College Catalogs

The Catalog of the College of William and Mary includes course descriptions and information about the campus.

Catalogs from 1829 to the present are now available through the W&M Digital Archive. Modern college catalogs are best remembered for detailed course descriptions and information about degree requirements, but catalogs also include other important information about the university, its people, buildings, and history. In university catalogs you will find lists of faculty and staff, highlights of facilities and services, academic policies, descriptions of student groups, and much more information intended to inform current and attract potential students. Catalogs from the 19th and early 20th centuries are a treasure trove for researchers of not only William & Mary history, but also family history as they list faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

As the university has grown, separate catalogs for schools and divisions have been published by William & Mary including the School of Marine Science, School of Education, and Graduate Arts & Sciences Program. Recent catalogs from these programs are available here, but the majority of these catalogs have not yet been digitized. Historical divisions of William & Mary that no longer exist such as the Extension and Evening Colleges, Richmond Division (Virginia Commonwealth University), Norfolk Branch (Old Dominion University), etc. have not yet been digitized. Paper copies are available in Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center.

Catalogs Available in the Special Collections Research Center

This is a list of the College of William and Mary Catalogs in the Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center.

Undergraduate Catalog

1829-1855

1856-1857

None available

1858-1860

college closed May 1862-Aug 1865

1865-1866

None available

July 1868-Oct 1869 college closed

1870

None available

1874

None available

1881-1888: The College was closed.

1888-1899

1900-1971

1972-1973: no catalog published

1974-present

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Prior to 1966, graduate studies was included in the undergraduate catalog. Issues from 1966 to the present are available.

Finance and Business Administration

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs  		

1920

1920-1921		

1921-1922		

None available

1926-1927		

None available

1969-1970		

None available

1972-2008		

School of Marine Science

1951		

None available

1969-1974		

None available

1979-2008		

Law School

1920-1923		

None available

1933-1935		

None available

1941-1942		

None available

1944-1963		

None available

1964-1995		

Catalogs from the School of Law are available in the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository.

School of Education

1961-1963 (not a graduate school at this time)		

None available

1968-ongoing		

Richmond Division

Richmond Professional Institute

1939-1940		

None available

1941-1946		

None available

1948-1950		

None available

1952-1954		

None available

1956-1959		

Richmond School of Social Work & Public Health

1917-1938		

Richmond Extension Division Courses by W&M and UVA

1921-1925

Norfolk Division

Extension Courses		

1927		

None available

1930-1955		

None available

1957-1962		

Christopher Newport

1962-1967 evening classes		

1961-1964		

*missing		

1968-1975		

Richard Bland College

1960-2008

Need help?

To search for further material, visit the Special Collections Research Center's Search Tool List for an overview of the Special Collections Database, W&M Digital Archive, Flat Hat-William & Mary News-Alumni Gazette index, card catalogs, and other tools available to help you find material of interest in William & Mary Libraries Special Collections Research Center.

Questions? Contact the Special Collections Research Center at spcoll@wm.edu or 757-221-3090, or visit the Special Collections Research Center in the Earl Gregg Swem Library at William & Mary.

A Note About The Contents Of This Wiki

The information available in this wiki is the best available from known documents and sources at the time it was written. Unfortunately, many of the early original records of William & Mary were destroyed by fires, military occupation, and the normal effects of time. Information in this wiki is not complete as new information continues to be uncovered in Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center and elsewhere. Researchers are strongly encouraged to use the Special Collections search tools for their research as the information contained in this wiki is by no means comprehensive.