The following is a list of Presidents of Brown University From 1765 to the 1920s, the president was required by the University Charter to be of the Baptist denomination:
Brown University is a private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, it is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.
President | Brown Class | Life | Tenure | Events | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | James Manning | – | 1738–1791 | 1765–1791 | The College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is established in Warren, RI, (1765) moves to Providence (1770) and establishes campus on College Hill. American Revolution. | |
2. | Jonathan Maxcy [1] | 1787 | 1768–1820 | 1792–1802 | First alum to be president | |
3. | Asa Messer [2] | 1790 | 1769–1836 | 1802–1826 | The College of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is renamed as Brown University; first Medical School founded | |
4. | Francis Wayland | – | 1796–1865 | 1827–1855 | Suspension of the Medical School | |
5. | Barnas Sears | 1825 | 1802–1880 | 1855–1867 | ||
6. | Alexis Caswell | 1822 | 1799–1877 | 1868–1872 | ||
7. | Ezekiel Robinson [3] | 1838 | 1815–1894 | 1872–1889 | Graduate study instituted | |
8. | Elisha Andrews | 1870 | 1844–1917 | 1889–1898 | Women's College founded | |
9. | William Faunce [4] | 1880 | 1859–1930 | 1899–1929 | Women's College renamed to Pembroke College | |
10. | Clarence Barbour | 1888 | 1867–1937 | 1929–1937 | Last of long line of Baptist minister Presidents | |
11. | Henry Wriston | – | 1889–1978 | 1937–1955 | First non-Baptist (Methodist) president and first president since Wayland to not be a Brown alumnus | |
12. | Barnaby Keeney | – | 1914–1980 | 1955–1966 | ||
13. | Ray Heffner [5] | – | 1925–2012 | 1966–1969 | New Curriculum passed | |
14. | Donald Hornig [6] | – | 1920–2013 | 1970–1976 | Pembroke merged with Brown, Medical School founded | |
15. | Howard Swearer | – | 1932–1991 | 1977–1988 | ||
16. | Vartan Gregorian | – | 1934– | 1989–1997 | ||
17. | Gordon Gee | – | 1944– | 1998–2000 | ||
– (Interim President) | Sheila Blumstein | – | 1944– | February 2000-July 2001 | Blumstein served as Dean of the College at Brown from 1987-1995; as Interim Provost in 1998; and as Interim President from February 2000 to July 2001 [7] | |
18. | Ruth Simmons | – | 1945– | 2001–2012 | In 2001, Time named Simmons as America's best college president. First woman and first African-American President of an Ivy League school | |
19. | Christina Paxson | – | 1960– | 2012– |
Seal brown is a rich dark brown color, resembling the color of the dyed fur from the fur seal.
Alexis Caswell was an American educator, born in Taunton, Massachusetts. He graduated Brown University in 1822, and entered the Baptist ministry.
Pembroke College in Brown University was the coordinate women's college for Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1891 and merged into Brown in 1971.
Charles August Kraus was an American chemist. He was professor of chemistry and director of the chemical laboratories at Clark University, where he directed the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I.
Albert Harkness was an American classical scholar and educator. He was professor of Greek at Brown University, and helped found the American Philological Association and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Encyclopedia Brunoniana is an American reference work by Martha Mitchell covering Brown University. Published in 1993 by the Brown University Library, the encyclopedia has 629 pages. A digital version can be read free of charge on the Internet.
Societas Domi Pacificae, colloquially known as The Pacifica House or SDP, is a secret society based at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, and is the oldest student secret society in the United States. Organized in 1824 as The Franklin Society, it was created in a year when such a large class entered Brown University that the two existing literary debating societies, the Philermenian Society and the United Brothers Society could not accommodate the new students. Notable personages such as Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay accepted honorary membership into the society during this time. The society was founded with the motto: Scientia Potentia Est, meaning “Knowledge is Power.”
The Van Wickle Gates at Brown University are the ornamental entrance to the main campus area at the corners of College Street and Prospect Street in College Hill. The gates were built with the bequest of Augustus Stout Van Wickle, who was the president of a bank and several coal corporations. Dedicated on June 18, 1901, the gates stand as a symbol for the campus and its long history.
Brown University traditions hold that two songs, "Alma Mater" and "Ever True to Brown" are sung at public events and gatherings related to the university. The traditional alma mater song, "Old Brown," was created in 1860 and "Ever True to Brown," the second school fight song, was written by Donald Jackson. The song is played by the Brown Band at major varsity athletic events and at formal events such as Convocation and Commencement. An unofficial version offers humorous alternative lyrics.
William Herbert Perry Faunce was an American clergyman and educator.
Delta Sigma (ΔΣ) was a collegiate sorority operating in New England from 1895 to 1908. Its three chapters were absorbed by Alpha Omicron Pi.
Hermon Carey Bumpus was a biologist, museum director, and the fifth president of Tufts College.
The Brown Jug is a college humor magazine founded in 1920 at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Barnaby Conrad Keeney was president of Brown University from 1955 to 1966 where he was known and loved by the student body for openness and his dry wit. As he once observed, "One of the joys of the life of an educator, particularly a president, is the amount of free advice he gets." Keeney then served as president of Claremont Graduate University from 1971 to 1976.
Clarence Augustus Barbour was an American Baptist clergyman and educator most notable for having served as the president of Brown University.
Winslow Upton was a United States astronomer.
Walter Samuel Hunter contributed to psychology by leading an effort to develop psychology as a science. Hunter was one of the first scholars of the time to focus not on the study of subjective mental processes but rather on the observation of animal behavior. In 1912, Hunter completed his doctoral dissertation on Delayed Reaction in Animals and Children. He was a pioneer in the effort of scientific documentation, having created Psychological Abstracts in 1927, which contained documents from psychologists in the U.S. and abroad.
Henry Brayton Gardner was an American economist. He was a faculty member at Brown University from 1890 until 1928, serving as the first Eastman Professor of Political Economy from 1919 to 1928. In 1919, he served as President of the American Economic Association.