The history of Northwestern University traces back to a May 31, 1850 meeting of nine prominent Chicago businessmen who desired to establish a university to serve the former Northwest Territory. On January 28, 1851, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Trustees of the North-Western University making it the first recognized university in Illinois. While the original founders were devout Methodists and affiliated the university with Methodist Episcopal Church, they were committed to non-sectarian admissions.
John Evans purchased of land along Lake Michigan in 1853 and Philo Judson began developing the plans for what would become the city of Evanston. The first building, Old College, opened on November 5, 1855. As a private university that had to raise funds for construction, Northwestern sold $100 "perpetual scholarships" that entitled the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition. Northwestern admitted its first female students in 1869.
Northwestern first fielded an intercollegiate football team in 1882, and later became a founding member of the Big Ten Conference. Northwestern became affiliated with professional schools of law, medicine, and dentistry throughout the Chicago area in the 1870s and 1880s. Enrollments grew through the 1890s, and under Henry Wade Rogers these new programs were integrated into a modern research university combining professional, graduate, and undergraduate programs, and emphasizing teaching along with research. The Association of American Universities invited Northwestern to become a member in 1917. Under Walter Dill Scott's presidency from 1920 to 1939, Northwestern began construction of an integrated campus in downtown Chicago designed by James Gamble Rogers to house the professional schools, the establishment of the Kellogg School of Management, as well as opening new buildings on the Evanston campus like Dyche Stadium and Deering Library. A proposal to merge Northwestern with the University of Chicago was considered in 1933, but rejected by Northwestern.
Like other American research universities, Northwestern was transformed by World War II. Franklyn B. Snyder lead the university from 1939 to 1949, and during the war nearly 50,000 military officers and personnel were trained on the Evanston and Chicago campuses. After the war surging enrollments under the G.I. Bill drove drastic expansion of both campuses. J. Roscoe Miller's tenure, from 1949 to 1970, was responsible for the expansion of the Evanston campus with the construction of the Lakefill on Lake Michigan, growth of the faculty and new academic programs, as well as polarizing Vietnam-era student protests. Tensions between the Evanston community and the university were strained throughout much of the post-war era given episodes of disruptive student activism, Northwestern's exemption from property tax obligations, as well as restrictions on the sale of alcohol near campus under the original charter although the latter ban was lifted in 1972.
As government support of universities declined in the 1970s and 1980s, President Arnold R. Weber oversaw the stabilization of university finances and revitalization of the campuses. As admissions to colleges and universities grew increasingly competitive throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Henry S. Bienen's tenure oversaw the increase in the number and quality of undergraduate applicants, continued expansion of the facilities and faculty, as well as renewed athletic competitiveness.
Foundation
In 1850, Chicago was only a 17-year-old city of 28,000 inhabitants that was increasingly becoming the center of trade for both steamships and railroads. The political and cultural environment of the mid-nineteenth century resulted in individual states granting charters to hundreds of small colleges rather than a few centralized national institutions as was typical in European countries. These colleges were highly sectarian and were motivated by the desire to both increase the quality of ministerial training as well as to discourage its young people from attending schools controlled by rival denominations. On May 31, 1850, John Evans, Grant Goodrich, Henry W. Clark, Andrew Brown, Orrington Lunt, Jabez Botsford, Richard Haney, Richard H. Blanchard, and Zodoc Hall met in a law office above a hardware store at 69 West Lake Street in Chicago and resolved that "the interests of sanctified learning require the immediate establishment of a university in the Northwest under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church." While each of the founders had diverse educational, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds, they were all devout Methodists as well as successful and established businessmen, ministers, and lawyers within Chicago. Despite their evangelism, the founders were committed to the establishment of a non-sectarian institution reflecting both the worldly educational philosophy of the Methodist movement and the political realities of the Illinois state legislature adverse to chartering church-affiliated colleges.
Goodrich was adept in drafting the charter and lobbying legislators who shared his abolitionist views and the charter was passed during the first session of the General Assembly and signed by Governor Augustus French on January 28, 1851. Constituted as the "Trustees of the North-Western University", the new institution was the first university in Illinois and consisted of the founders as well as representatives from the neighboring Methodist conferences. Evans and Lunt initially each donated $5,000 to endow the university which permitted them to purchase 16 lots on the northeast corner of Jackson Boulevard and LaSalle Street for $8,000 as a potential site for the campus.
