Two names that all Dickinsonians know well — the founder of our college, Benjamin Rush, and its namesake, John Dickinson. Both men served as delegates to the Continental Congress and were well-known in Pennsylvania’s political community. But now, thanks to the tireless work of archivists in the Waidner-Spahr Library, new information about them has been uncovered.

“It was a spur-of-the-moment discovery, really,” said one librarian. “I opened a box in a long-abandoned back corner and there it was.”

What, exactly, was discovered?

Pages upon pages of love letters between the two men, spanning over three decades, from 1776 — the year the two would have met when they both served on the Continental Congress — to 1808, the year that John Dickinson died.

Despite both men being married, their wives seem to have played a background role in the men’s relationships with one another.

Another archives volunteer commented, “It’s clear that they were deeply committed to one another. You don’t find love like that every century.”

John Dickinson in particular showed great affection toward Benjamin Rush, lauding his ingenuity and talent. He wrote, “It is my honor to be your lover. Everything that you do is brilliant. I wish I could see and touch your face every single day. Though we are parted for now, know that not a moment passes when I do not wish to be with you.”

“If the world cannot know of our love,” reads one letter from Rush to Dickinson dated 1783, “then you shall know it, forever and ever, because I have named my college for you.”

Through this new evidence, it is clear that Dickinson College was founded on only the most steadfast of principles. The enduring beauty of the love and commitment between these two men enables Dickinson to be the school that it is today.