77-628: Brunonian or Brunonians usually refer to alumni of Brown University and Pembroke College in Brown University . The terms may also refer to: Brown University Brown University is a private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island , United States. It is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the College in
154-808: A Congregationalist minister. In 1768, Stiles was elected to the American Philosophical Society . In 1784, he was elected an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati of Connecticut, one of the first so honored, for his ardent support of the Patriot cause . In 1752, Stiles traveled to Newport, Rhode Island , for his health. During his trip, the city's Trinity Church —the largest Anglican congregation in New England—sought Stiles to serve as its minister, offering him
231-542: A Party College." Stiles continued to work towards his vision of a non-sectarian institution after the establishment of Rhode Island College, presenting in 1770 a petition for the establishment of another college in Newport. Stiles struck up a close friendship with Haim Isaac Carigal of Hebron during the Rabbi 's 1773 residence in Newport. Stiles' records note 28 meetings to discuss a wide variety of topics from Kabbalah to
308-920: A college in the Colony of Rhode-Island, under the chief direction of the Baptists; ... Mr. James Manning , who took his first degree in New-Jersey college in September, 1762, was esteemed a suitable leader in this important work. James Manning arrived at Newport in July 1763 and was introduced to Stiles, who agreed to write the charter for the college. Stiles' first draft was read to the General Assembly in August 1763, and rejected by Baptist members who worried that their denomination would be underrepresented in
385-724: A hospital for French troops from June 26, 1780, to May 27, 1782. A number of Brown's founders and alumni played roles in the American Revolution and subsequent founding of the United States. Brown's first chancellor, Stephen Hopkins, served as a delegate to the Colonial Congress in Albany in 1754, and to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. James Manning represented Rhode Island at
462-543: A major role in the establishment of Brown University (then Rhode Island College). According to Edmund Morgan, in Rhode Island's religious diversity Stiles "saw an opportunity to join with Christians of other denominations in a project which would exemplify their common faith in free inquiry.... a college in which the major religious groups of the colony should unite in the pursuit of knowledge." In 1761, Stiles, along with William Ellery Jr. and Josias Lyndon , drafted
539-611: A new residential college in his honor: Ezra Stiles College . The college is noted for its design by modernist architect Eero Saarinen . Stiles' upholstered armchair is currently in the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut . The chair was made in Newport, Rhode Island . Stiles married twice (Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Checkley Cranston) and had eight children. Stiles' son Ezra Stiles, Esq.,
616-537: A petition to the Rhode Island General Assembly to establish a "literary institution". The editor of Stiles's papers observes, "This draft of a petition connects itself with other evidence of Dr. Stiles's project for a Collegiate Institution in Rhode Island, before the charter of what became Brown University." There is further documentary evidence that Stiles was making plans for a college in 1762. On January 20, Chauncey Whittelsey, pastor of
693-620: A public Building or Buildings for the boarding of the youth & the Residence of the Professors. The three petitioners were Ezra Stiles , pastor of Newport's Second Congregational Church and future president of Yale University ; William Ellery Jr. , future signer of the United States Declaration of Independence ; and Josias Lyndon , future governor of the colony. Stiles and Ellery later served as co-authors of
770-482: A salary of £200 sterling. Stiles rejected the offer and departed from the city, writing "that all his Art and Address and fine offers were ineffectual." In 1755, the Second Congregational Church of Newport likewise sought out the young minister. In August, after serving in an interim capacity, he joined the church as for a salary of £65 Sterling. In the later months 1756, a clapboard house
847-405: A steering committee to research Brown's eighteenth-century ties to slavery. In October 2006, the committee released a report documenting its findings. Titled "Slavery and Justice", the document detailed the ways in which the university benefited both directly and indirectly from the transatlantic slave trade and the labor of enslaved people. The report also included seven recommendations for how
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#1732772274814924-811: Is in the College Hill neighborhood of Providence. The university is surrounded by a federally listed architectural district with a concentration of Colonial-era buildings. Benefit Street has one of America's richest concentrations of 17th- and 18th-century architecture. Undergraduate admissions are among the most selective in the country, with an acceptance rate of 5% for the class of 2026. As of March 2022 , 11 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with Brown as alumni , faculty, or researchers , one Fields Medalist , seven National Humanities Medalists , and 11 National Medal of Science laureates. Alumni include 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 21 billionaires, four U.S. Secretaries of State , over 100 members of
