SUNY Potsdam history

Potsdam was founded by Benjamin Raymond in 1816 as the St Lawrence Academy.

With funds from the state, and from support by preceptor Reverend Asa Brainerd, the first diploma in teaching was given in 1836, thus beginning the academy's and eventually the college's longstanding tradition of excellence in the field of teacher education.

In 1866, the State Legislature ended its funding of teacher education departments in private academies, and began establishing several normal schools throughout the state.

The Village of Potsdam was thus named as one of four locations for new normal schools, and in 1867, the St Lawrence Academy became the Potsdam Normal School.

By 1886, the Potsdam Normal School had become the first institution in the United States to offer a normal training course for public school music teachers in the United States.

George Sweet, author, First Quarto-Centennial History, Normal School, Potsdam, N.Y. (1894)

Norman Rockwell illustrated the cover of the Potsdam Normal Magazine, the alumni publication for his wife’s alma mater, in 1919.

Longtime Crane School of Music Dean Helen Hosmer led the first semester-long study abroad course in Europe ever to be hosted by a United States Normal School, in 1936.

The State University of New York was founded in 1948, and Potsdam became one of its founding members, and was thus renamed New York State Teachers College at Potsdam.

In 1964, the college's mission changed to providing multiple programs, and the university adopted its current name.

SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music provided all of the music for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.

That was the biggest first-year class since 1982, and an 11.4 percent increase over the previous year's incoming freshman class, which had 835 students.