Harvard-MIT School of Public Health — 1920s donor-driven name removal

A 1920s Harvard alum donor conditioned a major gift on removing MIT's name from the joint school. Used to establish the long history of Harvard-MIT institutional competition.

This is not the first time they've ever been in direct competition. How many people have ever heard of the Harvard School of Public Health? What was it originally? What was its name? It was the Harvard-MIT School of Public Health. Someone in the 1920s, a Harvard alum, gave them a big pot of money if they would take MIT's name out of it. And Harvard all through the 1950s was in deathly fear that MIT was going to start a medical school. But MIT kind of looked at it and said, it's expensive to be a medical school. There's a great story on that.