1001-459: Is noted as the first African American president of an Ivy League institution. Other presidents of note include academic, Vartan Gregorian ; and philosopher and economist, Francis Wayland . In 1966, the first Group Independent Study Project (GISP) at Brown was formed, involving 80 students and 15 professors. The GISP was inspired by student-initiated experimental schools, especially San Francisco State College , and sought ways to "put students at
1078-629: Is noted as the founder and commander of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment , widely regarded as the first Black battalion in U.S. military history. David Howell , who graduated with an A.M. in 1769, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1785. Nineteen individuals have served as presidents of the university since its founding in 1764. Since 2012, Christina Hull Paxson has served as president. Paxson had previously served as dean of Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs and chair of Princeton's economics department. Paxson's immediate predecessor, Ruth Simmons ,
1155-459: Is said to cancel the hex. The John Hay Library is the second oldest library on campus. Opened in 1910, the library is named for John Hay (class of 1858), private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt . The construction of the building was funded in large part by Hay's friend, Andrew Carnegie , who contributed half of the $ 300,000 cost of construction. The John Hay Library serves as
1232-453: Is to inspire creative and critical thinking about culture by fostering an interdisciplinary understanding of the material world. It provides opportunities for faculty and students to work with collections and the public, teaching through objects and programs in classrooms and exhibitions. The museum sponsors lectures and events in all areas of anthropology and also runs an extensive program of outreach to local schools. The Annmary Brown Memorial
1309-857: The College , the Graduate School , Alpert Medical School , the School of Engineering , the School of Public Health and the School of Professional Studies. Its international programs are organized through the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs , and it is academically affiliated with the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Rhode Island School of Design , which offers undergraduate and graduate dual degree programs . Brown's main campus
1386-614: The Congress of the Confederation , while concurrently serving as Brown's first president. Two of Brown's founders, William Ellery and Stephen Hopkins signed the Declaration of Independence . James Mitchell Varnum , who graduated from Brown with honors in 1769, served as one of General George Washington's Continental Army brigadier generals and later as major general in command of the entire Rhode Island militia . Varnum
1463-760: The East Side neighborhood of College Hill. The university's central campus sits on a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) block bounded by Waterman, Prospect, George, and Thayer Streets ; newer buildings extend northward, eastward, and southward. Brown's core, historic campus, constructed primary between 1770 and 1926, is defined by three greens: the Front or Quiet Green, the Middle or College Green, and the Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle (historically known as Lincoln Field). A brick and wrought-iron fence punctuated by decorative gates and arches traces
1540-524: The General Assembly of the State of Connecticut in 1783. He stated that "a monarchy conducted with infinite wisdom and infinite benevolence is the most perfect of all possible governments." In 1778, Stiles was appointed president of Yale, a post he held until his death. He freed Newport on June 9, 1778, as he prepared to move to New Haven ; he would in 1782 hire his former slave for $ 20 a year and
1617-629: The United States Congress , 58 Rhodes Scholars , 22 MacArthur Genius Fellows, and 38 Olympic medalists. In 1761, three residents of Newport, Rhode Island , drafted a petition to the colony's General Assembly : That your Petitioners propose to open a literary institution or School for instructing young Gentlemen in the Languages, Mathematics, Geography & History, & such other branches of Knowledge as shall be desired. That for this End... it will be necessary... to erect
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#17327722748141694-556: The Brown campus by 10 acres (40,000 m ) and 26 buildings. In 1971, Brown renamed the area East Campus. Today, the area is largely used for dormitories. Thayer Street runs through Brown's main campus. As a commercial corridor frequented by students, Thayer is comparable to Harvard Square or Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue . Wickenden Street , in the adjacent Fox Point neighborhood, is another commercial street similarly popular among students. Built in 1925, Brown Stadium —the home of
