started its career as a college with an endowment of $100,000 (equivalent to $1,852,745 in 2024)—a very large sum at the time. The Academy buildings, grounds, and other property were valued at $15,000. To this sum were added subscriptions and parcels of land amounting to another $50,000. The New York State Legislature granted $50,000 to the new institution, and then supported it with $3,000 per year until 1850.
According to the 1813 rules of the college, candidates for admission had to be "able to read, translate and parse Cicero's select orations, Virgil, and the Greek testament, and to write true Latin in prose, and shall also have learned the rules of vulgar arithmetic."
In 1836 Hamilton had 115 students, four buildings, four professors, and the President.
In fall 1846, Zeng Laishun entered the college, and became the first Chinese college student to study abroad.
Over time, the college evolved into a more secular institution under the leadership of President M. Woolsey Stryker, who sought to distance Hamilton …
