Linonia is a literary and debating society founded in 1753 at Yale University.
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Linonia was founded in 1753 as Yale University's second literary and debating society. By the late eighteenth century, all incoming freshmen at Yale College became members either of Linonia or its rival society, Brothers in Unity, which was founded in 1768. Other debating societies arose throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, notably Crotonia in 1738 and Calliope in 1819, but were relatively short-lived.[1] By the end of the Civil War, the social dominance of Linonia and Brothers began to decline, and the debating society system ultimately evolved into the Yale Union and later in 1934, the Yale Political Union.
The Linonian Society was reconstituted at the beginning of the 21st century in the mold of Yale's other collegiate secret societies. Instead of tapping only rising seniors, however, it draws from the Yale Law School, Yale Graduate School and Yale School of Management, in addition to Yale College students. According to tradition, Linonia participates in Yale's tap night during the second week of April. Unlike other "bio" societies, meetings often involve debate on intellectual and political topics.
At the time of the formation of Yale's central library in 1871, Linonia and Brothers donated their respective literary collections to the university. Both societies had kept substantial collections of works not deemed suitable by the Yale faculty, which did not teach English literature until the late nineteenth century. The donation is commemorated in the Linonia and Brothers Reading Room at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library. The reading room contains the Linonia and Brothers (L&B) collection, a travel collection, a collection devoted to medieval history, and a selection of new books recently added to Sterling’s collections.[2] The Linonian Society, Brothers in Unity, and Calliope are all commemorated with their own courtyards in Branford College.
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