1771-604: The Charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Rhode Island General Assembly on March 3, 1764, in East Greenwich . In drafting the document, Stiles combined broad-minded public statements defining Rhode Island College as a "liberal and catholic institution" in which "shall never be admitted a religious test" with private partisanship: his draft charter packed the board of trustees and
1848-555: The College Board of Fellows. A revised charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Rhode Island General Assembly on March 3, 1764, in East Greenwich . In September 1764, the inaugural meeting of the corporation—the college's governing body—was held in Newport's Old Colony House . Governor Stephen Hopkins was chosen chancellor, former and future governor Samuel Ward vice chancellor, John Tillinghast treasurer, and Thomas Eyres secretary. The charter stipulated that
1925-555: The College of Brown University, Pembroke's campus was absorbed into the larger Brown campus. The Pembroke campus is bordered by Meeting, Brown, Bowen, and Thayer Streets and sits three blocks north of Brown's central campus. The campus is dominated by brick architecture, largely of the Georgian and Victorian styles . The west side of the quadrangle comprises Pembroke Hall (1897), Smith-Buonanno Hall (1907), and Metcalf Hall (1919), while
2002-545: The English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations . One of nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution , it was the first US college to codify that admission and instruction of students was to be equal regardless of the religious affiliation of students. The university is home to the oldest applied mathematics program in the country and oldest engineering program in
2079-564: The First Church of New Haven, answered a letter from Stiles: The week before last I sent you the Copy of Yale College Charter ... Should you make any Progress in the Affair of a Colledge, I should be glad to hear of it; I heartily wish you Success therein. Stiles agreed to write the Charter for the college, submitting a first draft to the General Assembly in August 1763. A revised version of
2156-469: The Ivy League. It was one of the early doctoral-granting institutions in the U.S., adding masters and doctoral studies in 1887. In 1969, it adopted its Open Curriculum after student lobbying, which eliminated mandatory general education distribution requirements. In 1971, Brown's coordinate women's institution, Pembroke College , was fully merged into the university. The university comprises
2233-744: The John Carter Brown Library is generally regarded as the world's leading collection of primary historical sources relating to the exploration and colonization of the Americas. While administered and funded separately from the university, the library has been owned by Brown and located on its campus since 1904. The library contains the best preserved of the eleven surviving copies of the Bay Psalm Book —the earliest extant book printed in British North America and
2310-623: The Lownes Collection of the History of Science (described as "one of the three most important private collections of books of science in America"), and the papers of H. P. Lovecraft . The Hay Library is home to one of the broadest collections of incunabula in the Americas, one of Brown's two Shakespeare First Folios , the manuscript of George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four , and three books bound in human skin . Founded in 1846,
2387-675: The Native Americans of New England. In 1761, he visited a Native American village in Niantic, Connecticut , where he recorded notes on the traditional construction methods of wigwams . Stiles additionally documented information on the languages and petroglyphs of New England's native peoples. According to archaeologist Edward J. Lenik, Stiles "produced one of the most important early records of petroglyphs and American Indian life in New England." Stiles left Newport in 1776 prior to
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2464-677: The Pembroke Campus at its northern end. The walk is bordered by departmental buildings as well as the Lindemann Performing Arts Center and Granoff Center for the Creative Arts The corridor is home to public art including sculptures by Maya Lin and Tom Friedman . The Women's College in Brown University , known as Pembroke College, was founded in October 1891. Upon its 1971 merger with
2541-528: The Pembroke Campus, which houses both dormitories and academic buildings. Facing the western edge of the central campus sit two of the Brown's seven libraries, the John Hay Library and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library . The university's campus is contiguous with that of the Rhode Island School of Design , which is located immediately to Brown's west, along the slope of College Hill. Built in 1901,
2618-484: The Public and Classical Instruction." The document additionally "recognized more broadly and fundamentally than any other [university charter] the principle of denominational cooperation." The oft-repeated statement that Brown's charter alone prohibited a religious test for College membership is inaccurate; other college charters were similarly liberal in that particular. The college was founded as Rhode Island College, at
