BROADSIDE: Order of Exercises. For Commencement. Washington College. IV August, MDCCCXXXVI.

Item Details

[TRINITY COLLEGE / WASHINGTON COLLEGE.]
Order of Exercises. For Commencement. Washington College. IV August, MDCCCXXXVI.
[Hartford, Conn.?]: [Washington College?], 1836.

Broadside / program, single sheet, printed recto only. Approx. 10 x 8 inches.  Order of exercises for the August 4, 1836 commencement of Washington College, Hartford, Connecticut, the institution now known as Trinity College. The program lists the organ voluntary, morning prayer, music, degrees conferred, and ten student orations, including topics such as “National Improvement,” “Moral Education necessary to the perpetuity of Popular Institutions,” “The Present state of the Arts and Sciences in France and England,” and “The Heroic and Christian Character.” Two speakers are marked with an asterisk and noted as “Excused from Speaking.”

A very early printed survival from Washington College, founded in 1823 and renamed Trinity College in 1845. Trinity’s own history identifies Washington College as Connecticut’s second college, after Yale, and notes the 1845 name change.  

Condition: Old folds and creases, light staining and toning, some edge wear; later manuscript notations in upper margin.

A scarce early Hartford college commencement broadside from the Washington College period, predating the adoption of the Trinity College name by nearly a decade.