The catalog of William & Mary includes course descriptions and information about the campus.
Catalogs from 1829 to the present are now available through the W&M Digital Archive. Modern college catalogs are best remembered for detailed course descriptions and information about degree requirements, but catalogs also include other important information about the university, its people, buildings, and history. In university catalogs you will find lists of faculty and staff, highlights of facilities and services, academic policies, descriptions of student groups, and much more information intended to inform current and attract potential students. Catalogs from the 19th and early 20th centuries are a treasure trove for researchers of not only William & Mary history, but also family history as they list faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
As the university has grown, separate catalogs for schools and divisions have been published by William & Mary including the School of Marine Science, School of Education, and Graduate Arts & Sciences Program. Recent catalogs from these programs are available here, but the majority of these catalogs have not yet been digitized. Historical divisions of William & Mary that no longer exist such as the Extension and Evening Colleges, Richmond Division (Virginia Commonwealth University), Norfolk Branch (Old Dominion University), etc. have not yet been digitized. Paper copies are available in Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center.
Catalogs Available in the Special Collections Research Center
This is a list of the William & Mary Catalogs in the Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center.
Undergraduate Catalog
1829-1855
1856-1857
None available
1858-1860
college closed May 1862-Aug 1865
1865-1866
None available
July 1868-Oct 1869 college closed
1870
None available
1874
None available
1881-1888: The College was closed.
1888-1899
1900-1971
1972-1973: no catalog published
1974-present
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Prior to 1966, graduate studies was included in the undergraduate catalog. Issues from 1966 to the present are available.
Finance and Business Administration
Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs
1920
1920-1921
1921-1922
None available
1926-1927
None available
1969-1970
None available
1972-2008
School of Marine Science
1951
None available
1969-1974
None available
1979-2008
Law School
1920-1923
None available
1933-1935
None available
1941-1942
None available
1944-1963
None available
1964-1995
Catalogs from the School of Law are available in the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository.
School of Education
1961-1963 (not a graduate school at this time)
None available
1968-ongoing
Richmond Division
Richmond Professional Institute
1939-1940
None available
1941-1946
None available
1948-1950
None available
1952-1954
None available
1956-1959
Richmond School of Social Work & Public Health
1917-1938
Richmond Extension Division Courses by W&M and UVA
1921-1925
Norfolk Division
Extension Courses
1927
None available
1930-1955
None available
1957-1962
Christopher Newport
1962-1967 evening classes
1961-1964
*missing
1968-1975
Richard Bland College
1960-2008