The story
Earlham was founded in 1847 as the Friends Boarding School, a boarding high school for the religious education of Quaker adolescents. In 1859, Earlham became Earlham College, upon the addition of collegiate academics. At this time, Earlham was the third Quaker college in the United States (Haverford College was first, Guilford College the second), and the second U.S. institution of higher education to be coeducational (Oberlin College was first). Though the college initially admitted only students who belonged to the Religious Society of Friends, Earlham began admitting non-Quakers in 1865. The college was named for Earlham Hall, home of the Gurneys, an important English Quaker family.
Over time, as Quakerism in America became more progressive, Earlham's practices changed with them. The college has still remained faithful to its Quaker roots. 1960 marked the establishment of the Earlham School of Religion, then the only Friends seminary in the world.
In 2017, Earlham appointed Alan C. Price as its first African-American president. Price left the position in July 2018, and in November of that year was appointed director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
From Wikipedia’s article on Earlham College, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5