitting memorial, that the world might know what he was, what part he acted in laying the foundations of our civil and religious institutions, and what he was willing to suffer, with singular patience and charity, for the sake of truth, as he understood it." (Life of Henry Dunster, 1872, p. iii).
- Baptist Influence - the Reformed Baptist Heritage
- The Biographies
- Birthplace
- Bury Grammar School - Dunster as Headmaster
- Christian Roots of Harvard College
- Education in America - Dunster's Influence
- Freedom of Conscience - Harvard's First Dissenter
- Genealogy and Family
- Graduation Day! - Class of 1642 (Harvard's first graduating class)
- The Gravesite
- Indian College, Propagation of the Gospel to the Indians
- Locations - Bury (Lancashire, UK), Cambridge (Mass.), Magdalene College (Cambridge University), Scituate (Mass.)
- News and Events about Dunster
- Pastor Dunster - Bury (UK), Cambridge (Mass.), Scituate (Mass.)
- President Dunster and the Office of President
- Printing Press - First in America
- Scholar - Foreign Languages
- Teaching - Master Teacher and "Translatio Studii" - Dunster's Primary Role
It is hoped that in the 21st century this website can play a substantive role in helping remedy, at least in part, that failure from the past. A. J. Melnick
Areas of Interest:
Book on Early Harvard History and Henry Dunster
A book about Henry Dunster and early Harvard history is now available.
It is titled America's
Oldest Corporation and First CEO:
Harvard and Henry Dunster
(2008) and is available from Amazon, Buy Books on the Web, or by writing to: A. J. Melnick, PO Box 5501, Falmouth, VA 22403 U.S.A. The price is $15.00 postage paid and autographed if ordered directly from the author.
Henry Dunster also brought Harvard through a period of great financial difficulty and hardship, providing lessons for us today on sacrificial leadership and how to creatively manage economic assets in less than ideal circumstances.
This book also looks at the enduring and highly successful principles of leadership and corporate governance that Dunster laid down, which helped establish a tradition of excellence at Harvard and can serve as a guide for those who govern corporations and other organizations today.
Key Links of Interest
- The Papers of Henry Dunster
- Dunster House - Harvard
- First Baptist Church of Boston
- Bury Parish Church
- Dunster Page at Harvard
- Magdalene College
- Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies
Organizations
News & Events
Related Links
The recently registered Dunster in memoriam coat of arms by the Henry Dunster Society of the Bury Grammar Schools with the US Heraldic Registry. The Latin phrase is how Dunster once described himself in a letter: "I am a Lancashire man."
This is the scanned cover from the program of the special Choral Evensong service commemorating the Quatercentenary of Dunster's birth in 1609 held at his own alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge University, on November 26, 2009 - the 400th anniversary of his baptism and the only sure date known from his year of birth.
PHOTO CAPTIONS: (from left to right):
(ROW 1): Bury (town where Dunster was born) - bridge over the River Irwell, Bury, Lancashire, UK (not far from Bury Town Centre); Magdalene College, Cambridge University today on the River Cam (where Dunster attended university before returning to Bury); Henry Dunster gravesite in the Old Burying Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, only a stone's throw from Harvard Yard.
(ROW 2): The Henry Dunster memorial at the Dunster family cemetery plot in Mason, New Hampshire; Dunster Street sign in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Scituate, Massachusetts today (town where Dunster died in voluntary exile, formerly in Plymouth Colony, outside of Massachusetts Bay Colony).
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