Northwestern University

On May 31, 1850, John Evans and eight others met above a Chicago hardware store and resolved to establish a university under Methodist Episcopal patronage. The university was founded as a nonsectarian institution to serve the area of the former Northwest Territory.⁠[1][2]

On January 28, 1851, the Illinois Legislature approved the Act of Incorporation, giving 36 trustees power over the university’s affairs; scholarships for donors’ descendants were sold to raise money. BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry describes it as the first institution chartered as a university in Illinois.⁠[1][2]

Clark T. Hinman became the first president on June 23, 1853; that year the university bought 379 acres on Lake Michigan for $25,000.⁠[1]

The university officially opened on November 5, 1855, and its first building, Old College, was completed that year. A charter amendment the same year banned liquor sales within four miles of campus, and the Hinman Literary Society, the first extracurricular activity, was formed.⁠[1]

At the first commencement in 1859, four students received bachelor’s degrees. In 1860 student Edward Spencer rescued 17 survivors of the Lady Elgin. In the Civil War, which began in 1861, 77 students and staff fought for the Union and two for the Confederacy; seven died. The first master’s program, in philosophy, began in 1863.⁠[1]

In 1869 the trustees voted to admit young women “under the same terms and conditions as young men,” and Rebecca Hoag of Evanston became the first woman to enroll; University Hall was built the same year.⁠[1]

In 1870 Chicago Medical College and Northwestern agreed to affiliate. In 1871 a lifesaving station was set up where Fisk Hall now stands; it rescued more than 400 people before the Coast Guard took it over in 1916.⁠[1]

In 1873 the Evanston College for Ladies merged with Northwestern, and Frances Willard became its first dean of women. In 1874 Sarah Rebecca Roland became the first woman to receive a Northwestern degree.⁠[1]

The College of Dental and Oral Surgery was established in 1886. In 1889 Northwestern became the first Midwestern university admitted to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1892 purple was adopted as the official and only school color.⁠[1]

In 1893 Daniel Hale Williams, a graduate and faculty member of the Medical School, performed what the university calls the first successful open-heart surgery, at Provident Hospital in Chicago.⁠[1]

In 1896 the first two PhDs were awarded, one in chemistry and one in philosophy. That year Northwestern and six other Chicago-area universities formed the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives to oversee intercollegiate sports; it later became the Big Ten Conference.⁠[1][2]

In 1900 Northwestern had the third-highest student enrollment in the nation. President Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) was an American Republican politician, writer, naturalist, and soldier who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909 and received the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.Open the full entry visited the campus in 1903, the year the university won its first Big Ten football championship. In 1912 Kenneth Huszagh became the first Northwestern athlete to compete in the Olympics.⁠[3]

In 1916 the first candle-lighting ceremony marked the January 28 anniversary of the charter. During World War I in 1917, 250 students enlisted, 800 women were mobilized for National Aid and Red Cross work, and 3,606 people went to war, 65 of whom died.⁠[3]

In 1920 Walter Dill Scott became the first non-Methodist president. That year the university authorized the purchase of a site for its Chicago campus and launched a $25.3 million fundraising campaign, with $1.5 million designated for Chicago.⁠[3]

In 1923 Mrs. Montgomery Ward gave more than $8 million to build the Montgomery Ward Memorial Building, the university’s medical and dental center in downtown Chicago, which the university calls the first academic skyscraper in the United States. In 1924 the teams’ name changed from the “Fighting Methodists” to the “Wildcats.” Dyche Stadium, with 47,000 seats, was completed in 1926.⁠[3]

Deering Library opened in 1932; that year a proposed merger with the University of Chicago was considered and dismissed. In 1933 Professor Vladimir Ipatieff developed the modern theory of chemical catalysis, which the university describes as the basis of the modern U.S. petrochemical industry.⁠[3]

In 1939 the first-ever NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship was held at Northwestern, in Patten Gymnasium.⁠[3][2]

In 1940, 1,500 students registered in the first Selective Service registration, and the Student Interracial Commission was formed in response to campus housing problems, as the administration believed housing Black and white students together was not feasible. By 1945 Northwestern had lost more than 300 people in the war. In 1948 it defeated CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry 20–14 in the Rose Bowl, and in 1949 the first computer on campus was installed in an unused room of the Dearborn Observatory.⁠[3]

In 2008 the university opened Northwestern University in Qatar, in Doha, offering degree programs in journalism and communications.⁠[2]

In 2025 Michael Schill announced that he would step down as president once an interim president was in place, and that after a sabbatical he would return to the Pritzker School of Law faculty.⁠[4]

On May 18, 2026, Northwestern announced Mung Chiang as its next president; he took office in July 2026 as the university’s 18th president. As of November 2026 the Office of the President website lists him as the current president.⁠[5]

At the start of the fall 2025 quarter the university had 8,997 undergraduates: 4,438 in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, 2,114 in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, 869 in the School of Communication, 699 in the Medill School of Journalism, 440 in the Bienen School of Music and 437 in the School of Education and Social Policy.⁠[6]

The university’s schools, with their founding years, are the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences (1851), the Pritzker School of Law (1859), the Feinberg School of Medicine (1859), the School of Communication (1878), the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music (1895), the Kellogg School of Management (1908), the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science (1909), The Graduate School (1910), the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications (1921), the School of Education and Social Policy (1926) and the School of Professional Studies (1933), along with Northwestern University in Qatar.⁠[2][7]

Northwestern University: Official website: https://www.northwestern.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]

X: Public account: https://x.com/northwesternu (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/school/northwestern-university/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NorthwesternU (opens in a new window).⁠[9]