Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1787 as Franklin College and later merged with Marshall College in 1853, it is one of the oldest colleges in the United States. F&M is named after Benjamin Franklin, who gave the college its first endowment, and John Marshall.
Founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, F&M's early years were bilingual, serving the local Pennsylvania Dutch community in German and English. Originally founded as the German College and Charity School, Franklin College received its charter in 1787 from the Pennsylvania General Assembly as a German-language alternative to the University of Pennsylvania. Among its early supporters were Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, and Peter Muhlenberg.
Franklin & Marshall College offers 58 fields of study, including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, languages, and other disciplines. The college operates an advanced studies program in Bath, England. F&M has students from 43 U.S. states, districts, and territories, as well as students from 50 countries. All students are undergraduates, and nearly all live on campus.
History
Franklin College (18th century) Franklin College was chartered on June 6, 1787, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on the site of a former brewery. It was named for Benjamin Franklin, who donated £200 to the new institution. Founded by four prominent ministers from the German Reformed Church and the Lutheran Church, in conjunction with numerous Philadelphians, the school was established as a German college whose goal was "to preserve our present republican system of government" and "to promote those improvements in the arts and sciences which alone render nations respectable, great and happy." Its first trustees included five signers of the Declaration of Independence, two members of the Constitutional Convention, and seven officers of the Revolutionary War.
The school's first classes were taught on July 16, 1787, with instruction taking place in both English and German, making it the first bilingual college in the United States.
The first class consisted of 78 men and 36 women; Franklin was the first college in the United States to accept female students. Among its first students was Richea Gratz, the first Jewish female college student in the United States. But soon after, female students were not allowed to matriculate. Coeducation was reintroduced much later.
In July 1789, Franklin College went into debt and enrollment dwindled. In an effort to help the ailing school, an academy was established in 1807. For the next three decades, Franklin College and Franklin Academy limped along financially, with instructors supplementing their income with private tutoring.
Marshall College (19th century) Having grown from a Reformed Church academy, Marshall College opened in 1836 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. The school was named for the fourth Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, who had died the previous year. It was founded with the belief that harmony between knowledge and will was necessary to create a well-rounded person.
Upon opening, Marshall College had five students, which expanded to ten in the first year. After significant difficulty in finding a proper academic to lead the nascent college, Frederick Augustus Rauch was installed as Marshall College's first president. Rauch was a recent immigrant to Pennsylvania from Germany, arriving in 1831 and teaching briefly at Lafayette College before being selected as Marshall College's president. Critics mocked Rauch for speaking little English.
The school's small faculty grew in both size and status with the addition of John Williamson Nevin and another German scholar, church historian Philip Schaff. Frederick Augustus Rauch died suddenly in 1841, five years after becoming the college's founding president. Professor Nevin became the college's second president upon Rauch's sudden death in 1841.
In July 1837, a riot erupted in Mercersburg over abolitionism and slavery. The travelling abolitionist Jonathan Blanchard visited the town, but was unable to find a public venue and refused accommodations at the local hotel. He spent the night at a boarding house run by the family of a Marshall College student, Daniel Kroh and on his way to church the next morning was attacked by a mob largely composed of Southern students. After being rescued by another Marshall student and a local war veteran, he returned to Kroh's house and delivered his speech to a private audience. The next morning, he escaped in a closed carriage as the Southern students threw stones and cursed at him. The college investigated Kroh for disturbing the peace and reprimanded him for refusing to cooperate with their investigation, but they also expelled at least one rioter.
Marshall College gained national recognition and attracted students from a large geographical area, with some coming as far away as the West Indies. However, despite being initially well-funded, Marshall College began to experience financial difficulties of its own. By the late 1840s, financial support and enthusiasm among the local community had virtually disappeared and the school was in danger of closing its doors permanently.
In 1835, the school's debating society was renamed Diagnothian Literary Society. A further debate society was named Goethean, in honor of German philosopher and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The two organizations merged in 1955, but became separate entities again in 1989. The Diagnothian Society is said to be the oldest student organization on campus.
Merger On December 6, 1849, Franklin College and Marshall College began to consider merging as a way to secure the future of both institutions. Three years later, on June 7, 1853, the combined college was formally dedicated at Lancaster's Fulton Hall. The merger created an all-male Reformed Church institution that combined the resources of both schools. James Buchanan, four years prior to becoming the 15th President of the United States, was named president of the first Franklin & Marshall board of trustees.
