The Bowdoin Orient was established in 1871 as Bowdoin Collegeʼs newspaper and literary magazine with its first issue published on April 3.
It is considered to be the oldest continuously-published college weekly in the U.S., which means that it has been in publication every academic year that Bowdoin has been in session since it began publishing weekly (while other college weeklies stopped printing during certain war years).
Explore documents from the Orient’s records maintained by the College Archives at the Bowdoin College Library.
A Note on Sources: The materials in Bowdoin’s historical collections routinely reflect dominant perspectives due to historical collecting practices. It is the work of scholars, librarians, and archivists to build representative collections and to read through the absences to build a broader understanding of our history. Documents from the College Archives reflect the fact that Bowdoin College was an all-male institution until 1971 with predominately white students, faculty, and administration.