2695-709: The United States and the Biblical nation of Israel . Stiles refers to the US as an "American Israel, high above all nations which He hath made, in numbers, and in praise, and in name, and in honor", suggesting that the White Americans are like the Chosen People of Israel. He opined that "in God’s good providence" Indians and Africans "may gradually vanish", thus ensuring that "an unrighteous SLAVERY may at length, in God’s good providence, be abolished and cease in
2772-534: The Van Wickle Gates are a set of wrought iron gates that stand at the western edge of Brown's campus. The larger main gate is flanked by two smaller side gates. At Convocation the central gate opens inward to admit the procession of new students; at Commencement, the gate opens outward for the procession of graduates. A Brown superstition holds that students who walk through the central gate a second time prematurely will not graduate, although walking backward
2849-601: The arrival of British troops their subsequent occupation of the city. In 1776 and 1777, Stiles served briefly as minister of the Dighton Community Church in Dighton, Massachusetts . In 1777, Stiles became pastor of North Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire . As pastor, he defended the monarchy as the best form of government in his sermon, entitled The United States elevated to Glory and Honor , to
2926-469: The block's perimeter. This section of campus is primarily Georgian and Richardsonian Romanesque in its architectural character. To the south of the central campus are academic buildings and residential quadrangles, including Wriston, Keeney, and Gregorian quadrangles. Immediately to the east of the campus core sit Sciences Park and Brown's School of Engineering . North of the central campus are performing and visual arts facilities, life sciences labs, and
3003-505: The board of trustees should be composed of 22 Baptists, five Quakers , five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. Of the 12 Fellows, eight should be Baptists—including the college president—"and the rest indifferently of any or all Denominations." At the time of its creation, Brown's charter was a uniquely progressive document. Other colleges had curricular strictures against opposing doctrines, while Brown's charter asserted, "Sectarian differences of opinions, shall not make any Part of
3080-598: The center of their education" and "teach students how to think rather than just teaching facts". Members of the GISP, Ira Magaziner and Elliot Maxwell published a paper of their findings titled, "Draft of a Working Paper for Education at Brown University." The paper made proposals for a new curriculum, including interdisciplinary freshman-year courses that would introduce "modes of thought," with instruction from faculty from different disciplines as well as for an end to letter grades. The following year Magaziner began organizing
3157-736: The clouds atop a red and white torse . Brown is the largest institutional landowner in Providence, with properties on College Hill and in the Jewelry District . The university was built contemporaneously with the eighteenth and nineteenth-century precincts surrounding it, making Brown's campus tightly integrated into Providence's urban fabric. Among the noted architects who have shaped Brown's campus are McKim, Mead & White , Philip Johnson , Rafael Viñoly , Diller Scofidio + Renfro , and Robert A. M. Stern . Brown's main campus, comprises 235 buildings and 143 acres (0.58 km ) in
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3234-542: The college moved from Warren to Providence. To establish a campus, John and Moses Brown purchased a four-acre lot on the crest of College Hill on behalf of the school. The majority of the property fell within the bounds of the original home lot of Chad Brown , an ancestor of the Browns and one of the original proprietors of Providence Plantations . After the college was relocated to the city, work began on constructing its first building. A building committee, organized by
3311-419: The college to Providence, constructing its first building, and securing its endowment. Joseph became a professor of natural philosophy at the college; John served as its treasurer from 1775 to 1796; and Nicholas Sr's son Nicholas Brown Jr. succeeded his uncle as treasurer from 1796 to 1825. On September 8, 1803, the corporation voted, "That the donation of $ 5,000, if made to this College within one Year from
3388-400: The college's charter two years later. The editor of Stiles's papers observes, "This draft of a petition connects itself with other evidence of Dr. Stiles's project for a Collegiate Institution in Rhode Island, before the charter of what became Brown University." The Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches was also interested in establishing a college in Rhode Island, which was home of
