Welcome to Harvard! There is much ado about this statue of John Harvard and his famous foot. Supposedly rubbing it brings luck and students line up before exams. And tourists line up…boy, do they line up! I’ve sat in Harvard Yard on a sunny day and watch group after group from all over the world come by to rub his foot. The thing is that this is a college, and college kids, being college kids, tend to have a bit of fun by doing nasty and vile things to said foot. So if you want to rub the foot, I suggest a bit of anti-bacterial gel.
Oh, and the sculptor had no idea what John Harvard looked like when he made this. All drawings and paintings of him were destroyed in a fire. We are not really sure who this looks like.
Milford Street 
Love the “tradition” as well as the story behind *who* this guy might be! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you. It was my pleasure to share this. Cheers
In fact the same tradition exists in the Moscow Metro where one of the Lenin era statues is of a guard and his dog complete with highly polished nose as every commuter and worker polishes it daily for luck!
That is awesome. I think there are many such statues in the world. Isn’t there one in Nitre Dame in Paris?
Not sure about that one but The Owl of Dijon which is in Notre Dame in Dijon certainly has that tradition and I will be paying him a visit later in the month 😊
Interesting tradition! In the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy, devotees will also rub the feet of Guan Yim to get blessings. The statue wears down and after time it needs to be refurbished. Same with Catholic saints or Virgin Mary….if I had a chance to study at Harvard…ha ha I would be one of the people in line! 😊
I’d be there every morning and night. Interesting about refurbishing the statue. Cheers!
Head to Boston in about a month> Love all the whimsical places to go see!
Let me know if you have questions. I’ll be happy to try to help. Cheers
Lovely tradition!
It’s the same with Shakespeare: there are a couple of paintings and statues but they all look different and no one knows what he really looked like.
We don’t talk about that place in this house 😉 but cool shots. Like the different perspectives.
Thanks Teri. I can understand totally. Cheers!
This may be the closest I’ll ever be to Harvard 😉 The foot.. at first I was like “why did he focus on the foot for 2 photos?” ~ Then I read the text and understood. It made for cool perspectives 🙂
Ha ha ha. I was tempted to leave out one photo but liked both of them. I’m sure you could get into Harvard. Paying the tuition would be the more difficult part for most of us.
Truth. It’s so expensive! Hope your day is going well 🙂
It went well. How’s your week going so far?
Busy but good 🙂 Going to rest tonight and hope you do the same. Sleep well too, both of us, I hope
I hope so. Have a good night. Cheers
This was such a great read and the tower with the purple clouds was a gorgeous photo! The lighting was perfect, Chris! 😀 💎
Thank you Robin. Harvard has a beautiful campus. Cheers
Nice pictures! I didn’t know anything about John Harvard, thank you for sharing this with us. 🙂
Thank you. They have tours of Harvard University. I tend to just hang out in Harvard Yard and have heard the tour guides tell the tale many times. Cheers!