What will you find during Founders’ Week?
We’re multiplying the excitement of our annual Founders’ Day by making a Founders’ Week, perfect for 2026! Join us for engaging events surrounding the anniversary of our founding on March 9, and keep the celebration going throughout the month by taking a trip back to 1826 with events, speakers, exhibitions, and so much more. This March, we’re all about the Marquis de Lafayette, the legacy of our College’s founding, and the future on the horizon for our institution.
We’ve got 200 years of spirit ready to celebrate. How will you take part?
Founders’ Week Events 2026
Ongoing celebrations
Occurring throughout the month of March
200 Years, 200 Cheers regional events
200 Years, 200 Cheers is collection of celebratory regional gatherings that honor Lafayette College’s founding and 200-year legacy while bringing alumni together to reflect on their shared experiences. These dinners and events, occurring all across the country, allow alumni, parents, families, and friends to come together while contributing to a collective storytelling project. Throughout these events, guests will be asked to share a memory, piece of memorabilia, or a single word that captures what Lafayette means to them, written on branded Bicentennial postcards provided in each event kit. These postcards and photos will be returned to campus to be used to creatively tell the story of the College across future events and share that story with our current students.
Registration details will be made available in the coming weeks.
Black History Month events
Leading into Founders’ Week, events will include opportunities to learn about the Marquis and his work toward abolitionism in the U.S., as well as explore the history of African Americans at the College as the Bicentennial co-sponsors several Black History Month events. Events will culminate with the staging of the original play The Language of Sight: The David McDonogh Story. More information about Black History Month events will be available later this month.
Saturday, March 7
Conference of the Council of Lafayette Women
The Lafayette Legacy: Women Leading Change
Open to the Lafayette community, the 2026 Conference of the Council of Lafayette Women will feature insights into the life of Adrienne de Noailles, the wife of Lafayette, and an activist in her own right. Alumni, faculty, and staff speakers will present on a variety of topics focusing on women’s achievements throughout modern history.
Panel discussion: “The Making of Adrienne”
Location: Colton Chapel
Time: 3 p.m.
Join us for an informative panel discussion on the process behind building Adrienne’s likeness and her impact on history, moderated by Elaine Stomber ’89 P’17 P’21, co-director of Special Collections & College Archives and College archivist, featuring Dr. Robert Mattison, Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art, Emeritus, Lafayette College; Brian Boothe Craig, artist; Dr. Samantha Baskind, Distinguished Professor of Art History at Cleveland State University, board member of the Audrey Flack Foundation; Diane Shaw, director emerita of Special Collections and College Archives, Lafayette College, and researcher of the life of Adrienne de Noailles.
The panel will be followed immediately by the dedication and reception in Skillman Library.
Bicentennial Art Commission dedication
As part of the Conference of the Council of Lafayette Women, the College will dedicate the Bicentennial Art Commission, a bust of Adrienne—the final work of world-renowned artist Audrey Flack. While Adrienne’s husband became involved in French politics, she was working hard to further the cause of abolition and human rights. The bust will be dedicated as part of the closing of the conference.
Monday, March 9
Founders’ Day community celebration
Location: Farinon Student Center
Time: 4:15 p.m.
Welcome the Marquis de Lafayette to his first official visit to campus in style! Mark Schneider, renowned historical interpreter of the Marquis, will join the Lafayette community in celebrating our founding, greeting and connecting with the community, reading our Charter, and reflecting on the values of Lafayette that remain central tenets of the College to this day. Join us for a fun and festive celebration of America’s adopted Founding Father and the founding of the College that bears his name.
An interview with the Marquis de Lafayette
Location: Colton Chapel
Time: 7–8:30 p.m.
Did you ever imagine your ideal dinner party, with the opportunity to ask any historical figure questions about their life’s triumphs and setbacks? Join Dr. Iris De Rode, historian of the French role in the American Revolution recently featured in Ken Burns PBS docuseries The American Revolution, as she interviews the Marquis de Lafayette (renowned historical interpreter Mark Schneider). Hear reflections from the “Marquis” on his life and thoughts about the founding and legacy of the College that carries his name, as well as what it’s like to make a living interpreting history across the country and the world. An opportunity to submit questions to the Marquis/Mark will be provided before the event.
Tuesday, March 10
A Bicentennial History from the Lafayette College Archives
Location: Gedebein Room, Skillman Library
Time: 12:15-1:15 p.m.
Lafayette College has evolved over the last 200 years to accommodate an increasingly interdisciplinary curriculum and expanding student population. Join Elaine McCluskey Stomber ’89 P’17 P’21, co-director of Special Collections & College Archives and College archivist, for an overview of the key historic events that contributed to the development of one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the nation.
Wednesday, March 11
200 Years of Gratitude—200 Notes, Endless Thanks
Location: Farinon Student Center
Time: 11 a.m.–2 p.m.
For 200 years, members of the Lafayette community have shaped one another’s experiences. To honor that legacy, we’re collecting 200 handwritten notes of gratitude—one for every year of Lafayette’s history.
As part of Lafayette’s Bicentennial celebration, students, faculty, and staff are invited to Farinon during the lunch hour to write a note of thanks to someone who has made a meaningful impact on their Lafayette experience.
This simple gesture offers a powerful way to reflect on the people who have shaped our community—whether a professor who sparked a passion, a staff member who made campus feel like home, or a donor who supported your Lafayette experience. Together, these notes will capture the spirit of appreciation that has defined Lafayette for two centuries.
Can’t make it in person? Join the celebration from anywhere. Submit a note of gratitude through our upcoming online form, and we’ll add it to the 200 Notes collection. Stay tuned for more details as we celebrate this milestone—one handwritten note at a time!
“Lafayette and the Struggle for Human Rights”: A Lecture with Professor Lloyd Kramer, Professor Emeritus of History, UNC–Chapel Hill
Location: Kirby 104
Time: 4:15–5:30 p.m.
Light refreshments to follow
Join us during Founders’ Week as Prof. Kramer leads us on an exploration of Lafayette’s ideas about human rights and his support for others who advocated for human rights in both Europe and America. How might Lafayette’s ideas have influenced those who endeavored to found our College, and how can Lafayette’s life and ideas still inform our responses to the ongoing challenges of our own time?
Thursday, March 12
Lunch & Learn: “Mapping Lafayette” Student Research Presentation
Location: TBD
Time: 12:00–1:15 p.m. (Lunch provided, presentation to start at 12:15)
Come learn from the students of A&S 320: Lenape Homelands and Lafayette: How a College Got Its Land, who spent their fall 2025 semester conducting original research to understand how Lenape homelands became Lafayette College. Co-taught by Andrea Smith, professor of anthropology and sociology, and Katelyn Lucas, visiting instructor and tribal heritage preservation officer of the Delaware Nation, this course explored the Lenape, the colony’s founder, William Penn, land speculation, actions that dispossessed the Lenape, and early settlers linked to Easton and the founding of the College. Students will present their original research and the digital archive created from their work.