April 14, 1919: Dr. Chandler Accepts Offer

On April 14, 1919, Julian Alvin Carroll Chandler accepted the offer from the College of William and Mary's Board of Visitors to become the College's president with the pending retirement of President Lyon G. Tyler. Chandler served as president from 1919 until his death in 1934. President Chandler is credited with transforming William and Mary into a modern coeducational institution of higher learning. Chandler's acceptance is detailed in the April 16, 1919, issue of The Flat Hat.

Professor Carolyn Whittenburg has written and spoken extensively about President Chandler's impact on the College of William and Mary, especially related to women faculty and students. For more information, there is a short profile of President Chandler written by Prof. Whittenburg online; students from the Williamsburg Documentary Project interviewed Prof. Whittenburg in 2008 with the audio and index available through the College of William and Mary's digital repository; and her dissertation is available for checkout in Swem Library (call number LD6051 .W5m Educ., 2004, W58), reading in the Special Collections Research Center reading room, or for downloading via ProQuest database (linked from the dissertation's record in Swem Library's online catalog) for those with College of William and Mary privileges.

For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.