[3] It was established by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1870 and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

[5] In 1863 three brothers, Hugh, James, and Thomas Garvin founded Franklin College in Albany, Ohio.

Benjamin Trueblood, a 26-year-old recent Earlham College graduate, was named the new president.

Bates was released from his contract in March 2023 by the college's board of trustees and Corey Cockerill was named interim president.

Indicates interim/acting president* Wilmington College offers 24 undergraduate majors with 27 minors and 32 concentrations.

[3] Rooted in Wilmington College's Quaker identity, the Peace Resource Center is the only academic center and archives in the United States wholly devoted to the human experience of nuclear war, vis-a-vis the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Founded by Quaker nuclear abolitionist Barbara Leonard Reynolds (1915–1990) in 1975, the PRC houses the Barbara Reynolds Memorial Archives, which is one of the most extensive collections in the United States focusing on the historical legacies of nuclear warfare on human beings and the environment.

The PRC's collection also distinctively features significant documentation of the early nuclear abolition movements in Japan and the United States during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

Additionally, Wilmington College boasts several honor societies, some international in scope.

The Quakers compete at the NCAA Division III level and have been a member of the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) since 2000.

Wilmington was previously a member of the Association of Mideast Colleges from 1990 to 1996 and served as an independent until 1998.

Wilmington College was the location of summer training camp for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League from the team's first season in 1968 through 1996,[14] when the team moved camp to Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky.