Silliman College was named after Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864). Called the father of American scientific education, Silliman was the first professor of Chemistry at Yale before becoming a noted geologist. At twenty-five he was charged to gather material in Europe for enlargement of the Yale College Library, and to acquire chemical apparatuses.
Silliman was primarily responsible for the creation of the Yale Medical School in 1813, as well as the Peabody Museum and the Yale Art Gallery. In 1818, he founded American Journal of Science, a scientific periodical still published in New Haven today. Silliman also played a leading role in organizing the Sheffield Scientific School in 1847, an event that marked the dawn of professional scientific education in the United States.
Silliman College opened in September 1940. It was the last of the original ten Residential Colleges to be completed. The Vanderbilt-Sheffield dormitories and Byers Hall (which houses the Common Room, Dining Hall, and Library) were retained in the plans. All of the brick structures, including the Master's House, were built between 1938 and 1940.
The Silliman College seal, specially designed for the College, takes its motifs from the four elements of the ancient philosophers: red for fire, white for air and water, and green for earth. The golden acorns are from the family crest of Frederick W. Vanderbilt, Yale Class of 1876, whose bequest provided the funds for the building of the College. Because of its legendary associations with fire, the salamander was selected as the college symbol.
Silliman's sister colleges are
Pforzheimer House
(formerly North House) and
Dudley House
at Harvard University,
Trinity College
at Cambridge University, and
Brasenose College at
Oxford University.
Back to the main Silliman page.
Last modified: November 23rd, 1999