The annual Charter Day tradition celebrates the university’s founding 331 years ago and offers an opportunity for the community to reflect on William & Mary’s past while keeping an eye toward its future, guided by its strategic plan and core values.
Lonnie Bunch, secretary of Smithsonian Institution, reflected on the power and purpose of history as the keynote speaker for William & Mary’s 2024 Charter Day.
Read more about the ceremony: https://news.wm.edu/2024/02/12/power-of-history-arts-celebrated-at-wms-charter-day/
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Art in Each Other is a poem that was written for William & Mary’s Charter Day celebrations, February 9, 2024. The piece highlights the power of place in art, and how creators and audiences alike are joined together, how they can better see the art in one another, through the experience of the arts in a specific location. From inspiration to moving interpretation, art cannot exist without a rich connection to place.
Art in Each Other by J.Miller '18
Lonnie Bunch, secretary of Smithsonian Institution, reflected on the power and purpose of history as the keynote speaker for William & Mary’s 2024 Charter Day, held Feb. 9 in Kaplan Arena. The annual tradition celebrates the university’s founding 331 years ago and offers an opportunity for the community to reflect on William & Mary’s past while keeping an eye toward its future, guided by its strategic plan and core values.
“What history does more than anything else is it challenges us to live up to [Abraham] Lincoln’s desire for a more perfect union,” said Bunch. “Embracing the complicated past helps us realize that there is nothing more powerful than a people, than a nation steeped in its history. And there’s nothing more noble than honoring all of our ancestors by remembering.”
Read more about the ceremony: https://news.wm.edu/2024/02/12/power-of-history-arts-celebrated-at-wms-charter-day/
Watch his honorary degree video, celebrating his life and career: https://youtu.be/CCcXSAr1DEc
Lonnie G. Bunch III, who serves as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and served as founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, will deliver remarks and receive an honorary degree at the 2024 Charter Day ceremony.
As secretary of the Smithsonian, Bunch leads more than 40 museums and libraries, plus the National Zoo and a variety of research and educational centers. He previously served as the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and is largely responsible for that museum’s launch and enormous success.
Read more about Lonnie and the 2024 Charter Day ceremony: https://news.wm.edu/2024/01/12/smithsonians-visionary-leader-to-highlight-wm-charter-day/
Former W&M Rector Jeffrey B. Trammell ’73 — a leader in strategic counseling, politics and education and advocate for LGBTQ rights — received an honorary degree at the 2024 Charter Day ceremony.
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One brick at a time we strengthen and build our enduring legacy, fusing old and new to go beyond what is imagined, leading the way for all time coming.
At William & Mary, we are “magnificent builders,” in the spirit of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem. We are called to expand our reach, educate for impact and evolve to excel. We come to William & Mary wanting to understand and change the world — and together we do.
Voice of Judge John Charles Thomas HON '18 from Convocation 2021
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William & Mary is a premier public research university, widely recognized for our outstanding academic reputation, beautiful campus and vibrant community. We produce experienced, engaged and successful graduates who lead lives of impact.
Learn more at www.wm.edu
Take a virtual campus tour, here: www.wm.edu/admission/virtualtour
#WilliamandMary
On February 11, 2022, William & Mary celebrated the university's 329th birthday with our Charter Day ceremony. Learn more about the event at
https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2022/vision-2026-wm-outlines-strategic-plan-during-charter-day-weekend.php
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William & Mary is a premier public research university, widely recognized for our outstanding academic reputation, beautiful campus, and vibrant community. We produce experienced, engaged and successful graduates who lead lives of impact.
Learn more at www.wm.edu
Take a virtual campus tour, here: www.wm.edu/admission/virtualtour
#WilliamandMary
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The William & Mary community gathered to celebrate the 327th birthday of the university. Here's your 30 second recap of Charter Day!
Music:
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Featuring the voices of President Sullivan, Prince Charles, Reverend Richard L. May, President Chandler, Chancellor Margaret Thatcher, U.S. President Eisenhower, Ellen Stofan ’83, D.Sc. ’16, and President Rowe.
Take a glance at some of William & Mary's history as we celebrate the university’s 325th birthday.
Voiceover provided by: Hasini Bandara, Alana Canty-Samuel, James Cooper, Clive LePage, Kirsten Linder, Riley Walker, and Conor Wilson
Paper can be a foundation. It can contain the first inklings of an institution like no other. It can show us a place to come together over centuries to create something incredible — something bold. It tells us where we come from, and gives us inspiration to seek out where we’re going.
Today, we celebrate paper and the people who believe in it.
Charter Day 2017
William & Mary’s 2023 Charter Day ceremony Friday at Kaplan Arena provided a meaningful platform to tell a more inclusive story of the university’s past while celebrating the path forward.
It was an occasion to commemorate the 330th anniversary of the university’s royal charter and also an opportunity to officially launch the yearlong 300th anniversary commemoration of the Brafferton Indian School, which was constructed in 1723 to house the Indian School at William & Mary.
Watch the recap that features remarks from President Katherine A. Rowe, Chief Lynette Allston of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, D.P.S. '23, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
Read more about the ceremony here: https://news.wm.edu/2023/02/13/william-mary-honors-history-while-celebrating-present-and-future-connections-at-charter-day-2023/
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