Kenyon College is a liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, and the oldest private institution of higher education in the state. Philander Chase, an Episcopal bishop, founded Kenyon as a men’s theological seminary in 1824. A number of British noblemen provided funds for the college, including Admiral James Gambier of the Royal Navy and George, Baron Kenyon. Bishop Chase named the site of the new college for Lord Gambier and the school itself for Lord Kenyon.
By the mid-1800’s, Kenyon College had become a respected academic institution that offered a good classical education. Among its early graduates were Edwin M. Stanton, United States President Abraham Lincoln‘s secretary of war; and President Rutherford B. Hayes.
The poet John Crowe Ransom taught at Kenyon from 1937 to 1958. He founded The Kenyon Review, an influential literary journal, in 1939. The college began to admit women students in 1969. Besides Stanton and Hayes, other well-known Kenyon graduates include poets Robert Lowell and James Wright; novelists E. L. Doctorow, William Gass, and Peter Taylor; actor Paul Newman; baseball executive Bill Veeck; and Swedish prime minister Olof Palme.
The college’s website at https://www.kenyon.edu/ offers additional information.
