Oglethorpe University is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...

Brookhaven, Georgia Brookhaven, formerly North Atlanta, is a city in the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta that is located in western DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, directly northeast of Atlanta. On July 31, 2012, Brookhaven was approved in a referendum to b ...

, United States. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General

James Edward Oglethorpe Lieutenant-General James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British Army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British North America. As a social reform ...

, founder of the Colony of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

History

Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Midway (now known as Hardwick), Georgia just south of Milledgeville, then the state

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

. The school was built and, at that time, governed by the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

, making it one of the South's earliest denominational institutions. The

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

led to the school's closing in 1862. The college followed the relocation of the capital to Atlanta. In 1870, it began holding classes at the present site of Atlanta

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. Plagued by financial difficulties, the school closed its doors for a second time in 1872. Oglethorpe College was re-chartered as a non-denominational institution in 1913 by Thornwell Jacobs, whose grandfather Ferdinand Jacobs had served on the faculty of Old Oglethorpe. In 1915, the cornerstone to the new campus was laid at its present location on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven. The cornerstone-laying ceremony took place at

North Avenue Presbyterian Church North Avenue Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church at 607 Peachtree Avenue, NE in Atlanta, Georgia. The church building was completed in 1900 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. History As the c ...

. Jacobs would serve as president for nearly 30 years. In the early 1940s Oglethorpe University had a medical school. Under the direction of John Bernard, the university was given several elephants for research that were discovered to have been poisoned at a Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus event nearby. After the students finished dissecting the animals they were buried under what is known today as the Philip Weltner Library. In 1936,

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

gifted to the university, and in 1948 he made a donation of $100,000; the university administration building was subsequently named in honor of Hearst's mother,

Phoebe Hearst Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. Hearst was the founder of the University of California Museum of Anthropology, now called the Phoebe A. Hearst Mu ...

. Oglethorpe University became Oglethorpe College in 1965, and reclaimed the designation "university" in 1972. Oglethorpe's campus buildings were built in a Gothic revival architecture style. This area of the campus is listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Academics

The college is accredited by the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...

Coat of arms

Oglethorpe's collegiate coat-of-arms is emblazoned with three boars' heads and the Latin inscription ''Nescit Cedere,'' meaning "He does not know how to give up."

Campus

The Conant Performing Arts Center, completed in 1997, served as the seasonal home of Georgia Shakespeare until fall 2014. The Oglethorpe University Museum of Art opened in 1984 and is located on the top floor of the Philip Weltner Library. The two galleries, the South and Skylight, and gift shop cover 7,000 square feet. Bringing in thousands of visitors each year, the museum has become an important point of interest in Atlanta's art community. In 1994, Lupton Hall,

Hall, Lowry Hall and Hermance Stadium were added to the

. In addition, a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

including part or all of the campus was listed on the

. Other academic buildings include Goslin Hall, primarily used for science courses, and J. Mack Robinson Hall, primarily used for Communication and Art classes. Oglethorpe University is home to the

Crypt of Civilization The Crypt of Civilization is an impenetrable, hermetic seal, airtight, room-sized time capsule, built between 1937 and 1940, at Oglethorpe University in Brookhaven, Georgia. The repository is meant not to be opened before 8113 AD. It contains nu ...

, the first and most complete

time capsule A time capsule is a historic treasure trove, cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy ...

ever created, according to the ''Guinness Book of World Records''. Scheduled to be opened in AD 8113, it is located in the basement of Phoebe Hearst Hall. Oglethorpe University is also home to the International Time Capsule Society, a

repository Repository may refer to: Archives and online databases * Content repository, a database with an associated set of data management tools, allowing application-independent access to the content * Disciplinary repository (or subject repository), an ...

of time capsule projects worldwide. The Turner Lynch Campus Center opened in the fall of 2013. The IW "Ike" Cousins Center for Science and Innovation (an expansion of a building constructed in 1970) opened in 2019. In addition to science facilities, it houses the Q. William Hammack Jr. School of Business. From its opening in 1990 until 2003, the

Seigakuin Atlanta International School was an international school, international, private school, private, Christian school, Christian elementary school located in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, Peachtree Corners, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta, It i ...

was located on the property of Oglethorpe University, in a former public school building. Also from 1974 to 1981, Georgia Japanese Language School was located on campus before it moved to another property.

