The “Friendship Club, No 2” (1853) is the earliest document Norwich University Archives has of the origins of the Norwich University Alumni Association. However, the original Friendship Club was the class of 1852; that charter is not is not in the Archives.
The NUAA grew out of these Friendship Clubs. Each of the three classes pledged to “meet on Norwich Plain” during 1860 Commencement–the “Year of the Jubilee.”
This charter of Friendship Club, No 2 shows the intent of the founders to celebrate the camaraderie they found at Norwich that still exists in the Norwich University Alumni Association today.
The charter of Friendship Club, No 3 (1854), written up in the Reveille contains almost identical language, except for a few commas, as Friendship Club, No 2 (pictured above).
We, the undersigned members and former members of Norwich University do by our signatures voluntarily organize ourselves into a Society for the purpose of keeping in remembrance those friendly feelings and that brotherly regard which now exists among us.
The Society shall be called The Friendship Club, No 3. Its officers shall consist of a President, Vice-Presidents and Secretaries.
Providence permitting, we hereby pledge ourselves that we meet on Norwich Plain, at Commencement, if there is one in 1860, if not, on the First Thursday after the Third Wednesday in August of the above mentioned year….
According to Col. Henry O. Kent (NU 1855) these clubs were founded by members of the graduating classes and their immediate friends. At the Jubilee in 1860, according to Kent, the Clubs merged into the Association of Alumni and Past Cadets. Their goal was to meet every five years.
This Association of Alumni and Past Cadets met until 1875 when the last meeting was held at the Revere House, Boston. In 1888, the Norwich University Alumni Association of Boston was begun, which meets annually.
Currently, NUAA has dozens of clubs, in the U.S. and abroad, as well as a twelve affinity groups.
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