Celebrating Wheaton's 175th anniversary

Wheaton celebrates the 175th founding of the institution in 2009-2010 with a yearlong series of events that will begin Homecoming weekend with a celebration of Founder's Day and a 200th birthday party for Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton.

Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton

Mrs. Wheaton played a central role in the founding of the institution that became Wheaton College, as the history of the college makes clear. By all accounts, she suggested the founding of a school for women's education to her father-in-law, Judge Laban Wheaton, who sought to memorialize his recently deceased daughter.

Paul Helmreich, professor of history emeritus and Wheaton College historian emeritus, describes the pivotal contributions that Eliza made to the college's development in an article about Founder's Day, published in the Fall 2009 issue of the Wheaton Quarterly

She never sat on the Board of Trustees, but no major decision was ever taken by the Board that would have been counter to her wishes and views. She never held an administrative or teaching position, yet her views on teaching, religion, and administrative policies were the guiding standard for every principal or president of Wheaton, all of whom ignored Mrs. Wheaton's opinions and wishes only at their peril. And ultimately, after the death of her husband in 1865, she used her family's wealth year after year to balance Wheaton's annual operating budget and to provide funds for scholarships, new buildings and other capital expenditures.

Events scheduled for the 175th anniversary Founder's Day celebration include:

Wheaton in the World: Placing the College in the History of Higher Education. Linda Eisenmann, Wheaton’s new Provost and Academic Vice President, will deliver the Founder's Day Lecture. An historian of higher education, Eisenmann will place Wheaton's founding and development in the context of the history of higher education, particularly women’s education.  The ceremony continues with a "parade of roses" to honor Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton in the Wallace Library, followed by a reception in the Library Reference Room. Hindle Auditorium, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 1.

Founders Day Birthday Cake. Emerson Dining Room, 1:00 p.m., Friday, Oct. 2. Birthday Cake will be served by President Ronald Crutcher and members of the Board of Trustees.  Come early! Don't miss seeing the cake.

Many Happy Returns: Celebrating Eliza Baylies Wheaton's 200th Birthday. An exhibit in the Wallace Library, Atrium level, Sept.-Oct, 2009. Did you know that Mrs. Wheaton liked large dogs and fine horses? That she bought the latest fashions in London and Paris in 1862? That she was a teetotaller?  Objects, images, and documents from the Gebbie Archives & Special Collections, displayed on the Atrium Level of the Wallace Library, reveal the personality and legacy of Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, founder of Wheaton College.

Miriam Tropp Lecture: A conversation about black feminism, featuring Paula Giddings, author of Ida: A Sword Among Lions, a biography of the anti-lynching activist and suffragist Ida B. Wells; and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies at Spelman College. Thursday, Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m. Holman Room, Mary Lyon Hall.