3465-416: The college's freshman class. At Yale, he studied a liberal arts curriculum characterized by an uncertain period of transition between moribund Puritan thought and that of newer thinkers like John Locke and Isaac Newton . Stiles also studied works by Thomas Farnaby , Isaac Watts , and John Ward . According to biographer Edmund Morgan , the young Stiles read "a strange conglomeration of the first-rate and
3542-545: The corporation on the same day voted, "That this College be called and known in all future time by the Name of Brown University." Over the years, the benefactions of Nicholas Brown Jr., totaled nearly $ 160,000 and included funds for building Hope College (1821–22) and Manning Hall (1834–35). In 1904, the John Carter Brown Library was established as an independently funded research library on Brown's campus;
3619-580: The corporation, developed plans for the college's first purpose-built edifice, finalizing a design on February 9, 1770. The subsequent structure, referred to as "The College Edifice" and later as University Hall , may have been modeled on Nassau Hall , built 14 years prior at the College of New Jersey . President Manning, an active member of the building process, was educated at Princeton and might have suggested that Brown's first building resemble that of his alma mater . Nicholas Brown , John Brown , Joseph Brown , and Moses Brown were instrumental in moving
3696-403: The east side comprises Alumnae Hall (1927) and Miller Hall (1910). The quadrangle culminates on the north with Andrews Hall (1947). East Campus, centered on Hope and Charlesfield streets, originally served as the campus of Bryant University . In 1969, as Bryant was preparing to relocate to Smithfield, Rhode Island , Brown purchased their Providence campus for $ 5 million. The transaction expanded
3773-485: The fellows of the college with his fellow Congregationalists. Baptist members of the Rhode Island General Assembly, to Stiles' dismay, amended the charter to allow Baptists control of both branches of the College's Corporation. Stiles declined a seat on the College's Corporation, writing that Baptists had seized "the whole Power and Government of the College and thus by the Immutability of the numbers establishing it
3850-589: The frontiers of knowledge" and his observations "disclosed nothing new". He was more a learner and teacher than an experimenter. Nevertheless, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781. His book The United States elevated to Glory and Honor was printed in 1783. The book is a transcript of a sermon given to the Connecticut General Assembly , on May 8, 1783. The sermon draws parallels between
3927-537: The indenturing of Newport's two-year-old son until age 24. As president of Yale, Stiles became its first professor of Semitics , and required all students to study Hebrew (as Harvard students already did); his first commencement address in September 1781 (no ceremonies having been held during the American Revolutionary War ) was delivered in Hebrew, Aramaic , and Arabic . By 1790, however, he
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#17327722748144004-516: The land of LIBERTY." Stiles died in New Haven in 1795, while serving as president. It is false that Stiles is responsible for the addition of the Hebrew words "Urim" and "Thummim" ( Hebrew : אורים ותמים ) to the Yale seal. Indeed, the Hebrew on the Yale seal appears on Stiles' own master's degree diploma from Yale in 1749, decades before he became president of Yale College. In 1961, Yale named
4081-402: The late Commencement, shall entitle the donor to name the College." The following year, the appeal was answered by College Treasurer Nicholas Brown Jr. In a letter dated September 6, 1804, Brown committed "a donation of Five Thousand Dollars to Rhode Island College, to remain in perpetuity as a fund for the establishment of a Professorship of Oratory and Belles Letters." In recognition of the gift,
4158-421: The library's collection was founded on that of John Carter Brown , son of Nicholas Brown Jr. The Brown family was involved in various business ventures in Rhode Island, and accrued wealth both directly and indirectly from the transatlantic slave trade . The family was divided on the issue of slavery. John Brown had defended slavery, while Moses and Nicholas Brown Jr. were fervent abolitionists . In 2003, under
4235-412: The merchants and sea captains of his congregation; in 1756, he sent a hogshead of rum along on a voyage to Africa and was repaid with a 10-year-old male slave, whom he renamed "Newport". Around the same time, he wrote a joint letter with fellow Newport minister Samuel Hopkins condemning "the great inhumanity and cruelty" of slavery in the United States . During his residence in Newport, Stiles played
4312-486: The most expensive printed book in the world. Other holdings include a Shakespeare First Folio and the world's largest collection of 16th-century Mexican texts. The exhibition galleries of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown's teaching museum, are located in Manning Hall on the campus's main green. Its one million artifacts, available for research and educational purposes, are located at its Collections Research Center in Bristol, Rhode Island . The museum's goal
