According to Glenn Weaver,
No American college in the first half of the nineteenth century would have thought itself worthy of the name of college without its having at least one literary society, and Washington College was, if anything, “collegiate.”
Not to be confused with their counterparts, the secret societies, college literary societies (often called Latin literary societies because they typically had compound Latinate names) were distinctive intellectual social organizations and the precursor to modern-day fraternities and sororities. From the late 18th century until the Civil War, they were an important and arguably essential part of a student's social life.
Literary societies engaged in debate on Classical history, religion, ethics, politics, and current events, although religion was not regarded as a proper subject for debate or discussion at Trinity. It was also an opportunity for students to showcase original literature, poetry, or music with their peers and faculty during their free hours.
Societies at Trinity had their own “club rooms” or “halls” in Jarvis Hall and each club room had its own library, in which the students and faculty would amass their own materials:
By 1844, Athenaeum had accumulated well over one thousand volumes, among which were the usual religious, historical, and philosophical works and a considerable collection of poetry, dramatic works, novels, tales, and romances, areas in which the College Library was rather weak. Although the use of the society library was theoretically limited to the society membership, the College regarded the society collections as an integral part of the College Library and, until at least the Civil War, the combined society collections exceeded that of the regular College Library in size. 1)
Though the heyday of Literary Societies in their original form waned after the Civil War, several of Trinity's societies persisted, being disbanded and resurrected, and still exist today.