University of Iowa

Founding and early history Iowa Old Capitol Building , Iowa City, 1855 The University of Iowa was founded on February 25, 1847, just 59 days after Iowa was admitted to the Union . The Constitution of the State of Iowa refers to a State University to be established in Iowa City "without branches at any other place." [ 14 ] The legal name of the university is the State University of Iowa (frequently abbreviated as SUI ), but the Board of Regents approved using "The University of Iowa" for everyday usage in October 1964. [ 15 ] The first faculty offered instruction at the university beginning in March 1855 to students in the Old Mechanics Building, located where the student recreational area east of Van Allen Hall is now. [ 16 ] In September 1855, there were 124 students, of whom forty-one were women. The 1856–57 catalog listed nine departments offering ancient languages , modern languages, intellectual philosophy , moral philosophy , history , natural history , mathematics , natural philosophy , and chemistry . The first president of the university was Amos Dean . The original campus consisted of the Iowa Old Capitol Building and the 10 acres (40,000 m 2 ) (4.05 hectares) of land on which it stood. Following the placing of the cornerstone July 4, 1840, the building housed the Fifth Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa (December 5, 1842) and then became the first capitol building of the State of Iowa on December 28, 1846. Until that date, it had been the third capitol of the Territory of Iowa. When the capital of Iowa was moved to Des Moines in 1857, the Old Capitol became the first permanent "home" of the university. In 1855, the university became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis . [ 17 ] In addition, Iowa was the world's first university to accept creative work in theater, writing, music, and art on an equal basis with academic research.

[ 18 ] The university was one of the first institutions in America to grant a law degree to a woman ( Mary B. Hickey Wilkinson , 1873), to grant a law degree to an African American ( Alexander G. Clark, Jr. in 1879), and to put an African American on a varsity athletic squad ( Frank Holbrook in 1895). The university awarded its first doctorate in 1898. [ 18 ]

Art Building West, University of Iowa School of Art and Art History General Hospital's collegiate Gothic tower is prominent on the west side of campus Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences The Old Iowa State Capitol sits at the center of The Pentacrest The University of Iowa's main campus is in Iowa City . The campus is roughly bordered by Park Road and U.S. Highway 6 to the north and Dubuque and Gilbert streets to the east. The Iowa River flows through the campus, dividing it into west and east sides. Of architectural note is the Pentacrest which comprises five major buildings— Old Capitol , Schaeffer Hall, MacLean Hall, Macbride Hall, and Jessup Hall—at the center of the University of Iowa Campus. The Pentacrest reflects the Beaux-Arts in addition to Greek Revival architectural styles and the Collegiate Gothic architecture, which is dominant in sections of the campus east of the Iowa River . The Old Capitol was once the home of the state legislature and the primary government building for the State of Iowa but is now the symbolic heart of the university with a restored ceremonial legislative chamber and a museum of Iowa history. Also on the east side of the campus are six residence halls (Burge, Daum, Stanley, Currier, Mayflower, and Catlett), the Iowa Memorial Union, the Women's Resource & Action Center , the Pappajohn Business Building, Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, the Lindquist Center ( home of the College of Education ), Phillips Hall (the foreign language building), Van Allen Hall (home to physics and astronomy), Trowbridge Hall (home to Earth & Environmental Sciences, as well as the Iowa Geological Survey), the English-Philosophy Building, the Becker Communication Building, the Adler Journalism Building, Voxman Music Building , and the buildings for biology, chemistry, and psychology. The Main Library can also be found on the east side.

The Colleges of Law, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Public health are on the west side of the Iowa River, along with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics , Art Building West and Visual Arts Building, and the Theatre Building. Additionally, five residence halls (Hillcrest, Slater, Rienow, Parklawn, and Petersen), Kinnick Stadium , and Carver-Hawkeye Arena are located on the west campus. The campus is home to several museums, including the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art , the Museum of Natural History , the Old Capitol Museum, the Medical Museum, the Athletic Hall of Fame and Museum, and Project Art at the University Hospitals and Clinics. A flood of the Iowa River in 2008 had a major impact on several campus buildings, forcing many to temporarily or permanently close. The upper levels of the Iowa Memorial Union remained open while its lower level was renovated. The arts campus, which included Art Building West, Old Art Building, Hancher Auditorium, Voxman Music Building, Clapp Recital Hall, and the Theatre Building, sustained significant damage. Art Building West reopened in 2012 after repairs were completed. Sections of Old Art Building were razed, leaving only the historic WPA-era building, which includes regionalist artist Grant Wood's former studio. Esteemed artists Elizabeth Catlett, Ana Mendieta, and Charles Ray were all trained in this building. The new Visual Arts Building was opened on a higher plot of land adjacent to Art Building West in 2016 after years when studio arts were housed in a temporary facility. Hancher Auditorium was rebuilt near its current site on the West bank of the Iowa River, and Voxman Music Hall was constructed adjacent to downtown Iowa City and the main campus on South Clinton Street. The new Hancher Auditorium and the new Voxman Music Building opened in 2016.