You are here: Home > About the Collaborative > History > Earlham and the Religious Society of Friends

History of Earlham College

Earlham College has its roots in the great migration of Quakers from the eastern United States, especially from North Carolina, in the first half of the 19th century. This migration created Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends in 1821 which, by 1850, was the largest in the world. Its center was Richmond, Ind., where the yearly meetinghouse for the Orthodox body was located.

Thus when Indiana Friends decided in 1832 to open a boarding school "for the guarded religious education of the children of Friends," they placed it in Richmond. After 15 years of laborious fund-raising, it opened on June 6, 1847. In 1859, a collegiate department was added and the school became Earlham College, in honor of the home of the eminent English Quaker minister Joseph John Gurney, who had been an early supporter.

Early Identity

Originally a "select" school, open only to Friends, by 1865 the school accepted non-Quaker students, and hired its first non-Quaker professor in 1886. Gradually Quaker plain dress and the plain language disappeared from campus. By 1890, art and music, originally forbidden by Quaker beliefs, had become part of the curriculum. In the 1890s, intercollegiate athletics became part of Earlham life.

Campus and Global Change

Earlham transformed itself after World War II, with building and financial growth and the advent of a new generation of faculty, many veterans of Civilian Public Service. The student body became national and international.

In 1960, in order to meet a growing demand for leadership in the Society of Friends, the Earlham School of Religion opened as the only accredited Quaker theological seminary in the world.

Earlham College Today

Earlham College is a four-year, coeducational, residential, liberal arts college. Earlham students come from 47 states and 28 countries. The college offers the Bachelor of Arts degree in 40 disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields, as well as permitting self-designed studies, and cooperative programs in business and engineering.

Although only 15 percent of the student body is Quaker, the college maintains its Quaker identity through its Community Code, its governance by consensus-seeking, its curriculum, and its affiliation with Indiana and Western yearly meetings of Friends.

The Religious Society of Friends

Adapted from www.fum.org

George Fox wandered through England searching the Scriptures and seeking help from priests, professing believers in the established church and dissenters but seemed to find no satisfying answers. In June of 1652, in the northwest of England, he climbed a high hill and had a vision of a great people to be gathered in the power of the Lord. From that time on he preached with great authority and by his death in 1691 some fifty to sixty thousand persons in England were firmly convinced Friends. The Seekers who responded to the message that Fox proclaimed found Christ to be a living presence in the depth of their own experience.

Quakers and Friends

Jesus' words, "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14) took on great meaning for them and became the basis for using "Friends" as their identification.

The label, "Quaker," was first used as a derogatory nickname because early Friends had urged those who heard their message to tremble in the face of the power of the Lord. Eventually they were glad to take the name themselves. Their lives had been shaken to the core by the power of God. The hearts of the first Friends were set ablaze by the fire of the Spirit and they sought to share their experience with others.

Early North American Quakers

Mary Fisher and Ann Austin were the first Quaker messengers to the mainland of North America. They landed at Boston in 1656 and were immediately seized by the authorities, imprisoned, then sent back to their point of departure. Because of disorders and religious persecution in England, Friends began to immigrate to the New World. Quaker settlements were established in many colonies.

The first colonies to receive the practical interest of Friends were the Jerseys which, through the complication of trade, came into Quaker hands. In 1681, William Penn accepted the grant of land that became Pennsylvania as payment of a debt which King Charles II owed his father.

The colony was Penn's "Holy Experiment," his attempt to apply Quaker principles to the practical business of government. Under Quaker leadership the colony flourished and prospered for decades. Clusters of families from Friends communities and entire Meetings migrated west of the Appalachian Mountains after the provision of 1787. In a very real sense a "Quaker Exodus" took place between the latter part of the 1700s and the Civil War as Friends poured into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan and overflowed into the states beyond the Mississippi River.

Quaker Beliefs

Friends seek to be "Children of Light" in both personal and social morality. Like the Early Church, Friends begin with the experience of the presence and the power of the living Christ; the Christ who makes His will known and guides and directs.

Quaker worship, whether unprogrammed (based on silent waiting and prophetic speaking out of the silence) or programmed (with a simple order of service and usually including a period of silent waiting), is a group experience of communion with Christ who is present in the midst of His gathered people.

The Church is the company of the people in whom Christ dwells. Outward sacraments are not necessary since Christians follow Him who baptized "with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16), and who is Himself "the bread of life" (John 6:35). The primary authority for Friends is the Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures.

Quaker Institutions

A group of Quarterly Meetings comprises a Yearly Meeting, which is the autonomous and authoritative body. In North America there are 31 Yearly Meetings, 11 of which join together in cooperative ministries through Friends United Meeting. Friends General Conference (FGC), established in 1900, has fourteen Yearly Meetings, five of which hold membership jointly in Friends United Meeting. Organized in 1966, Evangelical Friends International (EFI) has six Yearly Meetings in North America. Three Yearly Meetings are members of the Conservative group and seven Yearly Meetings are unaffiliated.