The first classes in French at Davidson College were taught by Stephen Frontis in 1860-1861. With the reduction of students and professors during the Civil War, French classes dropped out of the curriculum. They returned in 1866, with the hiring of William G. Richardson. He taught French, Spanish, Greek and Latin from 1866 to1874. Future Davidson College president Andrew Hepburn came in 1874 to teach Latin and French. With the arrival of John Sampson in 1875, Hepburn changed subjects to English and Mental Philosophy. Classes were initially offered as part of the Junior year studies, by 1900, the college was offering 2 full years of coursework. It was not unusual for language faculty to teach multiple subjects. Thomas Lingle was hired as the first full-time professor of French in 1908. Class descriptions in the course catalog varied over time from being part of Romance Languages to being listed separately. When the college moved to having majors in the 1950s, French was included as a major. During the 1960s, the faculty hosted Summer Institutes for Teachers The college began study abroad programs in the 1960s with the French program initially located in Montpellier. The program moved to Tours in 1996. In 2012, all the lanuage departments underwent a name change. What was the French Department became the Department of French and Francophone Studies.