Bowdoin College

Founding and 19th century Bowdoin College, c. 1845 (Lithograph by Fitz Hugh Lane ) Bowdoin College was chartered in 1794 by the Massachusetts State Legislature and was later redirected under the jurisdiction of the Maine Legislature . [ 11 ] It was named for former Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin , whose son James Bowdoin III was an early benefactor. [ 12 ] Bowdoin began to develop in the 1820s, a decade in which Maine became an independent state as a result of the Missouri Compromise . The college graduated future U.S. President Franklin Pierce and two literary figures, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , both of whom graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1825. Pierce and Hawthorne began an official militia company called the 'Bowdoin Cadets'. [ 13 ] The Phi Beta Kappa Society was active at Bowdoin before the Civil War and featured anti-slavery speakers. [ 14 ] Bowdoin included the Medical School of Maine from 1821 to 1921 From its founding, Bowdoin was known to educate the sons of the political elite and "catered very largely to the wealthy conservative from the state of Maine". [ 15 ] During the first half of the 19th century, Bowdoin required of its students a certificate of "good moral character" as well as knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek , geography, algebra, and the major works of Cicero , Xenophon , Virgil and Homer . [ 16 ] Harriet Beecher Stowe started writing her influential anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin , in Brunswick while her husband was teaching at the college. Brigadier General (and Brevet Major General ) Joshua Chamberlain , a Bowdoin alumnus and professor, was present at the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865. Chamberlain, a Medal of Honor recipient who later served as governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin, fought at Gettysburg , where he commanded the 20th Maine in defense of Little Round Top .

Other notable Civil War-era alumni include Major General Oliver Otis Howard , class of 1850, who led the Freedmen's Bureau and later founded Howard University ; Massachusetts Governor John Andrew , class of 1837, who was responsible for forming the 54th Massachusetts ; and William P. Fessenden (1823) and Hugh McCulloch (1827), both of whom served as Secretary of the Treasury during the Lincoln Administration . With strained relations over slavery between political parties, President Franklin Pierce appointed Jefferson Davis as his Secretary of War , and the college awarded the future President of the Confederacy an honorary degree. The Jefferson Davis Award was established in 1972 following a donation from the United Daughters of the Confederacy and was given to students excelling in legal studies. [ 17 ] The award was discontinued in 2015, with the college president citing it as inappropriate because it honored someone "whose mission was to preserve and institutionalize slavery". [ 18 ]

Although Bowdoin's Medical School of Maine closed in 1921, [ 19 ] it produced notable graduates including Augustus Stinchfield , who received his M.D. in 1868 and became one of the co-founders of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota . In 1877, the college graduated Charles Morse , the American banker who established a near-monopoly of the ice business in New York, which contributed to the financial Panic of 1907 . [ 20 ] The college educated and graduated Arctic explorers Robert E. Peary , class of 1877, and Donald B. MacMillan , class of 1898. Peary named Bowdoin Fjord and Bowdoin Glacier after his alma mater. [ 21 ] Peary led what he claimed was the first successful expedition to reach the North Pole in April 1909, [ 22 ] and MacMillan, a member of Peary's crew, explored Greenland , Baffin Island , and Labrador in the schooner Bowdoin between 1908 and 1954. Wallace H. White, Jr. , class of 1899, served as Senate Minority Leader from 1944 to 1947 and Senate Majority Leader from 1947 to 1949. George J. Mitchell , class of 1954, served as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995 before assuming an active role in the Northern Ireland peace process. [ 23 ] In 1970, the college became one of a very limited number of liberal arts colleges to make the SAT optional in the admissions process. In 1971, after nearly 180 years as a men's college, Bowdoin admitted its first class of women. Also in 1971, Bowdoin became a founding member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) and began competing in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium with Bates College and Colby College . The consortium became both an athletic rivalry and an academic exchange program. On February 28, 1997, Bowdoin's Board of Trustees approved a plan to phase out fraternities on campus, [ 24 ] replacing them with a system of college-owned social houses. [ 25 ]

View of the campus from Coles Tower On January 18, 2008, Bowdoin announced that it would eliminate loans for all students receiving financial aid, replacing those loans with grants beginning with the 2008–2009 academic year. [ 26 ] President Barry Mills stated, "Some see a calling in such vital but often low-paying fields such as teaching or social work. With significant debt at graduation, some students will undoubtedly be forced to make career or education choices not based on their talents, interests, and promise in a particular field but rather on their capacity to repay student loans. As an institution devoted to the common good, Bowdoin must consider the fairness of such a result." [ 26 ] In February 2009, following a $10 million donation by Subway co-founder and alumnus Peter Buck , class of 1952, the college completed a $250 million capital campaign. The college also completed major construction projects on campus, including a renovation of the art museum and a new fitness center named after Peter Buck. [ 27 ] On July 1, 2015, Clayton Rose succeeded Mills as president. [ 28 ] Eight years later, on July 1, 2023, Safa Zaki succeeded Rose as the first woman to serve as president of the college. In February 2025, students occupied the Smith Union building to demand that the university divest from arms manufacturers, marking the first pro-Palestinian encampment during the second Trump administration . [ 29 ] The encampment followed Trump's comments on occupying Gaza and perceived inaction following an Israel divestment referendum passed by the student body a year prior. [ 30 ]