The college's first two presidents, Emanuel Vogel Gerhart, a Marshall College graduate, and Nevin struggled to keep the young school afloat with an inadequate endowment. The hope of creating a reputable liberal arts institution fueled their efforts to push on. "No second- or third-rate school will do," said Nevin at the formal dedication of the united college. "We must either have no college at all or else have one that may be in all respects worthy of the name."
The citizens of Lancaster agreed to donate $25,000 towards the construction of a building for the merged college. A site on the east end of the city was proposed near where the new Lancaster County Prison was constructed in 1851. Two parallel streets in the area were renamed, one for Franklin and one for Marshall. However, Buchanan ultimately rejected the proposal, saying "I do not think the best location for a literary institution should be between a court house and a jail." Instead, Buchanan and the board selected a site at the northwestern end of Lancaster. Known locally as "Gallows Hill," it was the former site of Lancaster's public executions and the highest point of ground in the city. At the laying of the building's cornerstone in 1853, Henry Harbaugh, a Marshall College graduate and pastor of the Reformed Church of Lancaster noted that the city's lowest point was the prison. Harbaugh stated: "Thank God! The College stands higher than the jail. Education should be lifted up and let crime sink to the lowest depths!" The distinctive, tall-towered structure, designed in the Gothic Revival style, was dedicated on May 16, 1856, as "Recitation Hall." Recitation Hall came to be known as "Old Main" and the ground as "College Hill".
Franklin and Marshall College took as its motto the Latin phrase Lux et Lex, which translates in English to "Light and Law". This reversed the Marshall College motto Lex et Lux. While legend has it that the switch was the result of an error by an engraver, it has since been suggested that the words deliberately reflect its namesakes Benjamin Franklin ("light") and John Marshall ("law").
The college seal depicts profiles of Franklin and Marshall looking to the left. It has been suggested that this represents the two leaders looking westward to the future expansion of the United States. Despite his nominal secondary priority, John Marshall is on the left of the seal and Benjamin Franklin is on the right. But Franklin's entire head is shown, while Marshall's profile is cut off and far in the background. Speculation has suggested that this demonstrates an unspoken tendency to favor Franklin's legacy over Marshall's. This preference became explicit when the school celebrated Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday but ignored John Marshall's 250th birthday during consecutive semesters of the 2005–2006 academic year. The school recognized Marshall's milestone birthday only after a petition was signed by a significant portion of students and faculty.
Old Main, Goethean Hall, and Diagnothian Hall were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Late 19th century
In 1872, Franklin & Marshall Academy, an all-male preparatory school, opened on campus. When it closed in 1943, it was the last prep school in America to be directly affiliated with a private college or university.
College Days, the first student newspaper, began publication in 1873. Later student newspapers included The College Student (1881–1914), The F&M Weekly (1891–1915), The Student Weekly (1915–1964), The Blue and The White (1990–1992), and The College Reporter (1964–present).
The Oriflamme, the Franklin and Marshall College yearbook, was established in 1883.
In 1887, the centennial celebration of Franklin College was held. By then, over 100 students were enrolled at F&M.
1899 saw the formation of the college's first theatre group, the Franklin & Marshall Dramatic Association. The next year, it was renamed the Green Room Club. The club performed plays at Lancaster's Fulton Opera House. Because the college admitted only men, the female roles were played by local actresses. In 1937, the Green Room Theatre opened on campus.
Franklin & Marshall alumni who have performed on the Green Room stage include Oscar-winning film director Franklin J. Schaffner and actors Roy Scheider and Treat Williams.
20th century
The college grew rapidly after the end of World War I. Enrollment rose from around 300 students in 1920, to over 750 by 1930. In 1924, the architectural firm of Klauder and Day presented a master campus plan in the Colonial Revival style. Dietz-Santee dormitory, Meyran-Franklin dormitory, the Mayser Physical Education Center, and Hensel Hall were all completed within three years. Two additional dormitories were planned, but never constructed.
The sesquicentennial celebration of Franklin College was held in October 1937. Student enrollment by then was 800. A commemorative plaque celebrating the sesquicentennial and the signing of the United States Constitution was presented to the college by the Lancaster County Historical Society.
In 1939, the school began an aviation program in the new Keiper Liberal Arts Building. The Aeronautical Laboratory eventually became a government-sponsored flight school with 40 faculty members. Two airplanes were disassembled, moved into the building and reassembled on the third floor as flight simulators.
During World War II, Franklin and Marshall College was one of 131 colleges and universities that adopted the V-12 Navy College Training Program offering students a path to a Navy commission.