The History of the

Trinity College History Department    

[1945-1946]  [1954-1955]  [1962-1963]  [1969-1970]   [1990-1991]  [1999-2000]

Trinity College History Department: 1945-1946

    The History Department of 1945-1946 was much different than the one that you see in the Course Bulletin today. The history department was grouped in the Course Bulletin with the Political Science Department because the College had yet to separate the two departments. Both of these majors are two of the biggest majors on campus. History was one of the 28 majors offered here at Trinity. There were also only thirteen courses being offered in the history department. 

They were:  An Introduction to European History, United States History, Ancient Civilization Medieval Europe, English History, The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, History of the United States Diplomacy, European Diplomacy, The American Revolution, The United States as a world power, Seminar in History, Europe since 1815, and European History 1870 to 1914.

What could one find in the History Department?

    There were only two professors that were under the heading of history, out of the 49 faculty members at Trinity, Professor Humphrey and Assistant Professor Thompson.   In addition to these two professors there were three other professor that taught history courses. They were, Instructor Lafore, Instructor Cooper, and Assistant Professor Aydelotte.  Of the 31 graduates on February 22, 1945 there were two history major graduates, both of whom graduated with honors. On June 20, 1945 six people graduated and two of who were history majors
and they both also graduated with honors.

History major requirements:

   To be a history major, you had to take four courses in addition to Introduction to European History, which was history one.

Categories of courses:

The United States: 4
Europe: 7
Non-western: 0

Summary:

    As you can see times have changed for there are more global history courses today at Trinity College. Like much of the rest of the College, the department was small and lacked the depth and breadth both of competitors such as Yale, and of the department of today.

What is the History Department like at:

Wesleyan        Yale         UCONN