4389-476: The mother church of their denomination . At the time, the Baptists were unrepresented among the colonial colleges; the Congregationalists had Harvard University and Yale University, the Presbyterians had the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University , and the Episcopalians had the College of William & Mary and King's College, which later became Columbia University . The local University of Pennsylvania in their native Philadelphia
4466-467: The politics of the Holy Land . Stiles improved his rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew , to the point where he and Carigal corresponded by mail in the language. Stiles' knowledge of Hebrew also enabled him to translate large portions of the Hebrew Old Testament into English. Stiles believed, as did many Christian scholars of the time, that facility with the text in its original language was advantageous for proper interpretation. Stiles conducted research on
4543-454: The repository of the university's archives, rare books and manuscripts, and special collections. Noteworthy among the latter are the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection (described as "the foremost American collection of material devoted to the history and iconography of soldiers and soldiering"), the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays (described as "the largest and most comprehensive collection of its kind in any research library"),
4620-458: The school's football team—is located approximately a mile and a half northeast of the university's central campus. Marston Boathouse, the home of Brown's crew teams, lies on the Seekonk River , to the southeast of campus. Brown's sailing teams are based out of the Ted Turner Sailing Pavilion at the Edgewood Yacht Club in adjacent Cranston . Ezra Stiles Ezra Stiles (10 December [ O.S. 29 November] 1727 – May 12, 1795)
4697-454: The site of the First Baptist Church in Warren, Rhode Island . Manning was sworn in as the college's first president in 1765 and remained in the role until 1791. In 1766, the college authorized the Reverend Morgan Edwards to travel to Europe to "solicit Benefactions for this Institution". During his year-and-a-half stay in the British Isles , Edwards secured funding from benefactors including Thomas Penn and Benjamin Franklin . In 1770,
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#17327722748144774-488: The student body to press for the reforms, organizing discussions and protests. In 1968, university president Ray Heffner established a Special Committee on Curricular Philosophy. Composed of administrators, the committee was tasked with developing specific reforms and producing recommendations. A report, produced by the committee, was presented to the faculty, which voted the New Curriculum into existence on May 7, 1969. Its key features included: The Modes of Thought course
4851-401: The tenure of President Ruth Simmons , the university established a steering committee to investigate these ties of the university to slavery and recommend a strategy to address them. With British vessels patrolling Narragansett Bay in the fall of 1776, the college library was moved out of Providence for safekeeping. During the subsequent American Revolutionary War , Brown's University Hall
4928-401: The third-rate" authors. He graduated in 1746. Stiles was conferred a perfunctory Master of Arts degree from Yale and became ordained in 1749 after further studies in theology. From 1749 to 1755, Stiles worked as a tutor at Yale. During this period, he drifted away from Calvinism and preached to Native Americans in Stockbridge, Massachusetts . In a 1762 letter, Samuel Johnson notes that
5005-526: The university should address this legacy. Brown has since completed a number of these recommendations including the establishment of its Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, the construction of its Slavery Memorial , and the funding of a $ 10 million permanent endowment for Providence Public Schools . The Slavery and Justice report marked the first major effort by an American university to address its ties to slavery and prompted other institutions to undertake similar processes. Brown's coat of arms
5082-444: The young Stiles at one point nearly became an Anglican , writing that he "was once on the point of conforming to the Church, but was dissuaded by his friends, and is become much of a Latitudinarian ." In 1753 Stiles resigned from his position as a tutor to pursue a career in law and practice at New Haven . Stiles qualified for the New Haven bar by November 13, 1753, after reading law . After two years, he returned to his service as
5159-832: Was an American educator, academic, Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He is noted as the seventh president of Yale College (1778–1795) and one of the founders of Brown University . According to religious historian Timothy L. Hall, Stiles' tenure at Yale distinguishes him as "one of the first great American college presidents." Ezra Stiles was born on 10 December [ O.S. 29 November] 1727 in North Haven , Connecticut, to Rev. Isaac Stiles and Kezia Taylor Stiles (1702–1727). His maternal grandfather, Edward Taylor had emigrated to Colonial America from Leicestershire, England , in 1668. Kezia Taylor Stiles died four days after giving birth to Ezra. Stiles received his early education at home and matriculated at Yale College in September 1742, as one of 13 members of
