Class Day ’95. Lincoln University.

1895 Graduation eve academic program from an historically black university in Pennsylvania

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1895 Class Day program of music and oratory from Lincoln University, an historically Black university in Pennsylvania founded in 1854.

The day’s activities included morning and evening exercises. The program was comprised of musical grand marches (including one by John Philip Sousa) and other musical interludes; “Salutations” in Latin and Greek; various orations, including one by a “Giftorian”; a valedictory, and benedictions.

Orations by the students, whose formal commencement was the following day, were on such topics as psychology, politics, astronomy, mathematics, and geology. There were also an “Ivy Oration,” a “Didactical Oration,” and a “Class History.”

The program lists the Class of ’95 class officers, members of the class executive committee, ushers (all sophomores), musical personnel, and all 39 members of the graduating class. Graduates mainly came from the mid-Atlantic and upper South; one graduate was from Liberia.

The four verses of the class song—in Latin, “Classis Cantus,” are printed on the final page.

An illustration vignette on the front cover shows a Greek temple, the owl of Athena (Greek goddess of wisdom), and the Greek letters for the fraternity Phi Alpha Kappa.

Price: $250.00