Brown: A Timeline | Brown 250

1600–1759

"...unto me in my distresse, called the place PROVIDENCE..."
Chad Brown Arrives in Rhode Island

The Reverend Chad Brown was the founding father of the Brown family in America. After emigrating from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he soon made his way to Providence. Here, he assumed the leadership of the First Baptist Church in...
Beginnings of Baptist Education in America

Established in 1756, Hopewell Academy in New Jersey was the first educational institution sponsored by the Baptists in the American colonies. The secondary school educated a number of men who would be instrumental to...

1760–1769

Baptists Decide to Found a College in New England

In late 1762, a group of Baptist leaders met in Philadelphia, among them Morgan Edwards, who made a motion for the establishment of a Baptist college in New England. Rhode Island, one of the few colonies without a college, and a growing...
College Charter Granted

The charter was approved by the Rhode Island legislature in the Spring of 1764. The new “Rhode Island College” was the third college in New England and only the seventh in America. In keeping with the spirit of religious freedom brought to...
“Whereas Institutions for liberal Education are highly beneficial to Society, by forming the rising Generation to Virtue Knowledge & useful Literature & thus preserving in the Community a Succession of Men duly qualify’d
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First Meeting of the Corporation, Newport

At the first meeting of the Corporation that would run the new college, members were sworn in and the business of fundraising rose to the fore. Among the organization’s members were Nicholas Brown, one of four Brown brothers and father of...
The First Student

The College’s first student was its only student. For the first year, 14-year-old William Rogers studied alone with James Manning in the parsonage of the Baptist Church in Warren. After graduating from the College in 1769, he went on to...
First Commencement Held in Warren

At the first commencement, held at the Baptist Church in Warren, seven students were awarded degrees. Initiating a tradition of commencement debates, students presented arguments on both sides of the statement: “The Americans, in their...

1770–1779

A Permanent Home in Providence

After years of competition among the communities of Rhode Island and strong advocacy by both the Brown family and city leaders, the decision was finally made to make the College’s permanent home in Providence. With a number of factors in...
Steps to Revolution

A significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution took place just miles from the College. The British customs schooner HMS Gaspee ran aground in Warwick. In one of the earliest acts of resistance to British rule,...

1790–1799

Visit by President George Washington

While the second day of the President’s visit was devoted to speeches and addresses, it was the evening of his arrival that was, perhaps, most memorable. After sailing from Newport, he landed in Providence to a greeting of “discharge of...

1800–1809

Enrollment Passes 100 Students

The number of students enrolled in the College grew steadily in the late 1700s, reaching 107, as listed in the first printed Catalogue of the Officers and Students, in 1800. The names of the students and their home states were...
Third President: Asa Messer

Asa Messer, Class of 1790, served in a variety of functions at the College including tutor, librarian and professor of both “learned languages” and “natural philosophy” before being named first president pro tempore and, finally, president...

1840–1849

Engineering Program Established

Established in 1847, Brown’s Engineering program was the first in the Ivy League and the third civilian engineering program in the country.

1860–1869

Brown Reacts to the Start of the Civil War

After the attack on Fort Sumter, students asked permission to raise the Stars and Stripes over University Hall. At the flag-raising ceremony...

1890–1899

1920–1929

Legendary Professor Does Not Give Lecture

Although the note on the University Hall bulletin board promised a lecture by one J. S. Carberry, the presentation did not take place. Josiah Stinkney Carberry, the immediately legendary “Professor of Psychoceramics” (cracked pots), would go...

1950–1959

Historic Preservation of College Hill

In 1959, the Providence City Plan Commission and Providence Preservation Society published a report, College Hill: A Demonstration Study of Historic Area Renewal, which served as a local and national model for preservation...

1960–1969

Return of Medical Education

In 1963, Brown initiated a six-year program leading to a Master of Medical Science degree. It had been 136 years since Brown’s short-lived foray into medical education in the 1820s. This time, the program would grow, with clinical training...

2000–2009

Plan for Academic Enrichment

In 2002, President Ruth Simmons launched an ambitious program of academic enrichment. Initiatives undertaken as a result of the Plan included: increasing the size of the faculty, providing resources to advance scholarship and teaching and...
Report of the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice

In 2003, President Ruth Simmons appointed a committee, which included faculty, undergraduate and graduate students and administrators, to investigate the University’s historical relationship to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade....

2010–2015

School of Engineering Established

With the oldest undergraduate engineering program in the Ivy League and third-oldest civilian engineering program in the country, in 2010, Brown transformed its Division of Engineering into the Brown School of Engineering. The new school...
School of Public Health Opened

In July 2013, the new Brown School of Public Health officially opened and began a two-year accreditation process. The transformation from the Public Health Program made the School of Public Health Brown’s third professional school, along...