Brown University

[27] In 1761, three residents of Newport, Rhode Island, drafted a petition to the colony's General Assembly:[28] That your Petitioners propose to open a literary institution or School for instructing young Gentlemen in the Languages, Mathematics, Geography & History, & such other branches of Knowledge as shall be desired.

Stiles' first draft was read to the General Assembly in August 1763, and rejected by Baptist members who worried that their denomination would be underrepresented in the College Board of Fellows.

[32] Other colleges had curricular strictures against opposing doctrines, while Brown's charter asserted, "Sectarian differences of opinions, shall not make any Part of the Public and Classical Instruction."

"[45][44] The paper made proposals for a new curriculum, including interdisciplinary freshman-year courses that would introduce "modes of thought," with instruction from faculty from different disciplines as well as for an end to letter grades.

[49][50] Titled "Slavery and Justice", the document detailed the ways in which the university benefited both directly and indirectly from the transatlantic slave trade and the labor of enslaved people.

The prior year, president Francis Wayland had commissioned a committee to update the school's original seal to match the name the university had adopted in 1804.

[56] The university was built contemporaneously with the eighteenth and nineteenth-century precincts surrounding it, making Brown's campus tightly integrated into Providence's urban fabric.

Among the noted architects who have shaped Brown's campus are McKim, Mead & White, Philip Johnson, Rafael Viñoly, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Robert A. M.

The university's central campus sits on a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) block bounded by Waterman, Prospect, George, and Thayer Streets; newer buildings extend northward, eastward, and southward.

The Hay Library is home to one of the broadest collections of incunabula in the Americas, one of Brown's two Shakespeare First Folios, the manuscript of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and three books bound in human skin.

[65] Founded in 1846, the John Carter Brown Library is generally regarded as the world's leading collection of primary historical sources relating to the exploration and colonization of the Americas.

Other Brown properties include the 376-acre (1.52 km2) Mount Hope Grant in Bristol, Rhode Island, an important Native American site noted as a location of King Philip's War.

Brown's Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology Collection Research Center, particularly strong in Native American items, is located in the Mount Hope Grant.

Admitted students spend the first year in residence at RISD completing its first-year Experimental and Foundation Studies curriculum while taking up to three Brown classes.

Program participants are noted for their creative and original approach to cross-disciplinary opportunities, combining, for example, industrial design with engineering, or anatomical illustration with human biology, or philosophy with sculpture, or architecture with urban studies.

An annual "BRDD Exhibition" is a well-publicized and heavily attended event, drawing interest and attendees from the broader world of industry, design, the media, and the fine arts.

[94][95] Six Brown graduates have received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Alfred Uhry '58, Lynn Nottage '86, Ayad Akhtar '93, Nilo Cruz '94, Quiara Alegría Hudes '04, and Jackie Sibblies Drury MFA '04.

The undergraduate concentration encompasses programs in theatre history, performance theory, playwriting, dramaturgy, acting, directing, dance, speech, and technical production.

Master's degrees in acting and directing are pursued in conjunction with the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program, which partners with the Trinity Repertory Company, a local regional theatre.

The institute pursues fieldwork, excavations, regional surveys, and academic study of the archaeology and art of the ancient Mediterranean, Egypt, and Western Asia from the Levant to the Caucasus.

[110] The institute has a very active fieldwork profile, with faculty-led excavations and regional surveys presently in Petra (Jordan), Abydos (Egypt), Turkey, Sudan, Italy, Mexico, Guatemala, Montserrat, and Providence.

Many courses in the department are open to all Brown undergraduates without prerequisites and include archaeology, languages, history, and Egyptian and Mesopotamian religions, literature, and science.

Institute faculty and faculty emeritus include Italian prime minister and European Commission president Romano Prodi,[112] Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso,[113] Chilean president Ricardo Lagos Escobar,[114] Mexican novelist and statesman Carlos Fuentes,[115] Brazilian statesman and United Nations commission head Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro,[116] Indian foreign minister and ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao,[117] American diplomat and Dayton Peace Accords author Richard Holbrooke (Class of 1962),[118] and Sergei Khrushchev,[119] editor of the papers of his father Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union.

