Set in a special box to help preserve its parchment and ink from the light, Yale's founding charter is written in longhand and affixed with a red wax seal. Signed on Oct. 9, 1701, the "act for Liberty to erect a Collegiate School" allowed for the "endowing & ordering a Collegiate School within his Majties Colony of Connecticot wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts & Sciences who thorough the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church & Civil State."
"I always call it 'the charter to establish the Collegiate School of the Colony of Connecticut,' because it wasn't Yale University, it wasn't in New Haven - there was no United States of America. It's important to maintain that context because there's so much more history behind it that you can imagine," said Michael Lotstein, the university archivist. It wasn't until 1718 that the Collegiate School became Yale College, and until 1887 that it became Yale University. "That's what this document represents: a small beginning that evolved into an incredible future for the university."
