Trinity Treasure

The Plumb Memorial Carillon

As Trinity College celebrates its Bicentennial, the Plumb Memorial Carillon marks almost half that time in the tower of the Chapel. According to the Encyclopedia Trinitiana, the 30-bell instrument was installed in the Trinity Chapel in 1931 during the building’s construction and then presented by the Reverend Canon John F. Plumb, Trinity Class of 1891, who also was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree in 1940. Plumb and his wife gave the gift in memory of their son John, Class of 1926, who died during his senior year. Then-Trinity President Remsen B. Ogilby invited carillonneurs from throughout the United States and Canada to Trinity in 1934 for what was later considered the First Congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. Today’s Trinity carillon boasts 49 bronze bells—the additional bells were a gift in 1978 of Florence S. Marcy Crofut, who received an honorary master’s degree in 1938—that are played from a keyboard in the Chapel tower. Ellen Dickinson, College carillonist and director of the Summer Music Series, plays the carillon each week and for special occasions, providing what she calls “Trinity’s soundtrack.” Christopher Houlihan ’09, John Rose College Organist-and-Directorship Distinguished Chair of Chapel Music and artist-in-residence, notes, “When you envision Trinity, you see the Long Walk, Chapel, and quad, and when you imagine what it might sound like, you hear the bells.”

Find more information about the 75th Annual Summer Music Series—featuring concerts in the Chapel followed by carillon concerts on the Main Quad on the five Wednesday evenings in July on the Chapel’s website.