Grinnell College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa. A group of Congregationalist clergy established the institution in 1846 as Iowa College in Davenport, Iowa. It was the first four-year liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River to award a degree. The college was renamed for the town founded by Josiah B. Grinnell, a New York clergyman and abolitionist. According to Grinnell, it was to him that the newspaper publisher Horace Greeley said, “Go West, young man.” In 1854, Grinnell moved to Iowa, founded the town of Grinnell, and persuaded Iowa College to move there from Davenport. The college adopted its present name in 1909.
Grinnell College grants only a bachelor of arts degree. The curriculum emphasizes broad learning and diversity of interests. Well-known graduates of Grinnell include former United States Secretary of Commerce Harry L. Hopkins, author James Norman Hall, Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech, jazz musician Herbie Hancock, and Robert Noyce, the physicist who patented the first computer chip. Actor Gary Cooper attended Grinnell.
The college’s website at https://www.grinnell.edu/ offers additional information.
