Brown University
Brown University, a privately supported educational institution in Providence, Rhode Island. The university, one of the oldest in the United States, is coeducational and, although founded by Baptists, nonsectarian. Its John Carter Brown Library has a large collection of Americana and its John Hay Library includes special collections on Abraham Lincoln and American poetry.
The institution was chartered in 1764 and began instruction in 1765 at Warren, under the name Rhode Island College. It was moved to Providence in 1770 and in 1804 the name was changed in memory of Nicholas Brown, who had left the institution a large sum of money. The Woman's College was added in 1891; its name was changed to Pembroke College in Brown University in 1928. Pembroke and the undergraduate men's college merged in 1971. Dr. Ruth J. Simmons became the first black president of an Ivy League institution when she was appointed president of Brown University in 2000.