Members of the Reed Society at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania established the organization “for the purpose of advancing themselves in the knowledge of the Law, and in the acquisition of the arts of debate and public speech.”

The Reed Society believed itself to be one of the “most important educational instrumentalities” of the College. The Reed Society, which was named in honor of Judge John Reed, founder of the Dickinson College Law School, was established in 1890, and active until 1895.