| 1891-1893 | An era of significant events for Carleton athletics. Included within these years are the formation of officially sanctioned teams in baseball and football, the hiring of Max Exner as instructor of "physical culture," including work in fencing and gymnastics for both men and women, the institution of compulsory exercise classes for all students, and the first reports of the new game of basketball being played by women in the Gridley Hall gymnasium. |
| 1893 | Carleton awards the first of six Ph.D.s (last in 1909). |
| 1893 | Exercise classes required of all students. |
| 1896 | Scoville Memorial Library is built. |
| 1898 | Freshman Ernest Lundeen, a future U.S. Senator, is one of 12 Carls to trade school books for Army garb when the Spanish-American War begins in 1898. |
| 1898 | Carleton family crest becomes an unofficial symbol of the College. |
| 1899 | Thorstein Veblen '80 publishes The Theory of the Leisure Class. |
| 1902 | Opening of Laird Athletic Field. Its covered grandstand is a gift of the Class of 1895. |
| 1903 | Rev. William H. Sallmon, a graduate of Yale and pastor of the South Congregational Church of Bridgeport, Conn., takes office in January, following President Strong's retirement after 32 years as president of the College. |
| 1903 | The Carleton Mission Board forms to coordinate and raise funds for the foreign missionary activities of Carleton students. Its major task will be support of the mission station established after 1907 in Fenchow, Shansi province, China. The mission, which includes a hospital and middle school, is principally the work of Carleton alums Watts Pye '03, Gertrude Chaney Pye '08, Percy Watson '03, and Clara French Watson '03. |
| 1904 | A semester schedule replaces the original 3-term calendar. |
| 1905 | The Carleton football team wins the first of 10 championships in the next 13 seasons. |
| 1905/06 | Distribution requirements and a system of majors and minors are introduced. |
| 1906 | The New Laird Hall of Science is dedicated. |
| 1906 | Trustees dissolve the Carleton Academy. |
| 1909 | Northfield becomes a "dry" town. (Local prohibition lasts until 1948.) |
| 1909 | In October Donald J. Cowling, a Yale man who had taught philosophy at Baker University, is inaugurated as Carleton's third president. President Sallmon stepped down in 1908 after a five-year tenure marred by unhappy contention with elements of the old guard displeased with the new policies. A faculty committee headed by Dean Herbert C. Wilson ran affairs until Cowling took office. Only 29 years old, Cowling will define Carleton for the next 36 years. |
| 1909 | Construction of Sayles-Hill Gymnasium. Formal dedication of the new facility is January 26, 1910. |
| 1911 | Carleton's first student self-government association founded by the women of Gridley Hall. Originally, known as the Young Women's Student Government Association, in 1928 it will be renamed Women's League. Parallel - though generally less effective - organizations for men are inaugurated in 1916 and again in 1937. |
| 1911 | Blue added to maize as school colors. |
| 1912 | Conservatory of Music is created; it awarded its own Bachelor of Music degrees for the next 12 years. |
| 1914 | Carleton forms a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. |
| 1914 | Music Hall opens in January. |
| 1914 | The College Farm is purchased and dairy operations are begun. |
| 1916 | A new "Men's Dormitory" is occupied in September. Known for some years as West Hall, in 1925 it is renamed Burton Hall in memory of Marion LeRoy Burton '00. |
| 1916 | Carleton celebrates its semicentennial anniversary. |
| 1916 | Dedication of Skinner memorial Chapel |
| 1916 | Development of Lyman Lakes begins. |
