Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Arts & Culture, Education, Site

Location

158 College Hill Rd, Clinton, NY 13323, USA

Lat/Long

43.050503088748, -75.405706950693

Grant Recipient

Hamilton College

Chartered originally in 1793 as the Hamilton Oneida Academy by Reverend Samuel Kirkland, Hamilton College has a storied history which now spans four centuries.

Initially conceived by missionary Samuel Kirkland, the original purpose of the Hamilton Oneida Academy was to provide education to both the children of arrivals from New England following the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, and to those of the Oneida Nation, whose territory originally included much of what is now Oneida and Madison counties.

Shortly before it was founded, Kirkland presented the concept of the proposed academy to President George Washington and Secretery of Treasury Alexander Hamilton in hopes of gaining their support (College History, hamilton.edu) Hamilton expressed interest in the project and would serve as an inaugural trustee when the Academy was established, and subsequently named in his honor.

Though the academy never came to fulfill Kirkland’s intended vision, it remained in operation for nearly twenty years. Then, in 1812, the former academy was chartered as Hamilton College, making it only the third in the state.

Links

• Hamilton College