An early convocation ceremony at the University of Chicago
Founding–1910s[edit]
The University of Chicago was created and incorporated as a coeducational,[18] secular institution in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller on land donated by Marshall Field.[19] Organized as an independent institution legally, it replaced the first Baptist university of the same name, which had closed in 1886 due to extended financial and leadership problems.[20] William Rainey Harper became the modern university's first president on July 1, 1891, and the university opened for classes on October 1, 1892.[20]
The business school was founded in 1898,[21] and the law school was founded in 1902.[22] Harper died in 1906,[23] and was replaced by a succession of three presidents whose tenures lasted until 1929.[24] During this period, the Oriental Institute was founded to support and interpret archeological work in what was then called the Near East.[25]
In the 1890s, the University of Chicago, fearful that its vast resources would injure smaller schools by drawing away good students, affiliated with several regional colleges and universities: Des Moines College, Kalamazoo College, Butler College, and Stetson University. Under the terms of the affiliation, the schools were required to have courses of study comparable to those at the University, to notify the university early of any contemplated faculty appointments or dismissals, to make no faculty appointment without the university's approval, and to send copies of examinations for suggestions. The University of Chicago agreed to confer a degree on any graduating senior from an affiliated school who made a grade of A for all four years, and on any other graduate who took twelve weeks additional study at the University of Chicago. A student or faculty member of an affiliated school was entitled to free tuition at the University of Chicago, and Chicago students were eligible to attend an affiliated school on the same terms and receive credit for their work. The University of Chicago also agreed to provide affiliated schools with books and scientific apparatus and supplies at cost; special instructors and lecturers without cost except travel expenses; and a copy of every book and journal published by the University of Chicago Press at no cost. The agreement provided that either party could terminate the affiliation on proper notice. Several University of Chicago professors disliked the program, as it involved uncompensated additional labor on their part, and they believed it cheapened the academic reputation of the University. The program passed into history by 1910.[26]
1920s–1980s[edit]
In 1929, the university's fifth president, Robert Maynard Hutchins, took office; the university underwent many changes during his 24-year tenure. Hutchins eliminated varsity football from the university in an attempt to emphasize academics over athletics,[27] instituted the undergraduate college's liberal-arts curriculum known as the Common Core,[28] and organized the university's graduate work into its current[when?] four divisions.[27] In 1933, Hutchins proposed an unsuccessful plan to merge the University of Chicago and Northwestern University into a single university.[29] During his term, the University of Chicago Hospitals (now called the University of Chicago Medical Center) finished construction and enrolled its first medical students,[30] and the Committee on Social Thought was created.
A group of people in suits standing in three rows on the steps in front of a stone building.
The University of Chicago team that worked on the production of the world's first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction, including Enrico Fermi in the front row and Leó Szilárd in the second.
Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation helped the school to survive through the Great Depression.[27] During World War II, the university made important contributions to the Manhattan Project.[31] The university was the site of the first isolation of plutonium and of the creation of the first artificial, self-sustained nuclear reaction by Enrico Fermi in 1942.[31][32]
In the early 1950s, student applications decli
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