19th century (1742–1819), founder of Middlebury College in the distance Middlebury received its founding charter on November 1, 1800, as an outgrowth of the
Addison County Grammar School, which had been founded three years earlier in 1797. The college's first president—
Jeremiah Atwater—began classes a few days later, making Middlebury the first operating college or university in Vermont. One student named Aaron Petty graduated at the first commencement held in August 1802. and the latter as its greatest early benefactor. In addition to receiving a diploma upon graduation, Middlebury graduates also receive a replica of Gamaliel Painter's cane. Painter bequeathed his original cane to the college and it is carried by the college President at official occasions including first-year convocation and graduation.
Alexander Twilight, class of 1823, was the first black graduate of any college or university in the United States; he also became the first African American elected to public office, joining the
Vermont House of Representatives in 1836.
Joseph Little Warner was the namesake of
Joseph Warner Science Hall at Middlebury. At its second commencement in 1804, Middlebury granted
Lemuel Haynes an
honorary master's degree, the first
advanced degree ever bestowed upon an African American. In 1883, the trustees voted to accept women as students in the college, making Middlebury one of the first formerly all-male liberal arts colleges in New England to become a coeducational institution. The first female graduate—May Belle Chellis—received her degree in 1886. As valedictorian of the class of 1899,
Mary Annette Anderson became the first African-American woman elected to
Phi Beta Kappa.
20th century The college's centennial in 1900 began a century of physical expansion beyond the three buildings of
Old Stone Row.
York and Sawyer designed the Egbert Starr Library (1900), a
Beaux-Arts edifice later expanded and renamed the Axinn Center, and Warner Hall (1901). Growth in enrollment and the endowment led to continued expansion westward. McCullough Hall (1912) and Voter Hall (1913) featured gymnasium and laboratories, respectively, adopting Georgian Revival styling while confirming the campus standard of grey Vermont limestone, granite, and marble. In 1914 and subsequent decades, Middlebury College offered courses in
eugenics in fields such as pedagogy, biology, and sociology. The college had "extensive involvement in the eugenics movement." The year-long, mandatory "Orientating Course for Freshmen" in 1925 included the subject "Eugenics" and explained that in the previous year this had been taught in this class as "What Has Civilization to Expect from Eugenics." The 1930
Fourth Annual Report of the Eugenics Survey of Vermont noted that Middlebury College President
Paul Moody was Chairman of the Committee that supervised the
Survey. Middlebury biology supervisor, professor A.E. Lambert lectured outside the college on the "Science of Modern Welfare," based on "heredity and eugenics." Middlebury biology professor Owen Wesley Mills was a member of the Second International Congress of Eugenics. The national fraternity
Kappa Delta Rho was founded in Painter Hall on May 17, 1905. Middlebury College abolished fraternities in the early 1990s, but the organization continued on campus in the less ritualized form of a social house. Due to a policy at the school against single-sex organizations, the house was forced to coeducate during the same period as well. The German Language School, founded in 1915 under the supervision of then-President
John Martin Thomas, began the tradition of the
Middlebury College Language Schools. These Schools, which take place on campus during the summer, enroll about 1,350 students in the Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish Language Schools. Middlebury President
Paul Dwight Moody began the American tradition of a
National Christmas Tree in 1923 when the college donated a 48-foot
balsam fir for use at the White House. The tree was illuminated when Vermont native Calvin Coolidge flipped an electric switch in the first year of his presidency. The
Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury's graduate school of English, was established at the college's
Bread Loaf Mountain campus in 1920. The
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference was established in 1926. In 1978, the
Bread Loaf School of English expanded to include a campus at
Lincoln College, Oxford University. In 1991, the School expanded to include a campus at
St. John's College in New Mexico, and to the
University of North Carolina, Asheville, in 2006. The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) was founded as an educational charity in 1975 by Drs John and Sandy Feneley in
Oxford, England, establishing a facility at St. Michael's Hall in 1978, including the Feneley Library, and close links with
Keble College, Oxford; in 2014, CMRS became part of Middlebury College Schools Abroad as Middlebury-CMRS, offering U.S. undergraduates an Oxford Humanities Research Program and Middlebury Museum Studies in Oxford. In 1965, Middlebury established its
Environmental Studies program, creating the first undergraduate Environmental Studies program in the U.S. Nationally affiliated fraternities were abolished in 1990; some chose to become co-educational social houses which continue today.
21st century In May 2004, an anonymous benefactor made a $50 million donation to Middlebury. It is the largest cash gift the school has ever received. The donor asked only that Middlebury name its recently built science building, Bicentennial Hall, after outgoing President
John McCardell Jr. In 2005, Middlebury signed an affiliation agreement with the
Monterey Institute of International Studies, a
graduate school in
Monterey, California. On June 30, 2010, the Monterey Institute was officially designated as a graduate school of Middlebury College. In the summer of 2008, Middlebury and the
Monterey Institute of International Studies launched a collaborative program to offer summer language immersion programs in
Arabic,
Chinese,
French,
German,
Italian, and
Spanish to middle and high school students through the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy (MMLA). In January 2014, as part of a new brand identity system, Middlebury announced that the Monterey Institute of International Studies would be renamed the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. On March 2, 2017, political scientist
Charles Murray was shouted down by students at a campus event, and prevented from speaking at the McCullough Student Center. Murray had been named a white nationalist by the
Southern Poverty Law Center, and has been criticized for a teenaged incident in 1960 where he burned a cross on a hill in his hometown of
Newton, Iowa, an act which Murray himself later characterized as "incredibly dumb". After the protest, Murray's talk was moved to Wilson Hall and published online; however, after the talk there was a violent attack by protesters who attempted to obstruct and damage the vehicle of Bill Burger (the Vice President of communications at Middlebury College), Murray, and Middlebury professor
Allison Stanger; Stanger was injured in the attack, requiring her hospitalization with a neck injury and concussion. Middlebury President
Laurie L. Patton responded after the event, saying the school would respond to the clear violations of college policy by students that occurred. Some students (and faculty) felt that by refusing to allow Murray to speak, and by injuring Stanger, the Middlebury College student community "trod all over the ideas of free speech this country was founded upon". The school took disciplinary action against 74 students for their involvement in the incident. In January 2025, the college's trustees appointed Ian Baucom the college's 18th president. ==Academics==