Bowdoin College, founded in 1794, is Maine's oldest institution of higher learning. As such, it has featured prominently in Maine's and America's histories. Alumni include such literary figures as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Civil War general and Maine governor Joshua Chamberlain, President Franklin Pierce, and first female Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Whispering Pines explores the rich historical contributions of the college as they pertain to the world and national events occurring at the time. Taken as a whole, it supplies a surprising and fascinating context to the overall course of American history.
Introduction
Origins
The College Founded
Inaugural
Thorndike Oak
1820 Cluster
What's Not there:
Old Chapel
Moorehead Tavern
Longfellow's Bowdoin
LaFayette's tour
Antebellum Bowdoin
Packard/Smyth House
The View from Opposite Ends of the Street
Seba Smith
The Rush for Gold
Presidential Election of 1852
The Medical School of Maine and Liberia
The Civil War and Reconstruction
1860 Baseball
Bowdoin at Gettysburg
Brothers in Arms and at Odds
Joseph Christmas Ives
Something Abides
Class of 1866
1877 Cluster
The Drill Rebellion of 1874
Charlie Morse, the Ice King
A Prodigal Brother
The Gilded Age
Searles Science Building
Levers of Government
Sumner Kimball
Contributions to Knowledge
Pioneers in Physics and Electricity
Seeing the Invisible
Alfred Kinsey
Into the 20th Century
Jack London at Bowdoin
The Polar Bear as Mascot
John Arnett Mitchell's Key to Success
Bowdoin in the World
Let the Games Begin
A Suitable Monument
What If?
As Lived Experiences Recede Into History
John R. Cross, a 1976 graduate of Bowdoin, is the college's Secretary of Development and College Relations. HE contributes a regular column, "Whispering Pines," about Bowdoin's history to the college newspaper, the Bowdoin Daily Sun. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.
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