University of Chicago

Main article: History of the University of Chicago Old University of Chicago Further information: Old University of Chicago Albert A. Michelson , professor of physics and the first American Nobel laureate, delivers the second convocation address in front of Goodspeed and Gates-Blake Halls, with President William Rainey Harper , professors, and trustees in attendance, July 1, 1894. [ 2 ] The first University of Chicago was founded by a small group of Baptist educators and incorporated in 1857 after a land endowment from Senator Stephen A. Douglas and a fundraising campaign directed by the first president of the institution, John C. Burroughs . [ 3 ] : 8–10 It closed in 1886 after decades of financial struggle, exacerbated by the Great Chicago Fire and the Panic of 1873 , [ 3 ] : 18 when the university's property was foreclosed on by its creditors. [ 3 ] : 8–10 In 1890, its trustees elected to change the university's name to the " Old University of Chicago " so that the new university could go by the name of the city; a year later, the new university voted to recognize the alumni of the old as alumni of the new. [ 3 ] : 59

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about the founding and early years . In 1890, the American Baptist Education Society (ABES) incorporated a new University of Chicago as a coeducational institution, [ 4 ] : 137 using $400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller [ 5 ] and land donated by Marshall Field . [ 3 ] : 60–61 The Hyde Park campus’ construction was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans such as Silas B. Cobb , donor of the campus's first building, Cobb Lecture Hall; [ 6 ] Charles L. Hutchinson , trustee, treasurer and donor of Hutchinson Commons ; [ 7 ] and Martin A. Ryerson , president of the board of trustees and donor of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory. [ 3 ] : 103–105 William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891, and classes first began on October 1, 1892. [ 8 ] Harper offered large salaries to attract senior faculty, [ 3 ] : 78 and in two years had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents. [ 9 ] The undergraduate program was divided into two parts, with the first two years making up the Academic College, focusing on preparation for higher learning, and the last two years comprising the University College, with more advanced courses. The university operated on a quarter system , with 36 courses required to graduate. [ 3 ] : 82–84 Harper brought the Baptist seminary, which had historical ties to the Old University of Chicago, to the university. This became the Divinity School in 1891, the first graduate professional school at the University of Chicago. [ 10 ] : 20–22 Harper was a supporter of intercollegiate athletics, recruiting Amos Alonzo Stagg in 1892 to coach the football team and defending athletics from faculty opposition. [ 3 ] : 89 In 1894, the university adopted maroon as its official color after initially selecting goldenrod .

The Maroons became the university's nickname during the same year. [ 11 ] During this period, the university founded the university extension , which offered evening courses for adults and correspondence courses , and the University of Chicago Press . [ 3 ] : 74 Rockefeller continued to provide significant contributions to the university after its founding. Harper's efforts to finance faculty research projects, expand the campus, and support university initiatives caused significant deficits covered by Rockefeller donations, with annual deficits between 1894 and 1903 averaging $215,000. In 1898, the board of trustees made a commitment to use new gifts to eliminate the deficit rather than to further expand programs, but structural deficits remained until after Harper's presidency. [ 3 ] : 110–112

Main campus The campus of the University of Chicago, from the top of Rockefeller Chapel . The Main Quadrangles can be seen on the left (west), the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa and the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics can be seen in the center (north) and the Booth School of Business and Laboratory Schools can be seen on the right (east), as the panoramic is bounded on both sides by the Midway Plaisance (south). The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of 217 acres (87.8 ha) in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn , approximately eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Chicago . [ 34 ] The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance , a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition . In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the university as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States. [ 35 ] Aerial shots from the University of Chicago campus View of university building from the Harper Quadrangle The first buildings of the campus, which make up what are now known as the Main Quadrangles, were part of a master plan conceived by two University of Chicago trustees and plotted by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb . [ 36 ] The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles , each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle. [ 10 ] : 221 The buildings of the Main Quadrangles were designed by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge , Holabird & Roche , and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford . [ 36 ] Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower , [ 37 ] and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall , replicates Christ Church Hall.