Here is a list below of recommended subjects for the 2023 biographical projects.  To view some students models from previous projects, consult the Student Hall of Fame, or check out in particular: Rachel Morgan on Benjamin Rush, Becca Stout on Thomas Cooper, Maeve Thistel on John Taylor Cuddy, or Cooper Wingert on Richard McAllister.

  • Charles Albright (1830-1880), Class of 1852, antislavery settler in Kansas, future PA congressman
  • John Armstrong (1717-1795), Carlisle leader, Indian fighter, slaveholder, founding college trustee
  • Flavel C. Barber (1830-1864), Class of 1850, Confederate soldier and diarist
  • Sarah Bell (1807-1889), White resident who taught black children in Carlisle for nearly 50 years
  • Whitfield J. Bell, Jr. (1914-2009), Class of 1935, educator
  • John C. Brock (1843-1902), Carlisle resident, Union soldier and Civil War journalist, father of Dickinson’s first black graduate (John R.P. Brock)
  • John Robert Paul Brock (1880-1921), Dickinson’s first black graduate (Class of 1901), became well known educator in Atlantic City
  • Mary E. Brown (1842-1900), Black resident of Carlisle who sued in 1897 to integrate local schools
  • John Butcher(1832-1919) formerly enslaved, married Charlotte Roy, Carlisle civic leader
  • John N. Choate (1848-1902), Carlisle photographer, best known for Indian school photographs
  • Charles Dexter Cleveland (1802-1869), Dickinson faculty, abolitionist, Henry “Box” Brown witness
  • Thomas Nelson Conrad (1837-1905), Class of 1857, Confederate spy, memoirist, Virginia educator
  • Moncure Conway (1832-1907), Class of 1849, Virginia-born abolitionist, noted intellectual and radical
  • John A.J. Creswell (1828-1891), Class of 1848, Unionist congressman and later Postmaster General
  • Mary Johnson Dillon (1850-1922), daughter of Dickinson president, author, In Old Bellaire (1906)
  • George Duffield III (1794-1868), trustee, well known but controversial “New Light” Presbyterian minister
  • Stephen Duncan (1787-1867), Class of 1805, settled in MS and became 2d largest slaveholder in US
  • Sidney George Fisher (1809-1871), Class of 1827, Philadelphia lawyer and diarist
  • Moses Friedman (1874-1966), second superintendent, Carlisle Indian School
  • John F. Goucher (1845-1922), Class of 1868, educator and namesake for Goucher College
  • Robert Cooper Grier (1794-1870), Class of 1812. Supreme Court justice
  • Charles E Hemsley (1866-1910), 2d black student at Dickinson (1896), AME minister from Delaware
  • Charles Francis Himes (1838-1918), Class of 1855, later faculty and pioneering photographer
  • Ethel Mae Hodge (Roebuck) (1897-1973), illegitimate daughter of future college president
  • Paul Hodge (c. 1899 – c. 1970s), “Pappy,” honored for 50 years of service in 1967, kept scrapbook
  • John A. Inglis (1813-1878), Class of 1829, author of South Carolina secession ordinance
  • William Jackson (1845-1910), longtime janitor, former USCT
  • Horatio Collins King (1837-1918), Class of 1858, diarist, Union soldier, Medal of Honor winner, alma mater
  • Laurent LaVallee (c. 1920- ???), faculty dismissed in 1956 as communist
  • Joshua Lippincott (1835-1906), Class of 1858, later faculty, Carlisle Indian School recruiter
  • James Miller McKim (1810-1874), Class of 1828, leading Pennsylvania abolitionist
  • Mordecai McKinney (1796-1867), Class of 1814, son of slaveholders but leading antislavery attorney
  • John McLean (1785-1861), trustee, Supreme Court justice
  • John Montgomery (1727-1808), founding trustee and Carlisle leader, local slaveholder
  • Mary Curran Morgan (1867-1927), Class of 1888, wife of James Morgan, see Ethel Mae Hodge controversy
  • John Nevin (1776-1829), (Class of 1795), early antislavery pamphleteer, graduated with Taney
  • Frank Mt. Pleasant (1884-1937), Class of 1910, early Native American graduate, Olympian
  • Josephine Brunyate Meredith (1879-1965), first female full professor and Dean of Women
  • Charles Nisbet (1736-1804), first college president
  • George Norris, Sr., (c. 1820-1877), longtime janitor, former slave
  • Marcus J. Parrott (1828-1879), Class of 1849, abolitionist who helped settle Kansas with free staters
  • John C. Peck (1802-1877), Black barber in Carlisle, founder Lay Benevolent Association
  • John C. Pflaum (1903-1975), longtime faculty, namesake for History lecture series
  • Esther Popel (1896-1958), Class of 1919, first black female grad, poet
  • James Powell (c. 1770-1868), “Banty Jim,” local black figure and college employee
  • Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924), founder of Carlisle Indian School
  • Alexander Ramsey (1815-1903), Class of 1840, Minnesota governor during 1862 Dakota war
  • Jacob Rheem (1810-1899), leading Carlisle businessman and supporter of black civil rights, longtime Dickinson trustee
  • Marie T. Rossi (1957-1991), Class of 1980, ROTC, only female combat death in First Gulf War
  • Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980), longtime college librarian and prize-winning historian
  • Charles F. Thomas (1839-1896), Class of 1860 (non-grad), diarist, minister
  • Robert Thompson, Sr. (c. 1820-1900), leading black businessman in Carlisle, former slave
  • Tom Torlino (Hastiin To’Haali) (1856 -c. 1940s), student at Carlisle Indian school (1882-86), subject of well known before & after photographs
  • Littleton Washington (1825-1902), Class of 1845, journalist in 1850s California and wartime Richmond
  • Henry Watts (c. 1825-1879), “Judge Watts,” longtime janitor, local black leader
  • Sam Watts (c. 1830-c.1880s), longtime janitor, threatened with lynching
  • William Webb (c. 1820s -1868), UGRR operative who resettled in Detroit, not author of 1873 narrative
  • Frances Willoughby (1906-1984), Class of 1927, first female doctor in US Navy
  • John Vashon (1792-1853), Carlisle black leader, founder of Lay Benevolent Association
  • Henry James Young (1908-1995), longtime history faculty, originator of history methods course
  • Robert G. Young (1871-c. 1940s), first black student on campus, son of Robert C. Young
  • James G. Young (1882-1970), local black educator, son of Robert C. Young
  • Charlotte Young McStallworth (1913-2011), Class of 1934, granddaughter of Robert C. Young