Carleton College history

The earliest Carleton students, both men and women, arrived in the fall of 1867 to attend classes in the former American House hotel.

1869 The cornerstone is laid for the first permanent building (future Willis Hall).

1870 The “collegiate department” opens in September with a class of four freshmen.

In December, following a visit with William Carleton of Charlestown, Mass., Strong is seriously injured in a railway accident.1871 Reportedly impressed by the almost miraculous survival of Doctor Strong, William Carleton ensures the College’s survival with a $50,000 gift.

An appreciative board of trustees renames the College in his honor.1872 The College’s first building is completed.

Opening its doors the following year to students of both genders and “irrespective of race, nationality or denominational preferences,” Carleton would award its first baccalaureate degrees in 1874.

On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger Gang, led by outlaw Jesse James, tried to rob the First National Bank of Northfield.

1877 First edition of the Carletonian is issued by Philomathian Society.

1882 William Wallace Payne, director of the Carleton observatory, begins publication of the world’s only popular astronomical journal, The Sidereal Messenger.

1885 Harlan W. Page is appointed financial secretary, the College’s first salaried officer not also a member of the faculty.

1887 Probable date of Carleton’s first formal intercollegiate athletic contest: a Carleton baseball team beats St Olaf in May.

1889 Carleton’s first yearbook is published.

1898 Freshman Ernest Lundeen, a future United States Senator, is one of 12 Carls to trade school books for Army garb when the Spanish-American War begins.

With The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) he won fame in literary circles, and, in describing the life of the wealthy, he coined…

In 1903, modern religious influences were introduced by William Sallmon, a Yale Divinity School graduate, who was hired as college president.

1905/06 Distribution requirements and a system of majors and minors are introduced.

1909 In October Donald J. Cowling, a Yale graduate who had taught philosophy at Baker University, is inaugurated as Carleton’s third president.

1914 The College Farm is purchased and dairy operations are begun.

In 1916, under Cowling's leadership, Carleton began an official affiliation with the Minnesota Baptist Convention.

1918-19 As WW1 ends, an influenza epidemic claims 20 million lives, 500,000 in the United States.

1919 Dancing is permitted on campus for the first time.

1922 Carleton becomes one of the first colleges to adopt an honors program.

1927 Minnie M. Dilley ’98 is first woman to serve on the board of trustees.

After Sallmon left, the trustees hired Donald J. Cowling, another theologically liberal Yale Divinity School graduate, as his successor. It lasted until 1928, when the Baptists severed the relationship as a result of fundamentalist opposition to Carleton's liberalism, including the college's support for teaching evolution.

1930 Creation of the Carleton Student Association (CSA). F. Atherton Bean ’31 is elected its first president.

1935 Carleton’s alumni magazine, the Voice first appears.

Founded in 1942, Carleton was created in response to the need to help provide the young people in Ottawa, many of whom had taken on jobs to cope with the pressures of the Depression, with an opportunity to continue their formal education.

Established in the summer of 1943, the Institute of Public Administration opened its first classes on this date.

Since being sold by the college in 1944, the Stanton Airfield has been operated for commercial use.

During 1945-46, the College consolidated courses in arts, pure science, journalism, and applied science and engineering in a Faculty of Arts and Science, and reorganized the Institute of Public Administration as a Faculty of Public Administration.

1948 Comprehensive exams are introduced for seniors.

1949 Alvis Tinnin, Carleton’s first black student, graduates.

1950 “Knights” adopted as name for varsity sports teams.

In 1951 a Carleton-in-Japan program is initiated, first at a school in Osaka, later at Kyoto’s Doshisha University.

Ian Barbour …religion and physics departments of Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., in 1955.

The campus at that time consisted of the Henry Marshall Tory Building (Science), the Maxwell MacOdrum Library and the Norman Paterson Hall (Arts). Classes actually began at the new campus in September 1959.

1962 Carleton’s fifth president, John W. Nason ’26, is selected after Laurence M. Gould announces his desire to return to classroom teaching in Arizona.

In 1963 the Reformed Druids of North America was founded by students at Carleton, initially as a means to be excused from attendance of then-mandatory weekly chapel service.

Classes were first held there in September 1964.

Formal dedication of the E.W.R. Steacie Building (Chemistry). Classes began in the new building in September 1965.

1966 Carleton celebrates its centennial with a Science Symposium, the installation of Ray Jacobson’s Boliou Fountain sculpture, and many other events.

1970 Howard R. Swearer, an expert on international affairs at the Ford Foundation and a former UCLA professor of political science, is named president.

1977 Robert H. Edwards becomes president after Swearer resigns to assume the presidency of Brown University.

Hoopla reigns, but on the field Carleton is crushed by the Oles before 10,000 in Laird Stadium.1978 Trustees vote to limit investments to companies adhering to a written statement of principles on South Africa.

He became Carleton’s first professor of science, technology, and society in 1981.

1985 ACT (Acting in the Community Together) is established to coordinate student volunteer programs in Northfield and surrounding communities.

1989 Adoption of RAD (Recognition and Affirmation of Difference) requirement to ensure that all students complete courses that are “centrally concerned with another culture,” or with “issues and/or theories of gender, class, race, and ethnicity as these may be found anywhere in he world.”

1991 A record 18% of incoming first-year students are students of color.

1995 United States News and World Report ranks Carleton’s faculty #1 in commitment to undergraduate teaching.

President Bill Clinton gave the last commencement address of his administration at Carleton, on June 10, 2000, marking the first presidential visit to the college.

2001 The applicant pool for admission to Carleton exceeds 4,000 for the first time (4,061).

2002 Former professor of political science Paul Wellstone dies in a plane crash.

2004 Carleton’s wind turbine is installed.

Harvey Stork pushes for development of a Carleton arboretum. It is the first college-owned turbine in the country.2006 Classes are cancelled for an all-day campus discussion on how to respond to Hurricane Katrina.

2009 Two new residence halls, Cassat Hall and Memorial Hall, open for the 2009–10 academic year (Memorial will later be renamed James Hall).

2011 Carleton’s Weitz Center for Creativity opens, and the College’s second wind turbine is installed.

2013 The applicant pool for admission to Carleton exceeds 7,000 for the first time.

2017 The college begins drilling geothermal bores on campus, beginning the transition from steam heating to a more efficient and sustainable hot water system.

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