In 1853, the trustees elected Clark T. Hinman as the first president of the university and committed to raising $200,000. Hinman insisted that a university, rather than a preparatory school, be constructed first and that it should be built outside of Chicago. Following Hinman's recommendation, Lunt began to survey for land that was both north of the city and abutting railways for a new university in the areas of Jefferson Park and Ridgeville. Unable to find available land on the north shore up to Lake Forest, the committee was ready to purchase farmland to the west of the city when Orrington Lunt insisted on one final visit to the present location. A parcel of dry, wooded bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan belonging to a Dr. John Foster (unrelated to Randolph S. Foster) was purchased by Evans for $25,000 in August 1853 as a site for the new campus. In 1855, the university charter was amended to declare that university property "shall be forever free from taxation for any kind and all purposes". The trustees aggressively used the property-tax-exempt status to purchase more of the surrounding farms and Northwestern land holdings grew as large as . In 1854, Philo Judson, Northwestern's business manager charged with surveying and plotting this real estate nicknamed the land "Evanston" in honor of founder John Evans. In 1857, the Illinois legislature changed the name of the village from Ridgeville to Evanston and it became an incorporated city in 1863. The university undertook a major development effort to drain the swamps, clear and grade the land, and donated or sold land to permit the construction of streets, parks, schools, waterworks, and churches. Between 1860 and 1870, Evanston's population had grown from 831 to 3,062.
Hinman was also a fervent supporter of the nascent university and raised over $63,000 from the sale of the perpetual scholarships. These scholarships, purchased in four installments of $25, entitled the purchaser and his male heirs (after the university became coeducational, female heirs were also recognized) to free tuition in perpetuity and were sold until 1867. The university also sold less-expensive limited term "transferable" scholarships guaranteeing a certain number of years of free tuition. While Northwestern still recognizes the scholarship, only one family member per generation is entitled to the scholarship and it must be specifically bequeathed to a descendant. Hinman's untimely death in October 1854 resulted in the ad interim appointment of Professor Henry S. Noyes as president until the 1856 election of Daniel Bonbright, a Professor of Latin, and 1857 election of Randolph S. Foster, a Professor of Theology. Noyes would also succeed Foster, and again serve as president between 1860 and 1869.
Early years (1855–1905)
Northwestern's first building, Old College, was designed by John M. Van Osdel and opened for classes on November 5, 1855. Despite the vacancy in the presidency and only possessing two faculty members, mathematics Professor Henry S. Noyes and Greek Professor William D. Godman, the first class enrolled 10 men in the College of Literature, Arts, and Sciences. Tuition for the first year was $45 annually and living expenses were $2.50 to $3 weekly. The progressive Methodist trustees also petitioned the Legislature to amend their charter so as to prohibit the sale of liquor within of campus under pain of a $25 fine. Among other early faculty members was Professor of Latin Daniel Bonbright who would remain an active teacher for 58 years. Four students received bachelor's degrees at the first commencement in 1859.
In the antebellum period, campus literary societies had sponsored debates on secession and slavery although the predominantly Methodist administration, faculty, and student body was staunchly abolitionist. Between 1861 and 1865, classes were curtailed by the Civil War; between 59 and 77 students and staff fought in the Union armies, two fought for the Confederacy, and seven ultimately died in the war. Despite the hostilities, Northwestern offered its first masters program (philosophy) beginning in 1863.
In 1869, the trustees voted to admit women to the university "under the same terms and conditions as young men" and Evanston resident, Rebecca Hoag, became the first female student to enroll. In 1873, the Evanston College for Ladies merged with Northwestern, increasing the enrollments of female undergraduates. Although, Sarah Rebecca Roland, class of 1874, was the first woman to graduate from Northwestern, Ada Kepley received a law degree in 1870 from the School of Law's predecessor, the Union College of Law. The university also established an alumni association in 1881.
The Evanston campus experienced dramatic growth during this era. University Hall, designed by Gurdon P. Randall, opened in 1869 both to replace the temporary Old College and to inaugurate President Erastus O. Haven. Memorial Hall opened at the Garrett Seminary in 1884, Dearborn Observatory opened in 1887, and Lunt Library opened in 1894.
Emma Ann Reynolds became the first African-American woman to graduate from Northwestern with a doctor of medicine (MD) degree in 1895. The second African American to graduate was the first to graduate with an undergraduate degree, and Lawyer Taylor earned his degree in 1903. Naomi Pollard Dobson was the first African-American woman to graduate with an undergraduate degree, which she achieved in 1905. In 1908 the first African-American woman, Olive Myrtle Henderson, graduated with a dental degree.
Fisk Hall opened in 1899 to house Northwestern's preparatory school. In 1909 alumni James A. Patten (former mayor of Evanston, a Northwestern University trustee, and funder of the original Patten Gymnasium) funded the construction of a Casavant Freres pipe organ for Fisk Hall. Arthur Dunham gave the opening recital on May 29, 1909. The preparatory school closed in 1917; today Fisk Hall houses the Medill School of Journalism.