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(詳細はWesleyan University is a private liberal arts college and "little university" located in Middletown, Connecticut. The now secular institution was founded in 1831 as an all-male Methodist college.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 About Wesleyan )〕 Historian David B. Potts divides the history of Wesleyan into four periods. According to Potts, from its founding until 1870, Wesleyan was a "local evangelical enterprise", an amalgam of local financing and Methodist sponsorship. From 1870 to 1910, it was a "decidedly Methodist" institution. It evolved away from its specifically Methodist character and from 1910 to 1962 was one of many prestigious New England liberal arts colleges. (Ties to Methodism were formally broken in 1937.) Since 1962, capitalizing on the success of its endowment in the prior decade, it began a transformation into a "little university".〔.〕 ==Founding== Wesleyan was founded by Methodist leaders and prominent residents of Middletown, and was the first academic institution to be named after John Wesley, the Protestant theologian who was the founder of Methodism. Although sponsored by the Methodist conference, under the leadership of the first President Wilbur Fisk (also written as ''Willbur'' Fisk) the college did not have a denominational requirement for admission and in addition to seminarian studies it had an innovative curriculum including electives and modern languages.〔 Fisk also traveled to Europe during his presidency to purchase books and scientific equipment, including one of the first telescopes at a college or university, which is currently conserved at Wesleyan's Van Vleck Observatory. Wesleyan remained a leader in educational progress throughout its history, and erected the first building dedicated to the sciences on any American college campus, Judd Hall. It also has always maintained a much larger library collection than a comparable institution its size. The campus predates the college. Several prominent citizens of Middletown sought to have a college on High Street, and by subscription raised the funds to build two buildings, today's South College, and the original North College, a Nassau Hall-type building. The first occupant of the buildings was Captain Alden Partridge's American Literary, Scientific, & Military Academy in 1825. That institution had a checkered career and became a center of controversy. In 1829, the military academy moved back to Norwich, Vermont when the Connecticut legislature declined to charter it to grant college degrees, and it later became Norwich University. Afterward, the Methodist Church agreed to buy the vacant campus, then consisting of five buildings, North College, South College, a dormitory that extended across the current campus to High Street, Webb Hall and President's House, (now the Latin American Studies Center). In the 1840s, Wesleyan was already beginning to make a reputation for itself both for the abolitionist sentiments of its students, and with their ongoing association with the Transcendentalist movement. Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Orestes Brownson were brought to the campus by the student literary societies, especially the Mystical 7. As national affairs moved closer to war, Wesleyan was put in a more awkward position than many other New England colleges; the Methodist Church was very strong in the South, and a significant number of students were from Southern states. These links were severed after 1861. Not every alumnus who served in the Civil War fought for the Union. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Wesleyan University」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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