Yale University

History

Yale traces its beginnings to "An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School" passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut and dated October 9, 1701. Soon thereafter, a group of ten Congregationalist ministers, all of whom were Harvard alumni, met in Branford, Connecticut, to pool their books to form the school's first library. http://www.thecrimson.com/fmarchives/fm_03_11_1999/article5I.html. The group is now known as The Founders.

Related Topics:
Colony of Connecticut - October 9 - 1701 - Congregationalist - Branford, Connecticut - The Founders

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Originally called the Collegiate School of Connecticut, the institution opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson, in Killingworth, Connecticut. In 1716, the college moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where it remains to this day.

Related Topics:
Abraham Pierson - Killingworth, Connecticut - 1716 - New Haven, Connecticut

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In the meanwhile, a rift was forming at Harvard between its sixth president Increase Mather (Harvard A.B., 1656) and the rest of the Harvard clergy, which Mather viewed as increasingly liberal, ecclesiastically lax, and overly broad in Church polity. The relationship worsened after Mather resigned, and the administration repeatedly rejected his son and ideological colleague, Cotton Mather (Harvard A.B., 1678), for the position of the Harvard presidency. The feud caused the Mathers to champion the success of the Collegiate School in the hopes that it would maintain the Puritan religious orthodoxy in a way that Harvard had not http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_057300_matherincrea.htm.

Related Topics:
Increase Mather - A.B - 1656 - Cotton Mather - 1678 - Puritan

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In 1718, at the behest of either Rector Andrew or Governor Gurdon Saltonstall, Cotton Mather contacted a successful businessman in England named Elihu Yale to ask him for financial help in constructing a new building for the college. Yale, who had made a fortune through trade while living in India as a representative of the East India Company, donated nine bales of goods, which were sold for more than £560, a substantial sum at the time. Yale also donated 417 books and a portrait of King George I. Cotton Mather suggested that the school change its name to Yale College in gratitude to its benefactor and to increase the chances that he would give the college another large donation or bequest. Elihu Yale was away in India when the news of the school's name change reached his home in England, a trip from which he never returned. And while he did ultimately leave his fortunes to the "Collegiate School within His Majesties Colony of Connecticot," the institution was never able to successfully lay claim to it. Regardless, the entire institution eventually became Yale University.

Related Topics:
1718 - Andrew - Gurdon Saltonstall - England - Elihu Yale - King George I - Yale University

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Serious American students of theology and divinity, particularly in New England, regarded Hebrew as a classical language, along with Greek and Latin, and essential for study of the Old Testament in the original words. The Reverend Ezra Stiles, president of the College from 1778 to 1795, brought with him his interest in the Hebrew language as a vehicle for studying ancient Biblical texts in their original language (as was common in other prestigious schools, for instance Harvard), requiring all freshmen to study Hebrew (in contrast to Harvard, where all upperclassmen were required to study the language) and is responsible for the Hebrew words "Urim" and "Thummim" on the Yale seal.

Related Topics:
Theology - Divinity - New England - Hebrew - Greek - Latin - Old Testament - Ezra Stiles - 1778 - 1795 - Biblical texts - Harvard - "Urim" and "Thummim"

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Yale College expanded gradually, establishing the Yale Medical School (1810), Yale Divinity School (1822), Yale Law School (1843), Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1847), the Sheffield Scientific School (1861), and the Yale School of Fine Arts (1869). (The divinity school was founded by Congregationalists who felt that the Harvard Divinity School had become too liberal.) In 1887, as the college continued to grow under the presidency of Timothy Dwight V, Yale College was renamed to Yale University. The university would later add the Yale School of Music (1894), the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (1901), Yale School of Public Health (1915), and the Yale School of Nursing (1923) and reorganize its relationship with the Sheffield Scientific School. The University's youngest school, the Yale School of Management, was founded in 1976.

Related Topics:
Yale Medical School - 1810 - Yale Divinity School - 1822 - Yale Law School - 1843 - Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Sheffield Scientific School - 1861 - Yale School of Fine Arts - 1869 - Congregationalists - Harvard Divinity School - 1887 - Timothy Dwight V - Yale School of Music - 1894 - Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies - 1901 - Yale School of Public Health - 1915 - Yale School of Nursing - 1923

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Yale has the perhaps unfortunate distinction of having been in the forefront of the Ivy League schools (although not by much) in instituting policies in the early twentieth century designed to artificially increase the proportion of upper-class white Christians of notable families in the student body (see Numerus clausus), and was one of the last of the Ivies to eliminate such preferences, beginning with the class of 1970.http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/99_12/admissions.html

Related Topics:
Twentieth century - Numerus clausus - 1970

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See also: Oxbridge rivalry, which documents a similar history in which Cambridge University was founded by dissident scholars from its "rival" Oxford University

Related Topics:
Oxbridge rivalry - Cambridge University - Oxford University

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Heads of Collegiate School, Yale College, and Yale University