Hampden–Sydney College (H–SC) is a private liberal arts college for men in Hampden Sydney, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1775, it is the oldest privately chartered college in the Southern United States, the tenth-oldest college in the US, the last college founded before the American Declaration of Independence, and the oldest of the four-year, all-male liberal arts colleges remaining in the United States. Hampden–Sydney College is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Hampden-Sydney academics are focused primarily on traditional liberal arts programs, and the college offers only bachelor's degrees. A participant in the U.S. Navy's V-12 Navy College Training Program during World War II, Hampden-Sydney established the Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest in 1996 in order to offer specialized training for students seeking military or public service careers, and offers a U.S. Army ROTC program through its partnership with the University of Richmond.
Hampden-Sydney alumni have included eight state governors (four of those in Virginia), educators and businessmen, and numerous judges, businessmen, lawyers, and legislators throughout the United States.
History
Founding and early years
The college's founder and first president, Samuel Stanhope Smith, was born in Pequea, Pennsylvania. He graduated as a valedictorian from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1769, and he went on to study theology and philosophy under John Witherspoon, whose daughter he married on June 28, 1775. In his mid-twenties, working as a missionary in Virginia, Smith persuaded the Hanover Presbytery to found a school east of the Blue Ridge, which he referred to in his advertisement of September 1, 1775, as "an Academy in Prince Edward... distinguished by the Name of HAMPDEN–SIDNEY".Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1 September 1775. The school, not then named, was always intended to be a college-level institution; later, in the same advertisement, Smith explicitly modeled its curriculum on that of the College of New Jersey. "Academy" was a technical term used for college-level schools not run by the established church.Brinkley, 5 and Appendix I, 847–50
As the college history indicates on its website, "The first president, at the suggestion of Dr. John Witherspoon, the Scottish president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), chose the name Hampden–Sydney to symbolize devotion to the principles of representative government and full civil and religious freedom which John Hampden (1594–1643) and Algernon Sydney (1622–1683) had outspokenly supported, and for which they had given their lives, in England's two great constitutional crises of the previous century. They were widely invoked as hero-martyrs by American colonial patriots, and their names immediately associated the College with the cause of independence championed by James Madison, Patrick Henry, and other less well-known but equally vigorous patriots who composed the College's first Board of Trustees."
Classes at Hampden–Sydney began in temporary wooden structures on November 10, 1775, on the eve of American Independence, moving into its three-story brick building early in 1776. The college has been in continuous operation since that date, operating under the British, Confederate, and United States flags. Classes have only been canceled seven times: for a Civil War skirmish on campus, for a hurricane that knocked a tree into a dormitory building, twice due to snowstorms, once for an outbreak of norovirus, briefly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and once for an ice storm in 2021 that left the campus without power. Since the college was founded before the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, it was eligible for an official coat of arms and armorial bearings from the College of Arms of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. Through gifts from the F. M. Kirby Foundation, Professor John Brinkley ('59), in whose honor the "achievement of arms" was given, liaised with Mr. John Brooke-Little, then the Richmond Herald, in designing the arms for the college. The Latin text of the "letters patent" conferring the arms is dated July 4, 1976; Mr. Brooke-Little—who, with the Queen's special permission, appeared in full herald's uniform—made the presentation on Yorktown Day, October 19, 1976, at the college.
Despite the problematic and financially strapped first years resulting from the Revolutionary War, the college survived with sufficient viability to be granted a charter by the Virginia General Assembly in 1783—the oldest private charter in the Southern United States. Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, encouraged the passage of the charter and wrote into it an oath of allegiance to the new republic required of all professors.
Alumni of Princeton University founded the college. Patrick Henry, who did not attend college, and James Madison, a Princeton alumnus, were elected trustees in the founding period before classes began. Smith hired his brother, John Blair Smith, and two other recent Princeton graduates to teach. Samuel Stanhope Smith would later become president of Princeton University. John Blair Smith would become the second president of Hampden–Sydney and later the first president of Union College.
19th century
Hampden–Sydney became a thriving college while located in southside Virginia, which led to expansion. In 1812, the Union Theological Seminary was founded at Hampden–Sydney College. The seminary was later moved to Richmond, Virginia and is currently the Union Presbyterian Seminary. In 1838, the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College was founded—the Medical College of Virginia, which is now the MCV Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. Among the early nineteenth-century leaders were John Holt Rice, who founded the seminary, Jonathan P. Cushing, and Reverend James Marsh. In those years, the intellectual culture at HSC spanned from leading southern, anti-slavery writers like Jesse Burton Harrison, John Holt Rice, and Lucian Minor to leading proslavery writers, such as George A. Baxter and Landon Garland.A.J. Morrison ed., Six Addresses on the State of Letters and Science in Virginia 3–4 (Roanoke, 1917) . During this time, the college constructed new buildings using Federal-style architecture with Georgian accents. This is the style of architecture still used on the campus.