The project comprises a team of economists, anthropologists, political scientists, legal experts, and physicians, and seeks to calculate the economic costs, human casualties, and impact on civil liberties of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan since 2001.

[11][h] In 1827, medical instruction was suspended by President Francis Wayland after the program's faculty declined to follow a new policy requiring students to live on campus.

Historical performers at the festival have included Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, and U2.

The Sarah Doyle Women's Center aims to provide a space for members of the Brown community to examine and explore issues surrounding gender.

[217][218] Companies founded by Brown alumni include CNN,The Wall Street Journal, Searchlight Pictures, Netgear, W Hotels, Workday, Warby Parker, Casper, Figma, ZipRecruiter, and Cards Against Humanity.

[219][220][221][222][223] Alumni in the arts and media include actors Emma Watson '14, John Krasinski '01, Daveed Diggs '04,[224] Julie Bowen '91, Tracee Ellis Ross '94, and Jessica Capshaw '98; NPR program host Ira Glass '82; singer-composer Mary Chapin Carpenter '81; humorist and Marx Brothers screenwriter S. J. Perelman '25; novelists Nathanael West '24, Jeffrey Eugenides '83, Edwidge Danticat (MFA '93), and Marilynne Robinson '66; and composer and synthesizer pioneer Wendy Carlos '62, journalist James Risen '77; political pundit Mara Liasson; MSNBC hosts Alex Wagner '99 and Chris Hayes '01; New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger '03, and magazine editor John F. Kennedy Jr. '83.

1970); computer scientists Robert Sedgewick and Andries van Dam; economists Hyman Minsky, Glenn Loury, George Stigler, Mark Blyth, and Emily Oster; historians Gordon S. Wood and Joan Wallach Scott; mathematicians David Gale, David Mumford, Mary Cartwright, and Solomon Lefschetz; physicists Sylvester James Gates and Gerald Guralnik.

This 1792 engraving is the first published image of Brown. University Hall stands on the right while the President's House sits on the left.
Following the gift of Nicholas Brown Jr. (Class of 1786), the university was renamed in his honor.
The Van Wickle Gates stand at the crest of College Hill
The John Hay Library is home to rare books, special collections, and the university archives.
The John Carter Brown Library is one of the world's leading repositories of books, maps, and manuscripts relating to the colonial Americas . [ 66 ]
The galleries of Brown's anthropology museum, the Haffenreffer , are located in Manning Hall.
Three dormitories, Metcalf Hall (1919), Andrews Hall (1947), and Miller Hall (1910), formed the heart of Pembroke College and now serve as freshman residences.
Robinson Hall (1878) was designed by Walker and Gould in the Venetian Gothic style to house Brown's library.
The List Art Center, built 1969–71, designed by Philip Johnson , houses Brown's Department of Visual Art and the David Winton Bell Gallery .
The Granoff Center , designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro , hosts the annual Brown|RISD Dual Degree exhibition.
Lyman Hall, built 1890–92, houses the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies.
Aerial view of the Brown University English department
The Brown Computing Laboratory, designed by Philip Johnson
The Brown University Engineering Research Center, completed in 2018 and designed by KieranTimberlake [ 121 ]
Pembroke Hall (1897) houses the administrative offices of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women .
Sayles Hall on the Main Green
The Alpert Medical School building on Richmond Street
The primary building of the Brown University School of Public Health viewed from across the Providence River
Many Spring Weekend events are hosted on Brown's Main Green. [ 189 ]
Ladd Observatory , built 1890–1891, is used by Brown Space Engineering, a student group focused on aerospace engineering .
The Sarah Doyle Women's Center
The 1879 Brown baseball varsity, with W.E. White seated second from right. White's appearance in an 1879 major league game may be the first person of color to play professional baseball, 68 years before Jackie Robinson . [ 203 ] [ 204 ] [ 205 ] [ 206 ]