New College, Cambridge, Massachusetts

New College is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. It was founded on September 8, 1636 in the village of Newtowne, the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. New College was renamed as Harvard College on March 13, 1639, after its first principal donor, a young clergyman, John Harvard, a former student of Cambridge University in England. In honor of John Harvard's mother university, Newtowne was renamed as Cambridge.