The Silliman Foundation 



In the year 1883 a legacy of eighty thousand dollars 

 was left to the President and Fellows of Yale College 

 in the city of New Haven, to be held in trust, as a gift 

 from her children, in memory of their beloved and hon- 

 ored mother, Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman. 



On this foundation Yale College was requested and 

 directed to establish an annual course of lectures de- 

 signed to illustrate the presence and providence, the 

 wisdom and goodness of God, as manifested in the 

 natural and moral world. These were to be designated 

 as the Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures. It 

 was the belief of the testator that any orderly presenta- 

 tion of the facts of nature or history contributed to the 

 end of this foundation more effectively than any at- 

 tempt to emphasize the elements of doctrine or of 

 creed; and he therefore provided that lectures on dog- 

 matic or polemical theology should be excluded from 

 the scope of this foundation, and that the subjects 

 should be selected rather from the domains of natural 

 science and history, giving special prominence to 

 astronomy, chemistry, geology, and anatomy. 



It was further directed that each annual course 



