The Peithessophian Society of Rutgers College (or Peitho) was a student literary and debating society founded in 1825 at Rutgers College (later Rutgers University) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Founded by Professor James Spencer Canon after Rutgers College reopened after years of financial difficulty and a brief closing, it was one of two such societies at campus in the nineteenth-century—the other being the Philoclean Society. [1] The name "Peithessophian" is derived from the Ancient Greek meaning "persuasiveness of wisdom." [1]
According to Rutgers, the literary societies allowed students to develop "the skills of rhetoric and statesmanship that helped more fully utilize the classical education being taught in college classrooms. Rhetorical skills were honed through the writing of essays, orations before the society, and participation in debates. The societies also sought to increase their members exposure to literature by establishing private libraries that were often more diverse than that of the college." [1]
In 1832 the society's library is recorded as holding 771 books, mostly literature (384 volumes), compared to the college's 1,290 titles which were largely theological texts. [1] An 1876 survey by the U.S. Bureau of Education reported that Rutgers held 6,814 volumes in its college library and 3,800 in libraries of the Peithessophian Society and Philoclean Society. [2] [3] : p.2 [4]
The society first met in Old Queens, the oldest building on campus, but later moved to Alexander Johnston Hall, and later in 1848 to Van Nest Hall (built 1845) which it shared with Philoclean. [1] On July 20, 1830, former U.S. Attorney General William Wirt delivered an address before Peithessophian and its rival Philoclean which foreshadowed the coming American Civil War. [1] [5] [6] [7] The address was popular in the nineteenth century and published also in France and Germany. [1]
Membership declined after the Civil War and the latter half of the nineteenth century and the society ceased to meet in 1897. [1] It was revived in the 1920s but then once again died out amidst the social turbulence associated with the Depression and World War II. [1] In the late 1990s, having rediscovered the central role played by Peithessophian and Philoclean in the intellectual life of the college for more than three-quarters of a century, a small group of students began spontaneously to meet informally for regular debate and discussion. In 2008, Peithessophian would be formally reinstituted, with a membership of ten members and a revival of the original 19th-century induction ceremony held each May in Kirkpatrick Chapel. Among its induction speakers have been Yan Lipovetsky, first president of the reinstituted Society, and Professor William C. Dowling, its faculty advisor. [8] Among the current objectives of the Peithessophian board of officers is a permanent allotment of college space, equivalent to its Van Nest library and meeting rooms in the nineteenth century, to the Society.
Rutgers University, officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey after Princeton University, and one of nine U.S. colonial colleges that were chartered before the American Revolution.
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh was an American Dutch Reformed clergyman, colonial and state legislator, and educator. Hardenbergh was a founder of Queen's College—now Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey—in 1766, and was later appointed as the college's first president.
William Henry Steele Demarest was an American Dutch Reformed minister and the eleventh President of Rutgers College serving from 1906 to 1924.
New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a Reformed Christian seminary with its main campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was founded in 1784 and is one of the oldest seminaries in the United States. It is a seminary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States that follows the theological tradition and Christian practice of John Calvin. First established in New York City under the leadership of the Rev. John Henry Livingston, who instructed aspiring ministers in his home, the seminary established its presence in New Brunswick in 1810. Although a separate institution, the seminary's early development in New Brunswick was closely connected with that of Rutgers University before establishing its own campus in the city in 1856. Since 1986, the seminary has also offered classes at a satellite location on the grounds of St. John's University in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York.
The Philoclean Society at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey is one of the oldest collegiate literary societies in the United States, and among the oldest student organizations at Rutgers University. Founded in 1825, the society was one of two such organizations—the other being the Peithessophian Society—on campus devoted to the same purpose.
Old Queens is the oldest extant building at Rutgers University and is the symbolic heart of the university's campus in New Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey in the United States. Rutgers, the eighth-oldest college in the United States, was founded in 1766 during the American colonial period as Queen's College. Queen's College was named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the daughter of a German duke who became the queen consort of British king George III. Old Queens is located on a six-acre hilltop city block bounded by Somerset Street, Hamilton Street, College Avenue and George Street that was previously an apple orchard. Donated to the college in 1807 by James Parker, Jr., this city block become known the Queen's Campus and is the historic core of the university. Because of this, by metonymy, the name "Old Queens" came to be used as a reference to Rutgers College and is often invoked as an allusive reference to the university or to its administration.
Voorhees Mall is a large grassy area with stately shade trees on a block of about 28 acres (0.11 km²) located on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University near downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. An eclectic mix of architectural styles, Voorhees Mall is lined by many historic academic buildings. The block is bound by Hamilton Street, George Street (north), College Avenue (south) and Seminary Place (west). At the mall's western end, across Seminary Place, is the campus of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, whose history is intertwined with the early history of Rutgers University. Across Hamilton Street is the block called Old Queens, the seat of the university.
