Charter Day is an annual celebration on May 16, the date in 1823 in which the State of Connecticut General Assembly granted the charter to found Washington College.

During Trinity's time on the old campus, Charter Day was called “Natal Day.” Bishop Williams was the first to suggest a “proper observance of the 16th of May” at the Brownell statue unveiling in fall 1869. The students heartily agreed and suggested that the celebrations be considered a college holiday. “The exercises, if we may be allowed to suggest, should be chiefly, but not wholly, of a commemorative character,” they wrote in the Trinity Tablet. However, there was no celebration in May 1870, to the disappointment of the students. “As yet, the undergraduates know nothing definitely as to how the next anniversary will be celebrated, or in fact whether it will be celebrated at all,” one student wrote, recommending that a committee be created for the occasion.

The first Natal Day was celebrated on May 16, 1871. By happy coincidence, there was a parade in the City that day, which allowed the students a holiday after the faculty refused it. Barnum's Circus was also in town, and the Governor himself passed the College on horseback which delighted the students. According to the Tablet, “the weather was all that could be desired,” and the students enjoyed a dance in the Cabinet in the evening, to which they invited ladies from the City. Dancing was one of the students' favorite pastimes, and it soon became an annual Natal Day Tradition. Originally held on campus, the dance later moved to Reilly's Hall on Main Street in Hartford.

Though Trinity typically did not have an official celebration on Charter Day, many different events have taken place on the day throughout the school's history. The 130th Charter Day was celebrated with the inauguration of President Albert Jacobs in 1953. Other years saw special services in the chapel and alumni fund drives. One of these funding campaigns, the Centennial Fund of 1923, promised that every contributor to the fund would have their name engraved on a bronze scroll that would be unveiled on Trinity's 100th Charter Day. The announcement in the Trinity Tripod advertising the scroll stated that though the contributors “may not live until 2023” to see Trinity's bicentennial, their names would live forever.

With the announcement of Trinity's Bicentennial Events in 2023, a plan that would establish a new tradition on Charter Day to be carried out in all future years was unveiled–a ceremonial tree planting, the performance of a new carillon piece composed for the Bicentennial, and the flying of the Trinity College flag over the Connecticut State Capitol.

Bicentennial Celebration Events

The Trinity Tripod: "Trinity College on the Occasion of its 197th Charter Day", 05/16/2020.

The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, p. 171.

The Trinity Tripod, 06/09/1923.

The Trinity Tripod, 06/02/1921.

The Trinity Tablet, May 1871.

The Trinity Tablet, September 1870.

The Trinity Tablet, December 1869.