Editing Brown University (section)

=== Societies and clubs ===
[[File:Ladd Observatory2.jpg|thumb|[[Ladd Observatory]], built 1890–1891, is used by Brown Space Engineering, a student group focused on [[aerospace engineering]].]]
The earliest societies at Brown were devoted to oration and debate. The Pronouncing Society is mentioned in the diary of [[Solomon Drowne]], class of 1773, who was voted its president in 1771.<ref name=":7" /> The organization seems to have disappeared during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Subsequent societies include the Misokosmian Society (est. 1798 and renamed the Philermenian Society), the Philandrian Society (est. 1799), the United Brothers (1806), the Philophysian Society (1818), and the Franklin Society (1824). Societies served social as well as academic purposes, with many supporting literary debate and amassing large libraries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Encyclopedia Brunoniana {{!}} Franklin Society |url=https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=F0260 |access-date=2021-08-06 |website=www.brown.edu |archive-date=August 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806024223/https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=F0260 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="brown.edu">{{Cite web |title=Encyclopedia Brunoniana {{!}} Philermenian Society |url=https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=P0190 |access-date=2021-08-06 |website=www.brown.edu |archive-date=August 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806024221/https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=P0190 |url-status=live}}</ref> Older societies generally aligned with [[Federalist Party|Federalists]] while younger societies generally leaned [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]].<ref name=":7" />

Societies remained popular into the 1860s, after which they were largely replaced by fraternities.<ref name="brown.edu"/>

The Cammarian Club was at first a semi-secret society that "tapped" 15 seniors each year. In 1915, self-perpetuating membership gave way to popular election by the student body, and thenceforward the club served as the ''de facto'' undergraduate student government. The organization was dissolved in 1971 and ultimately succeeded by a formal student government.

[[Societas Domi Pacificae]], known colloquially as "Pacifica House", is a present-day, self-described secret society. It purports a continuous line of descent from the Franklin Society of 1824, citing a supposed intermediary "Franklin Society" traceable in the nineteenth century.