Franklin & Marshall College history

Marshall College, named for United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, was founded in 1835 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

Having grown from a Reformed Church academy, Marshall College opened in 1836 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

The University of Durham was founded in 1837 as an Oxford-model campus with several colleges for residence and teaching; it later acquired affiliate colleges elsewhere—some in British colonies.

On December 6, 1849, Franklin College and Marshall College began to consider merging as a way to secure the future of both institutions.

Three years later, on June 7, 1853, the combined college was formally dedicated at Lancaster's Fulton Hall.

Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., opened in 1868 and was the first American university to be divided into colleges offering different degrees.

In 1872, the Franklin and Marshall Academy, an all-male prep school, opened on campus.

College Days, the first student newspaper, began publication in 1873.

When Johns Hopkins University opened in 1876, it was divided administratively into an undergraduate college and a graduate school.

But English universities founded after 1879—commonly called “red brick” universities—have no colleges.

Oriflamme, the Franklin and Marshall College yearbook, was established in 1883.

In 1887, the centennial celebration of Franklin College was held.

1899 saw the formation of the college's first theatre group, the Franklin & Marshall Dramatic Association.

The sesquicentennial celebration of Franklin College was held in October 1937.

In 1939, the school began an aviation program in the new Keiper Liberal Arts Building.

Women were permitted to attend summer school classes at F&M beginning in 1942.

By 1945, with most young men in the armed services, the college population dwindled to just under 500 students and 28 faculty members.

Continuing a trend at gender exclusive schools across the country, the Board of Trustees announced on January 17, 1969, that it had voted to admit women to F&M, a decision that was supported by male students.

On April 29, 1976, the Green Room Theatre staged the world premiere of the John Updike play Buchanan Dying, about former President James Buchanan, a Lancaster resident and former president of the board of trustees.

On June 6, 1987, Franklin and Marshall College celebrated its bicentennial.

On January 19, 2006, the college celebrated the tricentennial of Benjamin Franklin's birth.

On March 10, 2010, it was announced that then current president John Fry would be leaving the college to become the president of Drexel University on August 1, 2010.

The Office of Student and Post-Graduate Development offering life skills workshops, job-search boot camps for seniors and recent grads, on-campus recruiting and alumni programming, opened in 2012 and enjoys wide support from students and alumni.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded F&M a $700,000 grant for its Faculty Center, which was launched in 2013 to improve support for faculty in their roles as researchers and educators.

On May 1, 2014, Franklin & Marshall College was named as one of 55 colleges under review or investigation by the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, for their policies or practices for handling sexual assault reports.