Dickinson College history

Though Charles Nisbet would not live to see its completion, West College—or Old West, as it's commonly called—hosted its first classes in November 1805.

On June 7, 1833, the new board elected John Price Durbin as president of the college and chairman of the Board of Trustees.

In 1835, the Baltimore Conference began making an annual contribution to the college, which continues today and helps support the Center for Service, Spirituality & Social Justice .

The college's first Greek fraternity was chartered in 1852.

During the Civil War, the campus and town of Carlisle were occupied twice by Confederate forces in 1863.

The college's student newspaper, The Dickinsonian, was founded 1872, placing it among the oldest ongoing newspapers in Pennsylvania.

And the college's first intercollegiate football game was played against Gettysburg in 1879.

In 1881, the Metzger Institute opened.

The college began admitting women in 1884.

In fact, the first Pennsylvania chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was started at Dickinson in 1886.

In 1887, Zatae Longsdorff became the first woman to graduate from Dickinson.

In 1910, Frank Mount Pleasant was the first Native American to graduate from Dickinson College.

The collaboration between the institutions lasted almost four decades, from the opening day to the closing of the Indian School in 1918.

Founded in 1942 by Doctor Peter Sammartino and his wife, Sylvia (Sally), Fairleigh Dickinson University has grown into the largest private university in New Jersey.

Beginning as a two-year junior college, Fairleigh Dickinson expanded to a four-year curriculum in 1948 to fill the need for higher education in northern New Jersey.

In 1954, the first graduate program, a master’s degree in business administration, was offered, and Bergen Junior College was purchased as a second campus, now Metropolitan Campus.

In 1956, Fairleigh Dickinson gained University status and, one year later, the 178-acre Vanderbilt-Twombly estate was acquired in Madison to serve as a third campus, now Florham Campus.

In 1965, for example, Dickinson established a college-run study-abroad program in Bologna, Italy.

Charles C. Sellers, Dickinson College: A History (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press), 1973.

Henry Clarke, an alumnus who developed the Klondike bar into a national brand for an ice cream bar, founded the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College, and in 1994 established the Clarke Center.

In 2000, the Board of Trustees adopted a focused mission for FDU: to prepare students for world citizenship through global education.

In 2007, FDU commenced classes at facilities in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Opened in 2008, the LEED Gold certified Rector Science Complex serves as a place of scientific exploration and learning in an environment that is artful and sustainable.

On January 22, 2013, Dickinson announced that it had acquired Allison United Methodist Church for college expansion.