On September 21, 1938, a category 3 hurricane slammed into Long Island. Continuing northward through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, the Great Hurricane of 1938 caused 682 deaths and $306 million of damages ($4.7 billion in today’s dollars).
Rhode Island was one of the hardest hit and Brown University was no exception. The Hurricane felled trees throughout campus. Major flooding in downtown Providence obliterated the writing on the University’s original charter, which was being stored in the bank vault of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company. And the statue of Caesar Augustus lost its right arm.

Felled trees line the path on the front campus. Hope College and Manning Hall are in the background.

Students help clean campus after the Hurricane. Carrie Tower and Robinson Hall are in the background.

The Hurricane toppled a tree right near Van Wickle Gates. The John Hay Library is in the background.

Students help clear trees near Carrie Tower.

Vice-President James P. Adams sends a memorandum to faculty and staff warning them about using fire as a substitute for light and telling them to go home before dark until further notice.

Memo sent to President Henry Merritt Wriston in 1944 describing the loss of the University’s original charter during the hurricane and efforts to restore the “obliterated” text.

List of damages incurred at Brown by the Hurricane of 1938.

Selected photographs of men’s and women’s crew from the Edward North Robinson Collection of Brown Athletics in the University Archives have been published in Ever True: The History of Brown Crew or How Oarsmen and Oarswomen Brought Glory to Old Brown.
Numbering over several hundred, the crew photos in the Robinson collection depict the boathouses, teams, practices, and races from 1870 to the present. If you want to see more photographs and other materials relating to men’s and women’s crew at Brown University please contact the Archives staff at [email protected] or visit the University Archives in the John Hay Library.