In the eighteenth century, Harvard Farm was one of a number of farms in the area owned by the philanthropist and political liberal, Thomas Hollis. He expressed his political values through the landscape by naming the fields according to places, political events and characters. At Harvard, the fields New England, Boston, Massachusetts, William III, Little Republic, West Revolution and East Revolution, reflect his sympathies for certain religious and political causes and campaigns in the colonies; Mayhew, Adams, Little Cotton and Eliot were Presidents, politicians and Protestant missionaries/educators he admired. Harvard Farm itself, is named after the famous University which he supported with books and benefactions. 

Other Hollis farms include Liberty Farm, Locke Farm, Springfield Farm and Marvell Farm.