Rhode Island School of Design

Rhode Island School of Design entered into cooperation with Brown in 1902, when three courses at the school were opened to Brown students and counted as qualifications for a degree. School of Design students were admitted to any class at Brown for which they were prepared, and Professor William Carey Poland gave a special course in the history of art for them. The School of Design had been founded in 1877 by a group of women, including Miss Sarah Doyle, with $1,675 left over from the funds of the Women’s Centennial Commission of Rhode Island. The coeducational institution for students in art and design fulfilled, at least in part, a wish expressed by Ezekiel Gilman Robinson in 1873 that a scientific school should be established in Rhode Island for instruction in drawing, civil engineering, architecture, and fine arts. Robinson had hoped that the school would be connected to Brown University. William Carey Poland was president of the school from 1896 to 1907. Brown students are still entitled to received credit for courses taken at the School of Design.