Surgam

The Philolexian Foundation

In service to the Philolexian Society of Columbia University · Founded MDCCCII

For Patriotic Oration · Established MCMII

The Centennial Washington Prize

Awarded every four years to the student who delivers the finest oration on a patriotic theme. Open to all Columbia and Barnard undergraduates.

Endowed in 1902 by a $1,000 gift from Jonathan Ackerman Coles (Philo, CC 1864, M.D. 1868) to mark the Society's centenary, the Centennial Washington Prize is the oldest active award in the Philolexian portfolio. The gift's accumulated interest was to fund, every fourth year, a bronze cast of Houdon's 1785 heroic-size bust of George Washington — the Society considered the truest likeness of the founder — awarded to the winner of an oration on a patriotic theme. The first competition was held in 1907; the second in 1911. It is given today for the finest oration on a patriotic theme, delivered before a panel of judges drawn from the faculty and the Society.

The Prize is open to all undergraduates at Columbia and Barnard, regardless of Society membership. The 1943 wartime revival of Philolexian, organized by Jacques Barzun, had undergraduates competing for this very prize. It carries a separate endowment, and the prize is the largest in the Society's program.

Cadence

Every four years

Eligibility

Columbia & Barnard undergraduates

Prize

$9,000

Established

MCMII (1902)

Past Recipients

YearRecipientSubject of the Oration
2025Gabriel Uceda-Sosa, CC '28Companion to Clara Noggle's Philolexian Prize the same year
2021Katherine Chen, CC '24Also recipient of the Philolexian Prize
2017Julien Reimann, CC '18
2013Will Tant, GS '14
2009Adam Hoffman, CC '10“Hedgehogs and Foxes”
2005Andrew Z. Liebowitz, CC '06“Of Mystics and Social Workers”
2001Carson Cistulli, CC '00Awarded as the Philolexian Centennial Prize that year
…1955–2000 cycles not yet located in the Society's records.
1951Robert Gottlieb, CC '52
1947Donald M. Friedman, CC '49“Children have the alarming habit…”
1963Chappelle Freeman, Jr., CC '63Patriotic address · The New York Times, June 4, 1963
1939James Francis O'ConnorPatriotic address · of New York City · prize-winner only; Philolexian membership not confirmed in Society records · The New York Times, June 6, 1939
1927Jacques Barzun, CC '27“The Gospel of Loyalty and the International Mind”
1923William A. S. Dollard, CC '24Philolexian Washington Centennial Prize · Columbia Daily Spectator, May 28, 1923
1915Douglas M. Black, CC '16
1911Dixon Ryan Fox, CC '11“Balance” · runner-up: Arthur Whittier Macmahon, CC '12 — “Going to School in Democracy”
1907Fremont Amasa Higgins, CC '08“The Patriotism of the Fathers” · runner-up: A. Joyce Kilmer, CC '08 — “American Character”