Here, students study in the reading room of the newly opened John Hay Library. After graduating in 1858 as Class Poet, John Hay went on to serve as a personal assistant to Abraham Lincoln during his campaign and presidency. After Lincoln’s assassination, Hay became Lincoln’s biographer and also served as U.S. Secretary of State. A tribute to Hay in the library that bears his name reads: “Poet, Historian, Diplomatist, Statesman, who maintained the Open Door and the Golden Rule.”

For five days in 1914, the Brown campus was the site of celebration, as the University recognized the 150th Anniversary of its founding. Along with students, faculty, staff and alumni, the community was invited to celebrate as well as local dignitaries and representatives of national and international educational institutions. The crowd was treated to academic, athletic and social functions. Three performances of the “Warren Play” portrayed the founding of the town, University and First Baptist Church, featuring the citizens of Warren, supported by a cast of 900 school children. Speeches and sermons were given on the school’s religious history. A day was devoted to class reunions, capped off by a torchlight parade, with the participants dressed in costumes representing events in the history of the nation and of Brown. The grand finale included, reportedly, “all of Providence” with a children’s pageant, relay races and dinner for four hundred.

Brown men huddle during a game against Cornell at the New York City Polo Grounds. Brown suggested the use of uniform numbers, which, according to the New York Times, allowed spectators to “follow each play with personal interest in the chief figures in the contest.” By 1922, the use of uniform numbers would be ubiquitous.

In the Fall of 1915, there were 1,053 students enrolled at Brown, passing the 1,000 mark for the first time. Of these, 246 were women and 807 were men.

A legendary football player and a tireless advocate for African American athletes, Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard achieved a long list of firsts. While at Brown, he was the first African American player in the Rose Bowl. He went on to play professional football and was the first African American to play on a championship team (1920), first to quarterback an NFL team (1923), first to coach in the NFL (1919) and the first selected for the National College Football Hall of Fame (1954).

Brown’s 1915 team had the honor of playing in the first annual Rose Bowl game. The small Brown squad and the rest of the travel party took a special Pullman car to Pasadena. The journey lasted six days and was described as “a corking good trip.” Separated from their equipment trunks along the way, the team played in borrowed uniforms and, more importantly, without mud cleats, losing to Washington State 14–0 in a heavy rainstorm.