| No. | Image | Presidents | Term of office | Length | Notes |
|---|
| – | | Nathaniel Eaton | – | 2&#;years | Referred to as "schoolmaster" of Harvard College
Fired for "embezzlement and beating students"[5] |
| 1 | | Henry Dunster | – | 14&#;years, 1&#;month and 27&#;days | Forced to resign for speaking out against and interrupting infant baptisms[6] |
| 2 | | Charles Chauncy | – | 17&#;years, 3&#;months and 17&#;days | Died in office[7] |
| 3 | | Leonard Hoar | – | 2&#;years, 3&#;months and 5&#;days | Forced to resign[8] |
| 4 | | Urian Oakes | – (acting); – | 6&#;years, 3&#;months and 18&#;days (total); 4&#;years, 9&#;months and 26&#;days (acting); 1&#;year, 5&#;months and 23&#;days | Died in office[9][7] |
| 5 | | John Rogers | – | 2&#;years, 3&#;months and 2&#;days | Died in office[10][11][7] |
| 6 | | Increase Mather | – (acting); – (rector); – | 16&#;years and 18&#;days (total); 1&#;year and 12&#;days (acting); 6&#;years and 4&#;days (rector); 9&#;years and 2&#;days | Forced to resign[12][7] |
| – | | Samuel Willard | – (acting) | 6&#;years and 6&#;days | Resigned due to illness[13] |
| 7 | | John Leverett | – | 16&#;years, 3&#;months and 19&#;days | First lawyer to serve as president. Died in office.[7][14] |
| 8 | | Benjamin Wadsworth | – | 11&#;years, 8&#;months and 9&#;days | Died in office[11][7] |
| 9 | | Edward Holyoke | – | 32&#;years | At 79, the oldest president; died in office.[11][7] |
| – | | John Winthrop | (acting) | Declined presidency on a permanent basis on grounds of old age[15] |
| 10 | | Samuel Locke | – | 3&#;years, 6&#;months and 10&#;days | Resigned after fathering a child out of wedlock[16][1] |
| – | | John Winthrop | – (acting) | Declined presidency again on a permanent basis on grounds of old age [2] |
| 11 | | Samuel Langdon | – | 6&#;years, 1&#;month and 12&#;days | Students petitioned the Corporation to dismiss him and he resigned.[7][17] |
| – | | Edward Wigglesworth | – (acting) | [3] |
| 12 | | Joseph Willard | – | 23&#;years and 20&#;days | Died in office[18] |
| – | | Eliphalet Pearson | – (acting) | Acting president after death of Willard |
| 13 | | Samuel Webber | – | 4&#;years, 2&#;months and 11&#;days | Died in office[19] |
| – | | Henry Ware | (acting) | Served as acting president after Webber's death.[4] |
| 14 | | John Thornton Kirkland | – | 17&#;years, 4&#;months and 19&#;days | Suffered a stroke, was accused of financial mismanagement by the Harvard Corporation, and resigned [5] |
| – | | Henry Ware | (acting) | Served as acting president after the resignation of Kirkland [6] |
| 15 | | Josiah Quincy III | – | 16&#;years, 6&#;months and 29&#;days | Retired[20] |
| 16 | | Edward Everett | – | 2&#;years, 11&#;months and 27&#;days | Resigned due to dissatisfaction with the job.[21] Later became United States Secretary of State and United States Senator. |
| 17 | | Jared Sparks | – | 4&#;years and 9&#;days | Resigned due to dissatisfaction with the job[22] |
| 18 | | James Walker | – | 6&#;years, 11&#;months and 16&#;days | Resigned due to arthritis[23] |
| 19 | | Cornelius Conway Felton | – | 2&#;years and 10&#;days | Died from a disease of the heart en route to Washington, D.C. for a meeting at the Smithsonian Institution[24] |
| – | | Andrew Preston Peabody | (acting) | Served as acting president after the death of Felton |
| 20 | | Thomas Hill | – | 5&#;years, 11&#;months and 24&#;days | Resigned due to poor health[25] |
| – | | Andrew Preston Peabody | (acting) | Served as acting president after the resignation of Hill due to illness[26] |
| 21 | | Charles William Eliot | – | 40&#;years, 2&#;months and 7&#;days[27] | At 35, the youngest president.[28] Longest term of office.[29][30] For a portion of [31] and , Henry Pickering Walcott served as acting president while Eliot was on vacation. |
| 22 | | A. Lawrence Lowell | – | 24&#;years, 1&#;month and 2&#;days | Retired[32][33] |
| 23 | | James B. Conant | – | 19&#;years, 6&#;months and 22&#;days | Retired to become Allied High Commissioner for Occupied Germany and later U.S. ambassador to Germany[34] |
| 24 | | Nathan Pusey | – | 18&#;years and 29&#;days | "Pusey called in the Cambridge police to end a student sit-in" in "Sharply criticized for his handling of the situation, he announced in that he would retire the following year".[35][36] |
| 25 | | Derek Bok | – | 19&#;years, 11&#;months and 29&#;days[37] | Henry Rosovsky served as acting president in and when Bok traveled and took brief sabbaticals.[38][39] |
| 26 | | Neil Rudenstine | –[40] | 9&#;years, 11&#;months and 29&#;days | Provost Albert Carnesale served as acting president for three months, from November to February , during Rudenstine's medical leave of absence.[41] |
| 27 | | Lawrence Summers | – | 4&#;years, 11&#;months and 29&#;days | First Jewish president[42][43][44][45][46] Shortest tenure since Civil War. Resigned following several clashes with faculty resulting in a no-confidence vote.[47][48][49][50] |
| – | | Derek Bok | – (interim) | 11&#;months and 29&#;days | Served as acting president after the resignation of Summers[51][7] |
| 28 | | Drew Gilpin Faust | – | 10&#;years, 11&#;months and 29&#;days | First female president[7][52] |
| 29 | | Lawrence Bacow | – | 4&#;years, 11&#;months and 29&#;days | Retired[7][53] |
| 30 | | Claudine Gay | – | 6&#;months and 1&#;day | First black president.[54] Shortest serving president; resigned following congressional hearings into antisemitism on campus and multiple allegations of plagiarism.[55] |
| 31 | | Alan Garber | –Present | 1&#;year and 18&#;days | Appointed as interim president after Gay's resignation[56][57] Appointed permanently in August as 31st president until , when Harvard will appoint a successor.[58] |