5236-676: Was an amateur scientist who corresponded with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin about scientific discoveries. Using equipment donated to the college by Franklin, Stiles conducted the electrical experiments in New England , continuing a practice first begun by his predecessor, President Thomas Clap . He charged a glass tube with static electricity and used it to "excite the wonder and admiration of an audience". He shocked 52 people at once, fired spirits of wine and rum, and caused counterfeit spiders to move about as if they were alive. These were all experiments that had been performed before, and "Stiles seems to have had little genius for pushing back
5313-651: Was constructed for Stiles on Clark Street, across from the meeting house of his congregation. Since 1972, the residence has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places . In September of the same year, Stiles was made Librarian of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum , a position that allowed him access to books at his discretion. During his years in Newport, Stiles kept an informative diary of his life and acquaintances, which detailed—among other things—his association with Portuguese merchant Aaron Lopez . In 1757, Stiles married Elizabeth Hubbard, with whom he had eight children. From time to time, Stiles invested with
5390-531: Was constructed from 1903 to 1907 by the politician, Civil War veteran, and book collector General Rush Hawkins , as a mausoleum for his wife, Annmary Brown, a member of the Brown family. In addition to its crypt—the final repository for Brown and Hawkins—the Memorial includes works of art from Hawkins's private collection, including paintings by Angelica Kauffman , Peter Paul Rubens , Gilbert Stuart , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , Benjamin West , and Eastman Johnson , among others. His collection of over 450 incunabula
5467-422: Was created in 1834. The prior year, president Francis Wayland had commissioned a committee to update the school's original seal to match the name the university had adopted in 1804. Central in the coat of arms is a white escutcheon divided into four sectors by a red cross. Within each sector of the coat of arms lies an open book. Above the shield is a crest consisting of the upper half of a sun in splendor among
5544-567: Was discontinued early on, but the other elements remain in place. In 2006, the reintroduction of plus/minus grading was proposed in response to concerns regarding grade inflation. The idea was rejected by the College Curriculum Council after canvassing alumni, faculty, and students, including the original authors of the Magaziner-Maxwell Report. In 2003, then-university president Ruth Simmons launched
5621-693: Was educated first at Yale College, then at Harvard College , where he studied law, graduating in 1778. Ezra Stiles Jr., subsequently settled in Vermont , and served to establish the boundaries between Vermont and New Hampshire . He died prematurely at Chowan County, North Carolina , on August 22, 1784, and his two daughters by his wife Sylvia (Avery) Stiles of Vermont (and formerly of Norwich, Connecticut ) had their uncle Jonathan Leavitt appointed their guardian. Stiles' daughter Emilia married Judge and State Senator Jonathan Leavitt of Greenfield , Massachusetts. His daughter Mary married, in 1790, Abiel Holmes ,
5698-610: Was forced to face failure in instilling an interest in the language in the student body, writing From my first accession to the Presidency ... I have obliged all the Freshmen to study Hebrew. This has proved very disagreeable to a Number of the Students. This year I have determined to instruct only those who offer themselves voluntarily. The valedictorians of 1785 and 1792, however, did deliver their speeches in Hebrew. Stiles
5775-536: Was founded by Benjamin Franklin without direct association with any particular denomination. Isaac Backus, a historian of the New England Baptists and an inaugural trustee of Brown, wrote of the October 1762 resolution taken at Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Association obtained such an acquaintance with our affairs, as to bring them to an apprehension that it was practicable and expedient to erect
5852-596: Was relocated to the John Hay Library in 1990. Today the Memorial is home to Brown's Medieval Studies and Renaissance Studies programs. The Walk, a landscaped pedestrian corridor, connects the Pembroke Campus to the main campus. It runs parallel to Thayer Street and serves as a primary axis of campus, extending from Ruth Simmons Quadrangle at its southern terminus to the Meeting Street entrance to
5929-692: Was used to house French and other revolutionary troops led by General George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau as they waited to commence the march of 1781 that led to the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake . This has been celebrated as marking the defeat of the British and the end of the war. The building functioned as barracks and hospital from December 10, 1776, to April 20, 1780, and as
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