The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Bowdoin College

BOWDOIN COLLEGE, located at Brunswick, Me. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the State, having been incorporated in 1794, while Maine was a part of Massachusetts. It was named for James Bowdoin, governor of Massachusetts, whose son gave largely to the college. It was not opened to students until 1802. It is non-sectarian in government and instruction. In addition to the college proper, the organization includes the Medical School of Maine, founded in 1820. The college confers the degree of A.B. and B.S. for the completion of the regular four years' course. The work is almost entirely elective after the freshman year. The campus consists of 40 acres, one mile from the Androscoggin River, about three miles inland from Casco Bay. The buildings include Massachusetts Hall (the original building), King Chapel, Memorial Hall, Mary Francis Searle Science Building, Walker Art Building, Hubbard Hall (the library), Adams Hall, Observatory, the Gymnasium, the Hyde Athletic Building, the Bowdoin Union and the Dudley Coe Memorial Infirmary. The library, in 1916, contained 113,418 volumes; the students numbered 457 and the faculty 89. A number of Bowdoin graduates have been distinguished in literary and public life; among them are Longfellow and Hawthorne, Thomas B. Reed and Melville Weston Fuller (chief justice).