At the onset of the American Civil War, Hampden–Sydney students formed a company in the Virginia Militia. The Hampden–Sydney students did not see much action but rather were "captured, and... paroled by General George B. McClellan on the condition that they return to their studies".
20th century
"Fame has come suddenly to Hampden–Sydney College," began a 1931 New York Times article titled, "Hampden-Sydney's High Scholastic Rank Achieved With Old-Fashioned Teaching." The article highlighted a study showing that of all U.S. colleges and universities, Hampden-Sydney had the highest percentage of living graduates listed in Who's Who.
During World War II, Hampden–Sydney College was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a commission. Under the Victory ship program, the SS Hampden-Sydney Victory was built at Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland; her keel was laid down on 30 May 1945, and she was launched on 14 July 1945, and delivered for service on 22 August 1945. Brought into service too late to aid in the war effort she was built for, Hampden-Sydney Victory nonetheless served with the U.S. Merchant Marine until she was sold to the Republic of Turkey on 24 November 1947 .
The college has hosted a wide array of noteworthy musicians. Bruce Springsteen, the Temptations, Ben E. King, The Platters, The Lettermen, Dionne Warwick, the Allman Brothers, Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic, Bruce Hornsby, Pretty Lights, and Government Mule were among the popular visitors to Hampden–Sydney throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. But for tragic reasons, the most significant concert occurred on October 14, 1967, featuring the superstar duet of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. During their performance, 22-year-old Terrell collapsed into Gaye's arms. Terrell would later be diagnosed with a brain tumor and had eight unsuccessful surgeries before she died on March 16, 1970, at the age of 24.
On May 11, 1964, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy visited Hampden–Sydney College to speak with students, and U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush gave the commencement address on May 4, 1985 .
21st century As of 2020, Hampden-Sydney had expanded its academic offerings to include more than 50 majors and minors, with recent additions including majors in engineering physics and biochemistry and molecular biology.
In 2017 the college added a new student center and renovated an existing facility to create a state-of-the-art center for the arts. A center for entrepreneurship and innovation was also launched in 2017. In recent years the campus has also added a high ropes course featuring a vertical climbing wall, suspended ropes obstacles, and zip line.
In 2018, the college's Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest launched a four-year leadership development program, with 47 first-year students in the inaugural cohort. The center and program are named for the late Lieutenant General Samuel V. Wilson, a former Hampden-Sydney president who "combined the savvy of a spymaster with the grit of a hardened combat veteran," according to a 2017 New York Times obituary.
2019 saw the launch of a new experiential learning program called Compass, which requires students to complete at least three experiential learning courses from options including internships, study abroad, research, service learning, and hands-on classroom experiences. A $6 million gift from Cindy and Rob Citrone (class of 1987) was dedicated to supporting the Compass program. That same year, the college also received the donation of $30 Million from the Pauley Family Foundation. These funds were used to construct the Pauley Science Center which replaced the section of the grounds previously host to Bagby Hall. The sightline from Venable hall to Cushing hall was restored, an intentional design element dating to the 1820s which was previously blocked by Bagby Hall.
In August 2020, the college completed a new 147-bed residential complex called the Grove. Footpaths and a central courtyard link the lodge-like, apartment-style residence halls. A neighboring community lodge overlooks Lake Chalgrove and features indoor and outdoor fireplaces and grilling space.
Construction began in 2020 on the new, 73,000-square-foot Pauley Science Center. The Pauley Science Center debuted in the fall semester of 2022, with its dedication on November 11, 2024
Name Under the influence of his mentor and father-in-law Witherspoon,Brinkley, 15 Smith named the college for two English champions of liberty, John Hampden (1594–1643) and Algernon Sydney (1622–1683). Hampden lost his life in the Battle of Chalgrove Field during the English Civil War. Sydney, who wrote Discourses Concerning Government, was beheaded by order of Charles II following his (unproven) implication in a failed attempt to overthrow the king.
Presidents The following is a list of the Presidents of Hampden–Sydney College from its opening in 1775 until the present.