Greek life

As of 2014, ''U.S. News & World Report'' noted that 11% of men at Oglethorpe belonged to fraternities, while 13% of women belonged to sororities.

Events and traditions

Oglethorpe Day

In early February, the college hosts events to celebrate the anniversary of James Oglethorpe's founding of the colony of Georgia. The annual "Petrels of Fire" race, an homage to

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

's Great Court Run portrayed in the movie ''

Chariots of Fire ''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 historical drama, historical Sports film, sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Summer ...

'', features students attempting to run the

perimeter A perimeter is the length of a closed boundary that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two-dimensional shape or a one-dimensional line. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference. Calculating the perimet ...

of the Academic

Quad QUaD, an acronym for QUEST at DASI, was a ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment at the South Pole. QUEST (Q and U Extragalactic Sub-mm Telescope) was the original name attributed to the bolometer detector instrume ...

before the Lupton Hall

belltower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church (building), church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many ...

finishes its noon chimes.

Boar's Head

Held on the first Friday of December, this event is modeled after the Boar's Head Gaudy of Queen's College,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, Boar's Head is the traditional start to the Christmas season at Oglethorpe. Festivities include a concert featuring the University Singers, student organizations and performers from the community, as well as the lighting of the college's Christmas tree. Newly

initiated Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformatio ...

members of

Omicron Delta Kappa Omicron Delta Kappa (), also known as The Circle and ODK, is an American collegiate honor society that recognizes leadership and scholarship. It was founded in 1914, at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and has chartered more t ...

receive recognition and, as a

rite Rite may refer to: Religion * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite (Christianity), sacred rituals in the Christian religion * Ritual family, Christian liturgical traditions; often also called ''liturgical rites'' * Catholic particular ch ...

of initiation, kiss the ceremonial boar's head.

Athletics

Oglethorpe University teams compete as a member of the

Southern Athletic Association The Southern Athletic Association (SAA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III that began play in the 2012–13 school year. It was formed in 2011 by seven ...

(SAA) at the

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

level and are known as the Stormy Petrels. The Stormy Petrels were a member of the

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), founded in 1962, is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas. Difficulti ...

(SCAC) until 2012. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and track & field; women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, track & field, and volleyball. Wycoff rushing during the 1925 Georgia Tech - Oglethorpe football game

Wycoff rushing during the 1925 Georgia Tech - Oglethorpe football game

In 2011, the men's soccer program won its first conference championship in school history with a 1–0 victory over

Centre College Centre College, formally Centre College of Kentucky, is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, United States. Chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819, the col ...

. This win sent them to the

NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division III men's soccer tournament is an annual event organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the national champions of men's collegiate soccer among its Division III members in the United States. It ...

, also a first in school history for the program. Later on in the spring of 2013, Mark Lavery, an alumnus and All-American member of the 2011 team signed with the

Atlanta Silverbacks The Atlanta Silverbacks FC were an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1998 as Atlanta Ruckus, the club played in many leagues over the years before folding after the 2015 season. The team played its home game ...

, a professional soccer team in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

(NASL). Lavery became the first Oglethorpe graduate to play soccer professionally. In the fall of 2013, the men's soccer team won its second conference championship in school history with a 3–1 victory over

Millsaps College Millsaps College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Jackson, Mississippi. It was founded in 1890 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. History The college was founded ...

