Ceremony

This ceremony dates to 1702 in Saybrook, Connecticut; the first Commencement in New Haven, with a graduating class of five, was held fifteen years later. Commencement exercises were conducted in Center Church until 1895, when they were transferred to Battell Chapel. In 1903, Commencement was held for the first time in Woolsey Hall; it continued there until 1950, when the postwar increase in the size of graduating classes necessitated a move to the present location on Old Campus.