While we were in the USA we visited Yale University; it was a miserable, dampish day, but it was very interesting to walk round this three century old seat of learning. I was born and brought up in another university city, Cambridge in England, so it was interesting to wander around another centre of excellence.
Yale is in Connecticut, in the city of New Haven; the idea of having a college in the early colonies was first promoted in the 1640’s by a group of clergymen but it wasn’t until the turn of the century that a charter was granted for a school. It was another nearly twenty years before the institution became Yale, named after a Welsh benefactor.
In the nineteenth century and through into the twentieth, different schools within the university were chartered;
- 1810 the School of Medicine
- 1822 the Divinity School
- 1824 the Law School
- 1847 the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
- 1869 the School of Art
- 1894 the School of Music
- 1900 the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- 1923 the School of Nursing
- 1955 the School of Drama
- 1972 the School of Architecture
- 1974 the School of Management
Like any prestigious university in the world, Yale has produced some renowned graduates, including five presidents, Taft, Ford, both Bushes and Clinton, US secretaries of state, Kerry, Rodham Clinton, Vance and Acheson. There have even been the prime ministers of Italy and Turkey, and presidents of Mexico, Germany and the Philippines. other famous alumni include:
- authors Sinclair Lewis and Tom Wolfe
- lexicographer Noah Webster
- Samuel F. B. Morse and Eli Whitney
- many, many people from the world of theatre and film including Paul Newman, Henry Winkler, Vincent Price, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Elia Kazan, LupitaNyong’o, Oliver Stone and Sam Waterston
- many sports players from different disciplines
- composers Charles Ives and Cole Porter
- child psychologist Benjamin Spock
- architects Norman Foster
As we wandered around, taking photos and admiring the buildings, wondered how many of the present day students would one day find fame and success, and become world figures in various areas.
Lois Elsden 
That building seems to have Moorish influence.
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We thought it was very strange – I wonder who the architect was?
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