The Rutgers–Princeton Cannon War refers to a series of incidents involving two Revolutionary War cannons and a rivalry between the College of New Jersey in Princeton, New Jersey – now Princeton University – and Rutgers College – now Rutgers University – in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Rutgers University–New Brunswick is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, New Jersey's public research university. It is located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. It is the oldest campus of the university, the others being in Camden and Newark. The campus is composed of several smaller campuses: College Avenue, Busch, Livingston,Cook, and Douglass, the latter two sometimes referred to as "Cook/Douglass", as they are adjacent to each other. Rutgers–New Brunswick also includes several buildings in downtown New Brunswick. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The New Brunswick campuses include 19 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. The New Brunswick campus is also known as the birthplace of college football.
The Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick Memorial Chapel, known as Kirkpatrick Chapel, is the chapel to Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and located on the university's main campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey in the United States. Kirkpatrick Chapel is among the university's oldest extant buildings, and one of six buildings located on a historic section of the university's College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick known as the Queens Campus. Built in 1872 when Rutgers was a small, private liberal arts college, the chapel was designed by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh at the beginning of his career. Hardenbergh, a native of New Brunswick, was the great-great-grandson of Rutgers' first president, the Rev. Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh. It was the third of three projects that Hardenbergh designed for the college.
The Reverend Samuel Merrill Woodbridge, D.D., LL.D. was an American clergyman, theologian, author, and college professor. A graduate of New York University and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Woodbridge preached for sixteen years as a clergyman in the Reformed Church in America.
Geology Hall is a historic building on the Queens Campus of Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was built from April 1871 to June 1872 to house various science classes and the Rutgers Geology Museum. The museum was established in 1872 by George Hammell Cook, Rutgers' then professor of geology, with a collection of specimens whose assembly began in the 1830s under Cook's predecessor, Lewis Caleb Beck. As classes and offices moved out of the hall, the museum expanded until it occupied the entire hall by the mid-20th century. In 1973, the hall was added to the New Jersey and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) with Old Queens, President's House, Van Nest Hall, Daniel S. Schanck Observatory, the Kirkpatrick Chapel, and Winants Hall as part of the Old Queens Campus historic district.
Alexander Johnston Hall is a historic building located on the corner of Somerset Street and College Avenue, New Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey and is the second oldest building on the campus of Rutgers University. It was built in 1830 to handle the expansion of the Rutgers Preparatory School and the two literary societies, Philoclean and Peithessophian. The building, described using its historic name, Rutgers Preparatory School, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 18, 1975 for its significance in architecture and education.
The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory is an historical astronomical observatory on the Queens Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, and is tied for the seventh oldest observatory in the US alongside the Vassar College Observatory. It is located on George Street near the corner with Hamilton Street, opposite the parking lot adjacent to Kirkpatrick Chapel, and to the northeast of Old Queens and Geology Hall.
The Queens Campus or Old Queens Campus is a historic section of the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the United States.
Winants Hall is a historic educational building located on the Queens Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Designed by Van Campen Taylor and completed in 1890, Winants Hall is the oldest dormitory building at Rutgers University, known then as Rutgers College. The building was a gift to the university from Board of Trustees member and Bayonne businessman, Garrett E. Winants, and cost $75,000. The construction of the dormitory satisfied many long-awaited needs of the college. The new residential system also fostered a thriving social atmosphere for students, staff, and guests as it served as a student dormitory from 1890 to 1947.
The Levi D. Jarrard House is a historic building located on the Douglass College campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was constructed in 1868 by an unknown architect, as a private residence for Levi D. Jarrard. Levi D Jarrard, was acting as Postmaster of New Brunswick from 1881-1883, but was previously employed as a New Jersey State Senator as well as the Middlesex County Collector. In 1883 he was found to have embezzled approximately $20,000, and had fled to Canada with the funds, leaving his family to struggle with payments on the house. The house was then purchased by John N. Carpender, who would later lease it to the New Jersey College for Women.
College Avenue is the oldest campus of Rutgers University – New Brunswick, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S. It includes the historic seat of the university, known as Old Queens and the campus of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Many classes are taught in the Voorhees Mall area, also home to the Zimmerli Art Museum. It is within walking distance of shops, restaurants, and theaters in downtown New Brunswick and is served by Rutgers Campus Buses, a zero-fare bus network.
The Demarest House is a historic building at 542 George Street in New Brunswick, New Jersey on the campus of Rutgers University. It was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1960. The house was later added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 10, 1977 for its significance in architecture, education, and social history.