Link to the timeline of commencement speeches: Timeline

Information about the timeline:

The goal of this timeline is to explore the changes of commencement orations throughout the history of Dickinson College. With information the Dickinson College Archives website, I was able to find dates from almost all of the commencement’s at Dickinson College. The website also listed as to whether or not student orations were given at the ceremonies or not. After looking at all of the entries from 1787 into the 1800’s a pattern grew.  Out of the first seven entries in the archives, about commencement ceremonies, only one showed a commencement ceremony that did not have every student give an oration. However, from 1850 until 1919 there was only one ceremony in which every student  gave a speech. The trend showed that student orations happened at all commencements, just not every student gave one. There were five dates that stood out as particular examples of what commencement speeches looked like at Dickinson College.

Wednesday, September 26, 1787

This was the first commencement at Dickinson College. Student orations were a large part of this graduation process as eight of the nine graduates performed orations.

Thursday, July 8, 1852

The Commencement of 1852 shows an example as to what these ceremonies looked like. Of the 21 graduates, 10 students gave orations. The topic of said speeches covered a wide range of  topics but mostly focused on examining social issues of the time  period such as the economic class divide and political justice.

Thursday, June 25, 1863

The Commencement of 1863 was the first ceremony, in the Dickinson College Archives, that does not have record of a student oration. There was a heighten concern about the Confederate involvement in the area so the ceremony was shortened.

Friday, Jun. 20, 1919

Celebrating the end of World War One, this commencement ceremony was coined the “Victory Commencement”. This was also the first time since the Civil War that a graduating student did not give a speech at the ceremony. The tradition of student orations ended here as from this point onward the outside people have the speeches at Dickinson College Commencements.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The most recent graduation showed that student orations did not make a comeback. The speaker was Governor Thomas Wolf.

Works Cited:

Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections. Timeline. Dickinson College. http://archives.dickinson.edu/college_history/browse_timeline