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Picture an evening in the late 18th century. A man sits alone at a desk lit only by the soft glow of a candle. The room is quiet but for the light scratching of pen on paper. The man pauses to ponder a thought and then resumes writing the manuscript that would become the crowning achievement of his life's work.

A member of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York joined the Hamilton community on Dec. 7 to help commemorate Samuel Kirkland’s birthday. A community lunch, sponsored by the Shenandoah-Kirkland Initiative, Chaplaincy, and other organizations on campus served as a celebration of Kirkland’s vision to connect with Haudenosaunee culture and the Oneida people.

Representatives from the Brothertown Indian Nation (BIN) along with Marshall Historical Society members visited the Burke Library of Hamilton College to view two bound BIN manuscript record books held by the Special Collections of Burke Library.

Community members on the Hill gathered to celebrate Samuel Kirkland’s 275th birthday on Dec. 1. Kirkland, born in 1741, founded the Hamilton-Oneida academy that later became the Hamilton College we know today.

Had Reverend Samuel Kirkland, the founder of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793, discovered the secret to immortality, he would have been 275 years old on December 1.

Two members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy joined the Hamilton community on Dec. 1 to help celebrate Samuel Kirkland’s birthday. A Community Lunch – sponsored by the Chaplaincy, Religious Studies Department, and the American Life & Thought Fund through the Dean of Faculty’s Office – served as a reminder of the college’s founder, and the heart of his educational mission, conceived as an outreach to indigenous peoples, particularly members of the Oneida Nation.

Bells in municipal towers and religious buildings – including Hamilton’s chapel bell – rang across the country on April 9 at 3:15 p.m. to commemorate the time 150 years ago when Generals Grant and Lee exited the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia bringing the Civil War to an end.

The monthly series of bicentennial displays, Hands on Hamilton History, continues with an exhibition of documents from around the time of the Revolutionary War and the following decades, including the founding and operation of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. The items will be on display in the Patricia Pogue Couper Research Room in the Emerson Rare Book Room on the third floor of Burke Library on Thursday, Oct. 20.

Hands on Hamilton History will debut on Thursday, Sept. 22, with an exhibit related to Samuel Kirkland.  Each month, Hands on Hamilton History will feature a small group of documents, artifacts and visual materials relating to a specific period in the history of the College. A brief discussion of these materials will take place at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Patricia Pogue Couper Research Room, third floor Burke Library.