Constellation Similarity Assertions

The Philoclean Society was one of two student literary societies active at Rutgers College during the greater part of the 19th-Century. The society was formed during the first semester of the re-opening of Rutgers College in 1825. Another society, the Peithessophian, was started the same year; the two would remain campus rivals until both fell victim to a lack of interest in the 1890's. The society was re-formed in 1907 and remained active until 1932.

Professor William Craig Brownlee was instrumental in naming and organizing the Philoclean Society that first year, but from the beginning it was an entirely student governed and supported organization. The society served a number of important functions on campus. The first was to improve the students' skills in declamation, composition, and debate through compulsory participation at weekly meetings. The second function was to provide students access to more varied literature than was available at the college library. The society maintained a lending library that included works of literature, philosophy, science, religion, as well as current periodicals. A third major function of the society was to administer and participate in the annual commencement week activities. The Philoclean Society pitted its best junior debators against those of the Peithessophian Society in the annual Junior Exhibition, held the night before commnencement.

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