Bowdoin Praying Circle records

The six volumes in this series contain records of voluntary student prayer meetings including their constitution, members and attendance, prayers, comments on lectures by attending ministers and faculty members, and statements about the moral and religious condition of the College. Based on groundwork laid a few years earlier by a small number of religiously oriented tutors and students, the Praying Society originated in 1815 and officially changed its name to the Praying Circle in 1835. Meeting in student rooms or recitation rooms, the students supported the temperance movement on campus, foreign missions, and corresponded with similar student societies on other campuses. In 1882, the Praying Circle disbanded, voting to become a branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.).