Colby College Archives
The Alfred King Chapman Room serves as the depository for the Colby College Archives. The historical records of the College from 1813 to the present are kept here.
Collection Overview
This archive includes administrative and curricular policy documents, student life and customs information, and Senior Scholar/Honors theses. There are complete runs of the Board of Trustees minutes, the Colby Echo (student newspaper), the Alumnus/Colby magazine (alumni publication), and the Oracle (student yearbook).
Some of our more interesting collections relate to:
- The college’s first president Jeremiah Chaplin and his wife Marcia O’Brien
- Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Colby 1826
- Three Colby men who had distinguished military service during the Civil War: Benjamin F. Butler, Colby 1838; Richard Cutts Shannon, Colby 1862; and Henry Clay Merriam, Colby 1864
- The first two women graduates, Mary Low Carver, Colby 1875, and Louise Helen Coburn, Colby 1877.
We also have:
- An extensive collection of files documenting the lives of alumni/ae, administrators, faculty, staff, and honorary degree recipients
- An extensive collection of photographs, many of which are available online via the Imago image database.
Finding Aids
- Primary Index
- Index of Student Clubs and Organizations
- Index of Student Life and Customs
- Finding Aid to the Collection of Mary Low Carver Materials [PDF] | [HTML]
- Finding Aid to the Collection of Louise Helen Coburn Materials [PDF] | [HTML]
- Jeremiah Chaplin Letter Collection
- Elijah Parish Lovejoy Collection Series List
- Finding Aid to the Collection of Elijah Parish Lovejoy Materials
Student Research in the Archives
- Colby in Wartime, by Ben Grimmig ’12
- Lion of Lucerne, by Ben Grimmig, ’12
- Colby Missionaries in East Asia 1822-1949, by Stephanie Ruys de Perez ’13
- Prejudicial Preferences – The Discriminatory Selection Practices of Colby’s Greek Letter Societies, by Katie Daigle, ’15
- Online Narrative to Prejudicial Practices, by Katie Daigle, ’15
- Overview of Colby Fraternities and Sororities, by Katie Daigle, ’15
- Colby Students in World War II, by Makhieba Simon, ’18
Collection Highlights
Related Links
- Brief History of Colby College
Online exhibit in the Maine Memory Network, a statewide database administered by the Maine Historical Society - Mayflower Hill: A History of Colby College (Earl Smith, 2006)
Read the digital edition, download as PDF, or link to the Colby Bookstore to purchase a copy. - Colby College Archive photographs in Artstor
Images added regularly. - The Colby Echo online
Keyword search Echo issues from 1877 through 2006. - Task Force Report on Status of Women and Issues of Gender