The Washington (Trinity) College Board of Trustees was established in 1823 alongside the founding of the College. The Board is responsible for the final approval of decisions regarding finances, appointments to the Board of Trustees, Fellows, and Board committees, Faculty, Staff, and Presidency, adopting and eliminating by-laws, ordinances, policies and curricula, changes to buildings and grounds, and conferring degrees and honorary degrees.

In May 1823, the Board drafted the Washington College Charter and held its first meeting on July 8, 1823 in Middletown, Connecticut. Washington College, the second college established in Connecticut, opened in September 1824, with the Rt. Rev. Thomas Church Brownell having been elected president. Subsequent meetings of the Board were held once or twice a year, during which it conferred with the President, Librarian, faculty, and other boards and committees. The Trustees resolved to expand their number from 20 to 24 in 1837.

In 1845, the Board voted to change the name of Washington to Trinity College. The Trustees also wrote the Board of Fellows Charter, which included six nominated Trustees and six Alumni, to report on the Library, Cabinet, and Chapel, and act as examiners of the College. During this time, the Trustees were sometimes called “The Corporation.” The Trustees wrote the Statutes of Trinity College in 1857. In 1864, the Trustees created the Executive and Finance Committees to oversee decisions regarding funds and create budgets. These committees were abolished in 1866 and duties replaced by the Resident Board, comprised of members of local Trustees-in-residence and the President. In 1875, the Executive and Finance committees were re-established.

In 1872, the Trustees accepted the City of Hartford’s offer to purchase the Capitol Hill campus and within five years moved to the Gallows Hill/Summit Street campus in Hartford. Alumni began to serve as Trustees in 1883, after requests for representation from the Alumni Association, previously called the House of Convocation. In subsequent years, particularly the 1920s through 1960s, the Trustees made frequent amendments to the Charter, changed policies and curriculum, introduced coeducation, and adopted a mission statement. The 1960s and 1970s was also a time of change for Trustee membership terms and conditions in order to create more turnaround. In 1974, Mrs. Virginia Gray and Mrs. James G. Lowenstein were the first women admitted to the Board and in 1979, Emily Holcombe Sullivan '74 became the first alumna Trustee.

Trinity College Board of Trustees

Board of Trustees records, Trinity College Archives

Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp.

History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver.