Swarthmore College history

10, 1869, a tree-planting ceremony was held to honor College founders Lucretia Mott and her husband, the late James Mott, both well known for their activities in the anti-slavery and women's rights movements.

The college was coeducational from its founding, and it became nonsectarian in 1911. It is home to the Friends Historical Library, which was established in 1871 and holds a collection of Quaker writings and related materials.

William Hyde Appleton was a former high school student of then-Principal Edward Magill in Providence, R.I. In 1872, he again met Magill, by now president of Swarthmore, who recruited him as a teacher of Greek and German.

The Delphic Literary Society, founded in 1873, joins the Somervilleand Eunomian Literary societies as the three core student-run literary societies of the College.

Swarthmore’s early curriculum focused more on the sciences than did other colleges, offering engineering courses for a bachelor of science degree for the first time in 1874.

Benjamin Hallowell (1799-1877) An educator and Quaker minister who wrote the first pamphlet advocating the creation of Swarthmore College.

Swarthmore’s first real estate company was incorporated in 1878 to develop the tract north of the railroad.

Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880) A Quaker minister and major figure in the reform movements of the 19th century who devoted her life to the abolition of slavery, women's rights, school and prison reforms, temperance, peace, and religious tolerance.

Around 11 p.m. on September 25, 1881, a fire occurred in Parrish Hall, destroying all but the exterior of the building.

Parrish Hall reopened on January 18, 1883.

In 1886, development companies were established to build homes in several tracts which lay south of the railroad in present-day Swarthmore.

In 1888, she received a Doctor of Science degree, the first honorary degree awarded by the College.

Among them, number 39: "Students are permitted to go into the library only when accompanied by a teacher.” The rules were liberalized to attract more students near the end of Magill's tenure as president in 1889.

In 1891, the College sold a tract of land bounded by the railroad, Chester Road, Princeton and Harvard Avenues; the College Tract includes the present business district with the exception of the railroad station.

The first stores on the corner of Park Avenue and Chester Road opened before the end of 1892.

The Borough of Swarthmore was incorporated on March 6, 1893.

The program concluded with Frank Grant Blair, Class of 1897, placing first for his oration, "The Function of History."

Total charges — tuition, room and board, and fees — were raised in 1903 to $450, $100 more than in the first year.

Members published a magazine until 1910, sponsored speakers, and raised money for graduate fellowships which are named for College founders Lucretia Mott and Martha Tyson and still awarded.

The college was coeducational from its founding, and it became nonsectarian in 1911.

In 1914, he was also named a trustee of the World Peace Foundation.

The winners, one man and one woman, receive a roll of toilet paper, in honor of the race's namesake, Thomas McCabe, Class of 1915 and former president of Scott Paper.

So-called because "it's made of odds and ends and not because it's butchered," the Hamburg Show evolved from its first appearance in 1916 as slapstick vaudeville to a musical comedy with book and music written by students.

Dana and Hallowell Halls were the first men’s dorms built by the College since Wharton Hall in 1917 and initially housed 144 students.

HIST 003A. Modern Europe, 1789 to 1918: Revolutionaries, Citizens, and Subjects in Europe's Long 19th Century surveys European history from the French Revolution to the aftermath of World War I, exploring topics such as empire, nationalism, revolution, and industrialization.

The annual Founder’s Day on October 25, 1919, sees the addition of a new feature: the Founder’s Day Pageant.

The 1921 appointment of Frank Aydelotte as president began the development of the school's current academic focus, particularly with his vision for the Honors program based on his experience as a Rhodes Scholar.

A system of honours courses, modeled on that of the University of Oxford, was initiated at the college in 1922 by Frank Aydelotte, who later became president of the college.

According to the Arboretum's first director, after conducting this work from 1930-32, "they literally transformed the dilapidated areas into a pleasant woodland park with attractive paths."

By 1931, the present boundaries of Swarthmore were established with the annexation of the area south of Bowdoin and north of Michigan and Fairview Avenues.

In 1932, she attended the College's Founders Day and planted a tree on campus with President Frank Aydelotte, commemorating the 250th anniversary of William Penn’s landing in Pennsylvania.

In 1940, students built their own AM radio equipment and plugged their signal into the College power supply.

Acclaimed poet W. H. Auden joined Swarthmore's English faculty in 1942.

Beginning in July 1943 and for the next three years, the United States Navy's V-5 and V-12 programs brought more than 900 men to Swarthmore College.

Revived the year before, the Glee Club recorded a collection of 10 songs on five 78s in the spring of 1945, making it the first musical recording of its kind published by the College.

The streak, which began in 1946, ultimately extended to 92.

In 1952, it was renamed the Swarthmore College Bulletin.

Beginning in 1965, the College’s Upward Bound program prepared dozens of bright, African-American teenagers each year for higher education for more than 40 years.

Putnam joined the political science faculty of the University of Michigan in 1968 as a lecturer and later rose to the position of professor.

In 1969, Swarthmore College’s black protest movement, spearheaded by students in the Swarthmore Afro-American Student Society (SASS) sat in the Admissions Office demanding increased black enrollment.

The event, first held in 1972, takes place on the creek that flows through Swarthmore's campus.

The first reference to this initiative appears in a 1973 Phoenix.

He established the long-sought black studies program in 1974 and oversaw Swarthmore's first capital campaign.

30, 1979, marked the centennial celebration of the first meeting of worship in the meetinghouse.

As international criticism of South Africa's apartheid policies grew, Student Council adopted a resolution in February, 1982, calling for the college to divest itself of stock in all companies doing business in the country.

Alternative Sexualities Integrated at Swarthmore was founded in 1989.

After years of student interest and six months of formal planning, the Intercultural Center officially opens on April 4, 1992, with a series of events and an all-campus party.

Pioneered by Stephen Lang Professor of Performing Arts Sharon Friedler, Swarthmore formally established a study-abroad program in 1995 at the International Centre for African Music and Dance and the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana in Legon, a suburb of the capital city, Accra.

The conference is named for Jonathan Lax '71 and funded by an endowment created by his bequest in 1996.

For the 500-meter race, student teams make boats, rafts, and pontoons of Styrofoam, recycling containers, beer kegs, and, in 1998, a twin-size bed frame.

The Alumni Gospel Choir issues its first cd, Hallelujah! Amen, and follows it in 2000 with Star Gazer, a collection of holiday advent music.

In the first year after the program's revision, student participation in Honors doubled, and rose steadily to more than 30 percent in 2001, where it largely remains.

Green roofs first arrived on campus with the 2002-03 Environmental Studies capstone seminar.

In 2004, Herbert Kaiser '49 praised the opportunity the program afforded him on the occasion of receiving an honorary degree from the College: "Swarthmore had a profound influence on my life — as it did on many.

All quotes and information taken from Stokes, Lauren. "Queer history of Swarthmore." The Daily Gazette, March 22, 2007. http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/daily/2007/03/22/queer-history-of-swarthmore/

In spring 2008, the Phoenix, the College's first-ever mascot, made its debut with the help of a team of students - Melissa Grigsby '09, Dan Hodson '09, Juliana Macri '09, Scott Storm '08, and Joel Tolliver '10 - to portray it.

In 2010, a Sager Fund Committee was established and now administers the fund to support a dedicated speaker series focused on GLBTQ issues and interests.

In 2013, plans were announced for a project that will connect the two dorms by adding between them a five-story, ADA-accessible structure with 70-75 beds.