Crane Theological School

The Crane Theological School began in eighteen sixty-nine as the Tufts College Divinity School, a quasi-independent seminary established to train Universalist ministers. It was created following a large bequest from university trustee Sylvanus Packard, who specified that a portion of his funds must support a professorship of Christian theology. Though the founders of Tufts College wanted to maintain a non-sectarian institution, they organized the divinity school to fulfill the terms of the gift while keeping religious instruction distinct from the undergraduate liberal arts program.