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"P" is for Presbyterian College

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"P" is for Presbyterian College. A liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Clinton, Presbyterian College was founded in 1880. Initially, the college was the means of furthering the education of youth in Thornwell orphanage. Originally known as Clinton College, the institution became the Presbyterian College of South Carolina in 1890 when oversight increased to include all presbyteries of the Synod of South Carolina.  In 1928, the Synod of Georgia joined in support of what was now called Presbyterian College. The school gained full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1923. From its inception, the college had welcomed women as day students; in 1965 it began admitting women as residential students. In the early twenty-first century, Presbyterian college maintained its close connection to the Presbyterian Church.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.