Lowell Institute, an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $237,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. Under the terms of his will 10% of the net income was to be added to the principal, which in 1909 was over a million dollars. None of the fund was to be invested in a building for the lectures; the trustees of the Boston Athenaeum were made visitors of the fund; but the trustee of the fund is authorized to select his own successor, although in doing so he must always choose in preference to all others some male descendant of his grandfather, John Lowell, provided there is one who is competent to hold the office of trustee, and of the name of Lowell, the sole trustee so appointed having the entire selection of the lecturers and the subjects of lectures. The first trustee was Lowell's cousin, John Amory Lowell, who administered the trust for more than forty years, and was succeeded in 1881 by his son, Augustus Lowell, who in turn was succeeded in 1900 by his son Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who in 1909 became president of Harvard University. John Lowell, Jr. ... Augustus Lowell was President of Boott Cotton Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1897 and the father of Abbott Lawrence Lowell. ... Abbott Lawrence Lowell ( January 1, 1856– January 6, 1943), an educator, historian and Boston Brahmin, was the President of Harvard University from 1909 to 1933. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ...

The founder provided for two kinds of lectures, one popular, and the other more abstruse, erudite and particular. The popular lectures have taken the form of courses usually ranging from half a dozen to a dozen lectures, and covering almost every subject. The fees have always been large, and many of the most eminent men in America and Europe have lectured there. A large number of books have been published which consist of those lectures or have been based upon them. As to the advanced lectures, the founder seems to have had in view what is now called university extension, and in this he was far in advance of his time; but he did not realize that such work can only be done effectively in connection with a great school. In pursuance of this provision public instruction of various kinds has been given from time to time by the Institute. The first freehand drawing in Boston was taught there, but was given up when the public schools undertook it. In the same way a school of practical design was carried on for many years, but finally, in 1903, was transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts. Instruction for working men was given at the Wells Memorial Institute until 1908, when the Franklin Foundation took up the work. A Teachers School of Science is maintained in co-operation with the Natural History Society. For many years advanced courses of lectures were given by the professors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but in 1904 they were superseded by an evening school for industrial foremen. In 1907, under the title of Collegiate Courses, a number of the elementary courses in Harvard University were offered free to the public under the same conditions of study and examination as in the university. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a world leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ...

For the earlier period, see Harriett Knight Smith, History of the Lowell Institute (Boston, 1898).

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) represents, in many ways, the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...