In April 1776, the Committee on Safety ordered the King’s College governors (or Trustees) to close the College in 6 days so they could turn the building into a hospital. While the library and the academic equipment were packed up and stored in City Hall, classes did continue to meet. The students were allowed to […]
Tag: King’s College
Lost and Found: The King’s College Seal
The Columbia University seal is based on a design by the first president of King’s College, Samuel Johnson. In fact, the main difference between the original and the current seal is the name of the institution. Did you know that the original engraving of the seal was lost for over 120 years? […]
1776: First Fallen Alumnus
Columbia’s colonial times predecessor, King’s College, educated many of the men who helped create the new nation such as Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Robert Livingston and Gouverneur Morris. But King’s College was also the one-time-home for some who died during the conflict. Harman Rutgers was the first King’s College alumnus to fall during the Revolutionary […]
New Acquisition | A King’s College Diploma from 1775
Last summer we held a small exhibition focused on the diplomas awarded by King’s College, as Columbia was known before the Revolutionary War. The tradition of handing out diplomas at Commencement was started by King’s College’s second president, Myles Cooper, in 1763. We had in our holdings examples from 1763 to 1774. So what happened […]
First Commencement
The current exhibition of King’s College Diplomas in RBML’s Chang Octagon features reproductions of diplomas awarded by what we now know as Columbia from 1763 to 1773. King’s College’s first President Samuel Johnson did not award diplomas at Commencement. His ceremonies included a more intimate ritual between the President, the graduate, and Johnson’s own Hebrew […]