The Junior Exhibition was an academic fixture of Washington College (now Trinity College), first held in the College Chapel on August 3, 1826. The event, which became a yearly tradition occurring on the day before Commencement, involved third-year students performing recitations of their own literary works to an audience of their peers and faculty. Encouraging students to fine tune their ability to orally express themselves with clarity and elegance, the Junior Exhibition became increasingly elaborate over time, with students renting silk gowns in which to recite their works with generous amounts of ceremonial flair. However, as years passed, student interest in these kinds of public academic ceremonies dwindled. As Glenn Weaver writes in his book The History of Trinity College, “The older curriculum, with its emphasis on oral class recitation, was giving way to one which stressed written composition….” ¹⁾ As a result, students were less inclined to perform literary and rhetorical declamation than previous classes had been. The Trinity Tablet reported in 1868 that “Junior Exhibitions at Trinity have for the last five or six years been considered among the things that were… Junior classes have showed no great desire to exhibit themselves.” Nevertheless, a vote was made by the Junior class of 1869 to hold an Exhibition in May of 1868. The plan, however, was canceled after the administration announced that the event would have to take place in “The Cabinet,” a hall far too small for the lively show the Juniors had been preparing for, which included a promenade concert. There were no Junior Exhibitions held in the following years, though there were other literary events and “exercises” performed at the College throughout the year. Prize Versions, a similar declamation event, though not limited to the Junior class, was held and a student in the Tablet voiced his hope that “Prize Versions, unlike Junior Exhibitions, will not be allowed to die out.”

The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 57-59, 159.

Trinity Tablet, June 1870.

Trinity Tablet, April 1870.

Trinity Tablet, March 1869.

Trinity Tablet, July 1868.

Trinity Tablet, April 1868.