Howard Williams (Class of 1930), author of A History of Colgate University 1819-1969, was the first University Archivist of Colgate University and a Professor of History. This exhibit incorporates the text and images from his book with additional photographs and documents from the University Archives.
Text from the original book jacket:
The Baptist Education Society of the State of New York opened the institution that was to become Colgate University in 1820, a year that saw the population of the U.S. grow to over nine million. The site of the new school was Hamilton, New York, an area not far removed in time and place from the frontier romanticized by Fenimore Cooper.
The Seminary flourished and in 1823 gained the support of the New York City-based Baptist Education Society, of which William C. Colgate was an active member. The early years were rough but rewarding. A student’s schedule dating from 1833 runs from chapel at 5 A. M. to lights out at 9 :30 P. M. Controversy also had a place on the campus. Despite opposition, the Seminary began admitting non-ministerial studentsl and in 1846 was incorporated as Madison University, with collegiate, preparatory and theological departments. The three years after incorporation were stirred by an almost-successful struggle to remove the university to Rochester.
The years between the Civil War and the Great War, H. S. Canby’s “last great age of American individualism,” were good to the small Baptist institution. Under three strong presidents, Dodge, Merrill, and Bryan, new buildings sprang up, the faculty was strengthened, the endowment enriched, the student body broadened: ]n 1890, recognizing the long devotion of the Colgate family, Madison became Colgate University. In 1912 [sic] the theological seminary was removed to Rochester.
Extracurricular activities assumed greater importance with the years-fraternities, sports, class rivalry, various activities all contributed to “campus spirit.” On the academic side the faculty moved boldly to initiate the famed Colgate Plan-a system of broad survey courses combined with seminars and independent study in selected fields of concentration.
The modern era is, perhaps, too “close to our own times to be viewed in proper perspective.” Professor Williams has provided in his closing chapters an “outline of events” that tells the story in all its vitality. A History of Colgate University is a book highly relevant to our own troubled times. The failures and successes, the troubles and tranquillities, of an earlier age have much meaning for contemporary alumni, students and faculty. As a bonus, the many illustrations provide a microhistory of the American male’s changing styles in hirsute adornment.
