Bowdoin College
- Alumni & Post-Grads

Famous Bowdoin Alumni:

• Calvin Stowe (Class of 1824) – His wife, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" in his study while he was living in Appleton Hall.
• Franklin Pierce (Class of 1824) – 14th president of the United States of America.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (Class of 1825) – Author of "Fanshawe," "The Scarlet Letter," and "The House of Seven Gables."
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Class of 1825) – Professor of modern languages at Bowdoin from 1829 to 1835 and arguably the most popular literary figure in 19th-century America.
• John Brown Russwurm (Class of 1826) – Bowdoin’s first black graduate and the third black man to graduate from an American college. He went on to become co-founder and co-editor of the country’s first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal.
• Oliver Otis Howard (Class of 1850) – Civil War hero and founder of Howard University. He served as Howard University’s first president from 1869 to 1874. Bowdoin’s residence hall, Howard Hall, is named in his honor.
• Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Class of 1852) – Colonel who took command of the 20th Maine Infantry. He defended Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg, later receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions. He served four terms as governor of Maine before serving as Bowdoin’s president from 1871 to 1883.
• Robert E. Peary (Class of 1877) – Reached the North Pole in 1909. Peary returned to the United States a national hero and was promoted to the rank of rear admiral.
• Donald B. MacMillan (Class of 1898) – Led one of Peary’s support teams. MacMillan went on to lead more than two dozen expeditions to the Arctic, often enlisting Bowdoin College students as members of his scientific crew.
• Paul H. Douglas (Class of 1913) – Served as U.S. senator from Illinois.
• Sumner T. Pike (Class of 1913) – Served as president of the Atomic Energy Commission.
• Alfred C. Kinsey (Class of 1916) – Wrote "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" and "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" in 1953. Kinsey’s research is still considered the largest and most significant study of human sexuality.
• George Mitchell (Class of 1954) – Served as U.S. senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995. From 1995 to 2000, he served as special adviser to President Bill Clinton and the Secretary of State for economic initiatives in Ireland.
• Joel Abromson (Class of 1960) – Served as state senator of Maine.
• William S. Cohen (Class of 1962) – Served as U.S. senator from Maine before becoming secretary of defense for President Bill Clinton.
• Kenneth Chenault (Class of 1973) – Served as the CEO of American Express. He helped bring AmEx back from the brink.
• Joan Benoit Samuelson (Class of 1979) – Won gold medal in the first women’s Olympic marathon, held in Los Angeles in 1984.
• Reed Hastings (Class of 1983) – Founder of Netflix.