University Museum (Harvard University) University Museum (Harvard University) The University Museum is a historic building that houses several museums belonging to Harvard University. The building is located at 24-28 Oxford Street and 11-25 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It houses both the Harvard Museum of Natural History at 26 Oxford Street, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at 11 Divinity Avenue, as well as several departments of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Mineralogical & Geological Museum. The building is a large U-shaped brick structure, six stories high, whose oldest portion dates to 1859. This section was built to house the
Heraldry of Harvard University coat of arms, or shield, has a field of the color "Harvard Crimson" and, in the foreground, has three open books with the word "VERITAS" (Latin for "truth") inscribed across them. This shield provides the basis for the shields of Harvard University's various schools. The Harvard Board of Overseers originally designed the shield during meetings in December 1643 and January 1644. However, the design was forgotten until rediscovered by University President Josiah Quincy and revealed in the bicentennial celebrations of 1836. In 1843, the Harvard Corporation officially adopted it as a seal, and the seal in use today is very