page_title: History of Georgetown University
section_title: Early student life
hierarchical_section_title: History of Georgetown University / Early growth / Early student life
caption_attribution_description: English: Graph of the first century of Georgetown University student enrollment, between the Academy and College, the Medical Department, and the Law Department. The Medical Department was later renamed the School of Medicine and the Law Department is currently Georgetown University Law Center. Made with Microsoft Excel. Data from Curran, Robert Emmett (1993). The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 0-8784-0485-6. &#160;&#160; Academy &amp; College &#160;&#160; Medical School &#160;&#160; Law School
context_page_description: The history of Georgetown University spans nearly four hundred years, from the early European settlement of America to the present day. Georgetown University has grown with both its city, Washington, D.C., and the United States, each of which date their founding to the period from 1788 to 1790. Georgetown's origins are in the establishment of the Maryland colony in the seventeenth-century. Bishop John Carroll established the school at its present location by the Potomac River after the American Revolution allowed for free religious practice.
  The role of the Society of Jesus in the school's operation has evolved from that of founders and financiers to faculty and advisers. Their focus on liberal studies and religious pluralism have helped to give the school its identity. Georgetown was also affected by its times, including the American Civil War, which disrupted the growing school and significantly changed its student body. University presidents like Patrick Francis Healy modernized the institution into an active research university with several graduate and undergraduate schools, and oversaw the expansion of educational opportunities on campus, around the city, and abroad.
context_section_description: From its beginning, Georgetown was not intended to be exclusively Catholic, and over its first ten years, nearly one-fifth of students were Protestant. A fifth of students were also from the Caribbean. By 1830, Jewish students were known to be attending. European immigrants and Napoleonic War refugees also made up significant parts of the early student body. School rules were harshly enforced. Leonard Neale, a strict moralist, regulated students' movements such that founder John Carrol accused him of running Georgetown "on the principles of a convent." There were three student organized rebellions against the Georgetown administration in the antebellum period. The most notable of these occurred in January 1850, against the administration of James A. Ryder over the school food. Students damaged the dormitories and took charge of a local hotel.
  The first student society, the Sodality of Our Lady, was founded in 1810 as a religious devotional group. A strict revision of school rules in 1829 forbade personal conversations or particular associations. Despite this the Philodemic Society was founded in 1830 as the school's debating and literary society, the oldest of its kind in America and the oldest secular group at Georgetown. Other debating societies were founded in its model, or in opposition to it in later years, such as the short lived Philisorian Society and the Philonomosian Society, which lasted from 1839 until 1935. The College Cadets were officially organized in 1836, becoming the oldest military unit native to the District of Columbia. The Dramatic Association of Georgetown College, renamed the Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society after World War I, was founded in 1852, and is itself the oldest surviving student dramatic society in America. The first Christmas tree was introduced to campus in December 1857.
caption: Graph of student enrollment 1791—1888
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