The Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory was established by A. L. Rotch in 1885 to investigate weather patterns and maintain weather records. The administration of the Observatory was combined with that of Harvards Division of Engineering and Applied Physics in 1959, at which time the U.S. Weather Bureau assumed the responsibility for conducting routine weather observations at the Blue Hill station. The Universitys lease of the Blue Hill facility from the Metropolitan District ceased in 1971.

The Cambridge Electron Accelerator was operated jointly between Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It existed as a research facility from 1962-circa 1974. Research in the physics of high energy interactions of electrons and photons was carried out by teams composed of staff members and graduate students from the sponsoring institutions and other research centers.

The Harvard College Observatory was established by an official act of the Corporation in October 1839. The four buildings across from the Radcliffe Quad on Garden Street house the Department of Astronomy, Harvard College Observatory, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The Observatory houses three libraries and the largest collection of astronomical photographs in the world. All discoveries of comets must be reported to the Harvard College Observatory. In addition, the leading popular astronomical magazine, Sky and Telescope, is published at the observatory.

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (2007-) is the successor to the Lawrence Scientific School (1847- 1906), Graduate School of Applied Science (1906-1912), Graduate Schools of Applied Science (1912-1914), Harvard teaches sciences jointly with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1914-1917), Harvard Engineering School (1918-1932), Graduate School of Engineering (1932-1949), Faculty of Arts and Sciences Division of Engineering Sciences (1949-1951), Faculty of Arts and Sciences Division of Applied Science (1951-1955), Faculty of Arts and Sciences Division of Engineering and Applied Physics (1955- 1977), Faculty of Arts and Sciences Division of Applied Sciences (1977-1997), and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (1997-2007).

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics combines the resources and research facilities of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a single director to pursue studies of those basic physical processes that determine the nature and evolution of the universe. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution, founded in 1890. The Harvard College Observatory (HCO), founded in 1839, is a research institution of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, and provides facilities and substantial other support for teaching activities of the Department of Astronomy. The long relationship between the two organizations, which began when the SAO moved its headquarters to Cambridge in 1955, was formalized by the establishment of a joint center in 1973.

The Astronomical Laboratory, established in 1903 and was located in the original Agassiz Museum until 1911(?). The building itself was moved a number of times from 1860 on. The Laboratory was established to allow undergraduates the opportunity to learn the rudiments of astronomy by experiment and not solely by textbook.

the Harvard University Corporation's Panel on Physics and Engineering was appointed on Nov. 20, 1944.