There is a popular story on the Internet that the Stanford couple wanted to found a building at Harvard University in honor of their deceased student son, but after an unkind reception from its president, they decided to create their own educational institution. We decided to check whether this version is supported by historical data.

The story goes like this: “A woman in a faded dress, accompanied by her husband, dressed in a modest suit, stepped off the train at Boston Station and walked towards the office of the president of Harvard University. They did not have an appointment. The secretary determined at first glance that such provincials had nothing to do at Harvard.
“We would like to meet the president,” the man said in a low voice.
“He will be busy all day,” the secretary answered dryly.
“We’ll wait,” the woman said.
For several hours, the secretary ignored the visitors in the hope that at some point they would become frustrated and leave. However, having made sure that they were not going to go anywhere, he still decided to disturb the president, although he really did not want to.
“Maybe if you accept them for a minute, they’ll go away sooner?” - he asked the president.
He sighed indignantly and agreed. An important person like him certainly doesn’t have time to host people dressed in faded plaid dresses and poor suits. As the visitors entered, the President looked at the couple with a stern and arrogant expression. A woman turned to him:
— We had a son, he studied at your university for one year. He loved this place and was very happy here. But, unfortunately, he died unexpectedly a year ago. My husband and I would like to leave his memory on campus.
The President was not at all happy about this, and even, on the contrary, became irritated.
- Madam! - he answered arrogantly. “We can’t put statues of everyone who went to Harvard and died.” If we did that, this place would look like a cemetery.
“No,” the woman hastened to object, “we don’t want to install a statue, we want to build a new building for Harvard.”
The President examined the faded checkered dress and poor suit and exclaimed:
- Frame? Can you imagine how much one such case costs? All Harvard buildings cost more than $7 million!
The woman was silent. The President smiled. Finally they will leave! The woman turned to her husband and said quietly:
— Does it cost so little to build a new university? Why then don’t we build our own university?
The man nodded affirmatively. The Harvard President turned pale and looked confused. Mr. and Mrs. Stanford stood up and left the office. They founded a university in Palo Alto, California, in memory of their beloved son, which bears their name—Stanford University.”

History can be found in various communities in Facebook And "VKontakte", in blogs on "Yandex.Zene" And LiveJournal, as well as on entertaining websites and forums.

Stanford University located in California, in the city of Palo Alto, south of San Francisco. He opened in 1891 and was founded by the Stanford couple. Construction began in 1885. Complete Name University - Leland Stanford Jr. University. Its founders were railroad magnate Leland Stanford and his wife Jane (nee Lathrop). The couple, in fact, had an only son, Leland. However, further historical facts do not quite correspond to reality.

Portrait of Senator Leland Stanford, his wife and son. 1878 (Stanford University Archives)

Leland Jr. died while traveling in Italy in Florence in 1884 from typhoid fever. At that time he was only 15 years old and was not a student at Harvard University. Just a year later, the parents, in order to perpetuate the memory of their son, began construction of the university that now bears his name.

Boston has two historic train stations, but the couple from history could not arrive at either of them. North Station was open in 1893, and Yuzhny - still later, in 1899. Of course, there were separate platforms in Boston before this, but they were not considered train stations.

At the time described, the president of Harvard was Charles William Elliott. He himself in 1919, at the request of the first president of Stanford University told about meeting with the Stanford couple. He said the couple had several projects to memorialize their son. Along with the university, they considered the idea of a complex consisting of a museum, an institute and a lecture hall, as well as a project for a technical school. Elliott writes: “I replied that we should not try to create a university free for students without an investment of less than $5 million. There was silence, Mrs. Stanford looked thoughtful. But after a pause, Mr. Stanford smiled and turned to his wife: “Well, Jane, we can handle it, can’t we?” And Mrs. Stanford nodded."

It’s also worth mentioning the couple’s faded suits. There is no historical evidence that the Stanfords preferred to dress modestly. Looking at the family photo above, you can see that their appearance was quite consistent with their social status.

The fact that comments from Harvard's president were already required in 1919, just 20 years after the university opened, suggests that this story most likely began to spread long before the advent of the Internet with its forums and social networks. It is also worth noting that the official journal of Stanford University is also refutes this story.

Thus, the story that interests us is nothing more than a historical tale that does not correspond to reality.