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Institution --> History In 1862, American Missionaries in Lebanon and Syria, under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, asked Dr. Daniel Bliss to withdraw from the evangelistic work of the Mission in Lebanon in order to found a college of higher learning which would include medical training. It was felt that this college should have an American educational character, should be administered independently from the Mission, and should be maintained by its own funds. Dr. Bliss sailed for the United States in the summer of 1862 to solicit funds for the new enterprise. By August 1864, he had raised $100,000 but because of inflation during the Civil War it was decided that he should raise a sterling fund in England in order to start the operations of the college, leaving the dollar fund to appreciate in value. After collecting £4,000 in England, he sailed for Beirut in March, 1866. While Dr. Bliss was raising money for the new school, the state of New York on April 24, 1863, granted a charter under the name of Syrian Protestant College. The College opened with its first class of 16 students on December 3, 1866. The cornerstone
of College Hall, the first building on the present campus in Ras
Beirut, was laid on December 7, 1871, by the Honorable William E.
Dodge, Sr., then Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, at a ceremony
during which President Daniel Bliss expressed the guiding principle
of the College in these words: |
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