Colonial Collegians

Colonial Collegians was introduced in CD-ROM format in 2005 as a co-publication of The Massachusetts Historical Society and New England Historic Genealogical Society.  To purchase the CD-ROM from Picton Press, click here.

From the introduction to the CD-ROM:

“…The primary purpose of Colonial Collegians: Biographies of Those Who Attended American Colleges before the War for Independence is to provide basic facts—vital data as well as information about careers and accomplishments—on its subjects, the boys and men who attended school through the Class of 1774, the last to graduate before the start of the American Revolution.  Historians have ordinarily recognized nine such institutions—the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), the College of Rhode Island (now Brown University), the College of William and Mary, Dartmouth College, Harvard College, King’s College (now Columbia University), Queen’s College (now Rutgers University), and Yale College.  Colonial Collegians includes entries on all the known graduates and non-graduates of these schools as well as on twenty men said to have attended William Tennent’s Log College, an academy for aspiring Presbyterian clergymen near Philadelphia, c. 1735-c. 1744; twenty-eight graduates of the medical school at the College of Philadelphia; and sixteen students, both graduates and non-graduates, of the medical school at King’s College.  All told, there are entries for nearly six thousand individuals, some of whom have multiple listings because they attended more than one school.  There are also a small number of sketches of men who received honorary degrees from Harvard College without actually matriculating.”

To read the complete introduction to Colonial Collegians, including acknowledgments and a complete key to abbreviations, click here.

This database includes the names of 5,477 individuals. Links to the images of the biographical sketches from the original CD are available from the search results page.

The original CD is available in our Boston research library, call number LA227. C65 2005 CD.