When Foucault performed his famous pendulum experiment in Paris in 1851 to prove the rotation of the earth, there was skepticism in Rhode Island and letters to the editor of the "Providence Journal," expressing disbelief.Astronomy
The traditional day for Commencement was the first Wednesday in September, but was changed in 1851 and 1852 to the second Wednesday in July, a change which proved unpopular enough for the date to be returned to September in 1853.Commencement
Jeremiah Lewis Diman graduated from Brown University in 1851 and went on to study theology and philosophy, first with a clergyman in Newport, then at Andover Theological Seminary, and later in Germany.Diman, Jeremiah Lewis
Robinson P. Dunn went to Princeton in December of 1845, graduated in 1848, was ordained a Presbyterian clergyman and was paster of the First Church in Camden, New Jersey, from 1848 to 1851.Dunn, Robinson P.
Education as a subject of study began in 1851 with the appointment of Samuel Stillman Greene to the new chair of Didactics which had been created as part of President Wayland’s New System and described in the Laws of 1850-51: In 1851 Greene also became superintendent of schools in Providence.Education
Among the early engineering graduates were Alexander Lyman Holley 1851, who made substantial improvements in the Bessemer steel-making process, and Robert H. Thurston 1859, pioneer in engineering education at Stevens Institute of Technology and Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell and first president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.Engineering
In 1851 there were 225 students, including 55 in the select course and three resident graduates.Enrollment
"Old Citizen," writing in the "Providence Journal" on July 2, 1851, recalled the festivities on the day after Commencement: In 1831Tristam Burges1796, resigning after many years as president of the Federal Adelphi, delivered an eloquent address.Federal Adelphi
The fraternity was dormant until April 1851 when it acquired the membership of Beta Theta Pi.Fraternities
In 1851 the Brown chapter and the Williams chapter, the only eastern chapters of Beta Theta Pi, withdrew from the national fraternity and became chapters of Alpha Delta Phi.Fraternities
In 1850-51 and 1851-52 courses in Italian and Spanish were offered.Greene, George W.
Reuben A. Guild was the historian of Brown University, keeping scrapbooks of clippings about the University beginning in 1851, and publishing "The Life, Times and Correspondence of James Manning, and the Early History of Brown University" in 1864, "History of Brown University with Illustrative Documents" in 1867, and "The Early History of Brown University" in 1897.Guild, Reuben A.
Albert 1842 Harkness taught Greek at Brown, but maintained his early devotion to Latin and published fourteen Latin textbooks between 1851 and 1905.Harkness, Albert 1842
The Hay boys studied at the private school of the Reverend Stephen Childs, an Episcopal clergyman, and in 1851 John went to an academy at Pittsfield in Pike County, where he met an older student, John G. Nicolay, who would influence his later career.Hay, John
In 1851 the Institution published "Notices of Public Libraries in the United States of America," and Jewett began plans for a compilation of a union catalogue of American libraries and for a method of stereotyped plates (an anticipation of Library of Congress printed cards) for individual titles, from which catalogues of various libraries could be printed.Jewett, Charles C.
In 1848 the building, which was old-fashioned and poorly ventilated, was replaced by a new school house designed by Thomas A. Tefft 1851 (who was then a freshman at Brown), built at the same location.Kingsbury, John
A petition to President Wayland in 1851 asking permission to hold meetings in the evening was denied, but was later granted by President Sears.Philermenian Society
In 1851 the literary societies petitioned that they be allowed to meet in the evening, under the impression that "Such petitions expressing the united sentiments of a whole community cannot be disregarded."Student protests
Three faculty members resigned, and during what Walter C. Bronson describes in his "History of Brown University" as the "so-called rebellion of 1851," the students used "the abusive epithets towards the President and Faculty."Student protests
In 1850 the "New System," which introduced the Ph.B. degree obtainable in three years without the study of ancient languages, enabled Tefft to graduate in 1851, the first to earn that degree.Tefft, Thomas A.
Levi Wheaton (1761-1851), professor of the theory and practice of medicine, was born in Providence on February 6, 1761.Wheaton, Levi
Levi Wheaton continued to have private medical students in his practice, and he also continued to be a member of the Board of Trustees of Brown until his death on August 29, 1851.Wheaton, Levi
The buildings were named for two Brown presidents and seven alumni, among them two Secretaries of State, three professors, a public health superintendent, and the man who led the Housing and Development campaign to finance the Quadrangle: Marcy House for William Learned Marcy 1808, Governor of New York, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State, Olney House for Richard Olney1856, Attorney General and Secretary of State, Goddard House for William Giles Goddard1812, newspaper editor and professor of moral philosophy and belles-lettres, Diman House for Jeremiah Lewis Diman 1851, professor of history and political economy, Sears House for Barnas Sears1825, president from 1855 to 1867, Wayland House for Francis Wayland, president from 1827 to 1855, Chapin House for Charles V. Chapin1876, professor of physiology, and superintendent of health in Providence, Harkness House for Albert Harkness1842, professor of Greek, and Buxton House for G. Edward Buxton ’02, chairman of the Housing and Development Campaign which built the Quadrangle.Wriston Quadrangle