Many notable men and women claim Bowdoin College as their alma mater, and buildings around campus commemorate them: students study at the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, visit the arctic museum that features the work of Admiral Robert Peary and Donald MacMillan, and walk daily past the statue of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.
On the list of alumni, though, is a man whose name is not quite as recognized by the Bowdoin community: Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States of America.
This name, which many in the Bowdoin campus tend to neglect, won its due attention in the form of Scott Odgen's '10 honors project this year.
"It began with me just being really frustrated," said Odgen, a history and government double major. "I was frustrated that no one paid greater attention to him, especially on Bowdoin's campus."
Ogden, whose project focuses on Pierce's life of domestic devotion, said that Pierce had a "tragic personal life." His three sons died before they reached their 18th birthdays and his wife "was considered an invalid."
"He had a terrible presidency," Ogden said, before explaining that people "tend to forget the facets of his personal life that shed more honor on him."
For someone with as much knowledge and opportunity in the world of government as Pierce, to abandon his career in politics to take care of his wife and domestic needs was "quite remarkable", said Ogden.
Ogden's advisor, Associate Professor of History Patrick Rael, explained that Pierce's unique personal life is what helps to build the overall significance of the project.
"This is important because individual lives can have a great impact...he's also incredibly important in American history. The Civil War became a virtual inevitability under his watch. Understanding Pierce thus helps us understand what we might justly call the central event in American history," wrote Rael in an e-mail to the Orient.
But the road to such a deep and strong honors project has not been entirely flawless, explained both Ogden and Rael.
"The paths of all research projects have moments that are smooth and bumpy, and Scott's was no exception," wrote Rael.
Ogden explained that his initial topic aimed to focus on how the death of Pierce's son affected his presidency, but "there really wasn't enough evidence."
Rael said that "like all good scholars," Ogden took the difficult moments in stride.
"It's tempting to throw in the towel when things don't go the way you want, but Scott has been persistent, and it's paid off," he said.
Ogden is happy with the course his project has ultimately taken, and is thankful for the help and support he has received over the course of the entire project period.
He said he is very thankful to Rael for all of the help and guidance he has offered as an advisor, his honors committee and the librarians, who Ogden said "were great in helping me in any possible way."
Rael also thanked "Bill Green of WCSH Channel 6 news, who produced a segment on Pierce that [Ogden] appeared in," and "archivists at the Franklin Pierce House in New Hampshire, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC."
As the academic year starts to draw to a close, and the final version of the project starts to come together, both Rael and Ogden said they find it interesting to look back on the "life" of the project.
"[Ogden] began exploring his interest in Pierce during a 300-level research seminar with me in his junior year. He then expanded his work during a year-long honor's project," wrote Rael.
As someone "who has been studying [Pierce] for a year and a half now," Odgen said he only wants people to know how Pierce "transcended politics," something not typical of his time.
"People need to understand him more thoroughly as a person," he said.