Chicago, University of, is a leading private educational and research institution on Chicago‘s South Side. Its campus lies on both sides of the Midway Plaisance. This wide street served as one of the main avenues of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Unlike most American universities, the University of Chicago began as a full university. It provided facilities for research and graduate study as well as undergraduate education. The university became famous for its experiments to improve higher education in the United States. It is also known as the birthplace of nuclear energy.
Research program.
The university ranks as a leading research center in the humanities and in the physical, biological, and social sciences. It played an important part in developing the atomic bomb during World War II (1939-1945). Experiments there resulted in the first artificially produced nuclear chain reaction on Dec. 2, 1942. Enrico Fermi, then professor of physics at the university, and a team of scientists conducted this research. After the war, the university established the Enrico Fermi Institute for research in such disciplines as high-energy physics. The university also operates the Argonne National Laboratory, southwest of Chicago, for the United States Department of Energy.
The university’s medical school, biological science laboratories, hospitals, and clinics have made it an important center for research in the fields of biochemistry, cardiology, endocrinology, genetics, pathology, radiology, and virology. The John Crerar Library owns an excellent collection of books, periodicals, and visual materials on science, engineering, and medicine. Although the Crerar Library is on the university’s campus, it is also open to the public.
In 1892, the University of Chicago became the first university to establish a department of sociology. Many outstanding American sociologists have taught at the university. Two of them—Albion W. Small and George E. Vincent—wrote the first textbook on sociology in 1894. Sophonisba Breckinridge, a pioneer teacher of social work, taught at the university for 38 years and helped establish its School of Social Service Administration. Leading American economists who have taught at the university include Thorstein Veblen and Milton Friedman. Veblen’s book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) has become required reading for almost every student of economics. Friedman’s theories in two of his books, Capitalism and Freedom (1962) and A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (1963), have sparked widespread debate among economists.
Campus laboratory schools conduct precollegiate education at nursery, elementary, and high school levels. The American philosopher John Dewey established the laboratory schools in 1896. The Oriental Institute, which was founded by James H. Breasted in 1919, conducts research on the ancient Near East. The Oriental Institute also includes a museum that displays objects recovered by the institute’s excavations. The objects are displayed in permanent galleries devoted to ancient Egypt, Nubia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and other ancient sites.
History.
The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller contributed $35 million to the university during his lifetime. The school’s land was donated by the American merchant Marshall Field I, owner of the legendary Chicago department store that bore his name. The university opened for classes on Oct. 1, 1892.
William Rainey Harper, the university’s first president, planned it as a model university. His first faculty included eight former presidents of colleges from throughout the United States. Harper introduced the quarter system, which divides the calendar year into four academic sessions. He insisted that women receive equal educational and teaching opportunities at the university. Harper established an extension division as a main division of the university and developed the first practical correspondence course in the United States. In 1892, he started the University of Chicago Press. The press publishes both books and journals and is now one of the nation’s largest academic publishers. The university’s athletic teams are known as the Maroons. The school’s website at https://www.uchicago.edu/ offers additional information.
