19th-century

Williams President Mark Hopkins dedicates the Mission Park Haystack Monument. The monument, proclaiming, “The Field is the World,” was funded by a donation from the Honorable Harvey Rice (Williams 1824). Continue reading »

A group of seniors and juniors meet to establish a provisional chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Williams. Continue reading »

The Williams faculty vote to require student attendance at military drill. Faculty Meeting Minutes: 1863 Sept 23. Voted that the students be required to attend the military drill except they are excused by the Faculty. That the time of drill be on Mondays, Tuesdays, + Fridays – Forty minutes for… Continue reading »

The Alpine Club, the oldest mountain climbing organization in the country, takes its first walk to Birch and Prospect Glens. The Club’s mission was to “explore the interesting places in the vicinity, to become acquainted… with the natural history of the localities, and also to improve the pedestrian powers of… Continue reading »

Williams faculty vote to allow students to go out of town without excuse on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons provided they are not absent from any college exercise. Continue reading »

“Third term begins at Williams and undergraduates form a battalion and drilled an hour daily.” Excitement created by the surrender of Fort Sumter caused many to enlist and the ensuing years of incoming classes were smaller. Three hundred seventeen Williams men, representatives of 38 classes from 1825 to 1870, answered… Continue reading »

The first intercollegiate baseball game is held between Williams and Amherst. Amherst wins 66-32. Continue reading »

Members of the Lyceum of Natural History dedicate Jackson Hall, their new headquarters located in the Berkshire Quad. Continue reading »

Ralph Waldo Emerson speaks before the Adelphic Union, the student literary-debating society. Apparently James A. Garfield (Class of 1856 and future U.S. President) is so moved by the talk that he cannot sleep that night. Continue reading »

Herman Melville, with a party of friends and relatives, stays overnight in the observatory on Mount Greylock. Evert Duyckinck, one of the party, wrote to his wife: “The ascent of Saddleback the highest mountain in Massachusetts came off grandly with a party of eleven?–a night encampment in an old box… Continue reading »