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Bowdoin College Library Facts

Founded:
1794
Bowdoin College was chartered by the General Court of Massachusetts, meeting in the Old State House in Boston – the District of Maine still being part of the Commonwealth. Governor Samuel Adams signed the bill.

1804
James Bowdoin III, an agrarian reformer and art collector, decided to endow the new college in Maine in honor of his father. Having no children, he left the infant institution an extraordinary library and his collections of Old Master paintings and drawings, minerals, and scientific equipment.