. They compiled an 11–3–3 record over the season. The team did not receive a bid into the NCAA national tournament because the

was in its second phase of a new-conference transition stage.The men's soccer team won the SAA championship for the second time in 2017 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, losing to host

Washington and Lee University Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. Established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, it is among ...

in a penalty shootout after beating

North Carolina Wesleyan College North Carolina Wesleyan University (NCWU) is a private Methodist university in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It was founded in 1956. North Carolina Wesleyan offers courses at its main Rocky Mount campus, as well as satellite locations in Brunswick ...

in the first round. They finished first in SAA regular season play each season from 2015 to 2018. More recently, the program saw a resurgence with back-to-back trips to the national tournament in 2018 and 2019, and an SAA championship in 2018. The team advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2019, beating

The University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, near the shore of Lake Michigan about fr ...

in the opening round before falling to host

Transylvania University Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. It was founded in 1780 and is the oldest university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is Higher educ ...

in the second round.

Mascot

Thornwell Jacobs chose an unusual

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

to represent Oglethorpe's athletic teams: the Stormy Petrel. According to popular legend, James Oglethorpe had observed the

Wilson's storm petrel Wilson's storm petrel (''Oceanites oceanicus''), also known as Wilson's petrel, is a small seabird of the austral storm petrel family Oceanitidae. It is one of the most abundant bird species in the world and has a circumpolar distribution mainly ...

during his voyage to the New World and admired the diminutive seabird for its hardiness and courage during stormy weather. In March 2002,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's David Lloyd named the Stormy Petrel as one of the most memorable college mascot names of all time, second only to the Banana Slugs of

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

Student media

* ''The Carillon'', alumni magazine * ''The Stormy Petrel'',

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station Graduate student journal, produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related new ...

* ''The Tower'', a biannual literary magazine * ''The Nightcap'', evening degree student newsletter

Notable alumni

Luke Appling Lucius Benjamin Appling (April 2, 1907 – January 3, 1991), nicknamed "Old Aches and Pains", was an American professional baseball shortstop who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox (1930–1950). He was elected t ...

, class of 1932; member of the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

Thomas, Robert McG., Jr.br>"Luke Appling, Ex-White Sox Star In the Hall of Fame, Is Dead at 83 "
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', January 4, 1991. Accessed December 29, 2008. * Margaret Elizabeth Ashley-Towle, class of 1923; archaeologist *

John G. Blowers, Jr. John G. Blowers Jr. (April 21, 1911 – July 17, 2006) was an American drummer of the swing era. Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States, Blowers ("Blau-ers") learned to play percussion during his schooldays and began performing with t ...

, musician * Joseph Mackey Brown, class of 1872;

governor of Georgia The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's Georgia National Guard, National Guard, when not in federal service, and Georgia State Defense Force, State Defense Fo ...

* John Burke, class of 2011; pianist and composer * Drew Findling, class of 1981; criminal defense lawyer * Emily S. Gurley, class of 1996; epidemiologist * William C. Kavanaugh, class of 1940; former member of the

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Assembly is controlled by the Republican ...

* Dar'shun Kendrick, class of 2004; politician and lawyer *

Sidney Lanier Sidney Clopton Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catch ...

, class of 1860; poet * Benjamin M. Palmer, class of 1852; first national moderator of

, based in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

* Ruwa Romman, Representative for Georgia House District 97, first Muslim woman in the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republican Party (United States), Repu ...

Vincent Sherman Vincent Sherman (born Abraham Orovitz, July 16, 1906 – June 18, 2006) was an American director and actor who worked in Hollywood. His movies include '' Mr. Skeffington'' (1944), '' Nora Prentiss'' (1947), and '' The Young Philadelphians'' (1959 ...

, class of 1925; film director * Charles Weltner, class of 1948; politician

Notable faculty

* Kathryn McClymond, 18th president

References

External links

*
Athletics website

Photographs of Buildings and Grounds at Oglethorpe University

Oglethorpe University
historical marker {{authority control Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Educational institutions established in 1835 Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Universities and colleges in Atlanta National Register of Historic Places in Atlanta Private universities and colleges in Georgia (U.S. state)