August 21, 1998
Bicentennial Run Launches Celebration of Origins
of Middlebury College
Retraces Historic Route from New Haven, Conn.,
to Middlebury, Vt.
Middlebury College will begin a month-long celebration
of its founding on Friday, Sept. 11 at 1:30 p.m. in New Haven,
Conn.
A relay-run will retrace the route taken in September
1798 by Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College, as he traveled
by horseback from New Haven, Conn., to Middlebury, Vt. Dwight
passed through the town of Middlebury and while there discussed
establishing a new college with town leaders, who were considering
the possibility of amending the charter they received for the
Addison County Grammar School to include post secondary or collegiate
education. They conferred with Dwight to determine the feasibility
of establishing a college at Middlebury to provide a convenient
location for higher education. With Dwight’s counsel and encouragement,
Middlebury College was founded in 1800.
On three successive weekends, beginning with the
launch of the run at the New Haven town green, small groups of
two to four runners consisting of alumni, students, faculty, staff
and friends of the College will run five-mile legs along the route
as documented in Dwight’s journals. On Saturday, Sept. 12 runners
will pass through the Connecticut towns of Woodbridge, Bethany,
Middlebury, Litchfield, Goshen, and South Canaan on their way
to Sheffield, Mass. On Sunday, Sept. 13 runners will pass through
Massachusetts towns of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Stockbridge,
Lenox, Lanesboro, New Ashford and Williamstown to Pownal, Vt.
The run will continue on Saturday, Sept. 19, passing
through the Vermont towns of Pownal, Shaftsbury, Manchester, Danby,
and South Wallingford to Wallingford and, on Sunday, Sept. 21,
Wallingford, North Clarendon, Rutland, Pittsford, Brandon, and
Leicester to Salisbury. During each leg, runners will carry a
replica of a cane used by Gamaliel Painter, principal founder
of the town of Middlebury and Middlebury College.
On Sept. 26 the last leg of the run will begin in
Salisbury, Vt., at the site of Painter’s original homestead. The
runners will continue to the Middlebury village green to be greeted
by town officials, then eventually proceed to Middlebury College’s
Alumni Stadium where the Middlebury Panthers football team will
be playing against Wesleyan University. A half-time ceremony will
take place in honor of the College’s Bicentennial, which the school
will celebrate through the year 2000.
The Bicentennial Run threads through a series of
weekend events marking the 200th anniversary of Dwight’s
journey.
Schedule of Events Free and Open to the Public:
Sept. 18-19 The Nicholas
R. Clifford Symposium: The Liberal Arts in the 21st
Century. Speakers: Leon Botstein, Leon Levy Professor of Arts
and Humanities and president of Bard College (Friday, at 4:30
p.m.); Roger Schank, John Evans Professor of Computer Science,
Psychology, Education and Social Policy, and director of the Institute
for the Learning Science at Northwestern University (Friday, at
8:00 p.m.); and Richard Brodhead, professor of English language
and literature, and dean at Yale University’s Yale College (Saturday,
at 10 a.m., followed by a panel discussion). All symposium events
will be held at the Middlebury College Center for the Arts on
South Main Street (Route 30).
Sept. 24 Almost Perfect:
Timothy Dwight and the Founding of Middlebury College, a lecture
by Middlebury Associate Professor of American Literature and Civilization
Timothy Spears, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Twilight Hall
on College Street.
Sept. 25 Jaroslav Pelikan,
Sterling Professor Emeritus of Yale University and immediate past
president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, will speak
at 8 p.m at the Congregational Church on The College and the
Mystic Chords of Memory, followed by a reception at the Community
House. Both locations are on the village green in Middlebury.
Sept. 26 Ceremony at
10:30 a.m.on the Twilight Hall lawn on College Street to commemorate
the completion of the Addison County Grammar School on the 200th
anniversary of the occasion.
Sept. 26 Walking
tour of early College history led by Middlebury Professor of History
of Art and Architecture Glenn Andres, beginning at 11 a.m. on
the Twilight Hall lawn off College Street (Route 125).
Sept. 27 Ecumenical service
of local congregations, The Town’s Churches and the Town’s
College, at 11:30 a.m. in Mead Memorial Chapel on Hepburn
Road off College Street (Route 125). The service will involve
clergy from churches in Middlebury. A community lunch will follow
on the terrace of Proctor Hall on Hepburn Road.