Old University of Chicago. Records, 1856-1890

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University of Chicago - Founding and Early History

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The institution known as the Old University of Chicago was originally established as the University of Chicago in 1856 on a ten-acre tract of land donated by Senator Stephen A. Douglas. A Baptist school, the University was constantly plagued by financial difficulties and was forced to close in 1886. At its final meeting in 1890, the Board of Trustees changed the name of the institution to the Old University of Chicago so that the new Baptist school being organized as a completely separate legal entity might be called the University of Chicago.

Douglas had first offered the property at Cottage Grove Avenue and Thirty-Fifth Street to the Presbyterian Church for a university, but when they failed to raise the $100,000 he had stipulated, he conveyed the site to a group of Baptists. While the charter required that a majority of the members of the Board of Trustees be Baptists, the school was nondenominational in character, applying no religious test to either faculty or students. Its name notwithstanding, the university was primarily collegiate and vocational in nature with two hundred to five hundred students enrolled annually in preparatory, collegiate, law, and medical schools.

The new institution began almost immediately to encounter financial difficulties. Douglas' connection with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, regarded as a betrayal of the anti-slavery cause, proved a liability in fundraising, and the financial panic of 1857 rendered most of the initial subscriptions worthless. Nonetheless, the trustees proceeded with construction projects beyond the school's means, and debt mounted rapidly. The president, J. C. Burroughs, and the trustees succeeded in securing new subscriptions, but just as it seemed that the institution might reach solid financial ground, the Chicago fire of 1871, followed by the panic of 1873 and the fire of 1874 plunged it into financial peril once more.

Administratively, the university's situation was equally chaotic and disagreements over fundraising, financial management, and faculty appointments escalated into open strife among the trustees. President Burroughs and his most vocal opponent, trustee W. W. Everts, were persuaded to resign, but the trustees created for Burroughs the post of chancellor and made him responsible for the school's financial affairs. Conflicts among the trustees, the president, and the chancellor continued, with administrators arriving and departing in rapid succession.

Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, the university's chief creditor, brought suit in 1881 to foreclose the mortgage on the university's property that it held. In January 1885, the court found in favor of the company. The trustee's hope of redeeming the property proved illusory: the university closed in the autumn of 1886 and the main building was razed in 1890.

The records of the Old University of Chicago have been divided into five series, corresponding in general to the parts of the institution that generated them:

Series I: Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees, governing body of the university, was a self-perpetuating corporation of approximately forty members. Most of the trustees were Chicagoans, and the charter required that at least one-half be Baptists. The Board's authority was financial and administrative. Responsibility for most decisions was delegated to the eight- to twelve-member executive committee that met with greater frequency than the Board. A standing committee on finance and ad hoc committees (on resolutions and on eulogy, for example) met as necessary.

The extant records of the trustees include the minutes of their meetings (1856-90), which often incorporate detailed financial statements and copies of significant correspondence. Some of the trustees' resolutions and reports to the Board from subcommittees are extant in their original form. The Board's financial records include subscription lists, correspondence relating to payment or default of pledged contributions, and correspondence and legal documents pertaining to donated properties, as well as letters of quitclaim from some of the Old University's creditors at the time the new school was being organized. Materials regarding the buildings and grounds include some of the architect's specifications for the construction of Douglas Hall (1863). Minutes of the executive committee comprise a separate volume.

Series II: Faculty. The faculty of ten to fifteen professors and tutors met regularly under the chairmanship of the president to make decisions regarding instructional policy and student discipline. Minutes of these meetings exist for the years 1872-86. The lack of presidential papers, as such, in the collection is probably due to the fact that the president tended to act collegially with the executive committee of the Board of Trustees in financial and administrative decisions and with the faculty in academic affairs.

Series III. Registrar. One of the faculty members generally served as registrar. Matriculation records kept by the registrar (1866-86), as well as university catalogues (1859-84, 1886), are among the records.

Series IV. Student Affairs. Records of student affairs include incomplete runs of the student publication, Index Universitatis, and its successor, The Volante, invitations and programs for commencement and class day exercises, and programs and records of the student literary societies, especially the Athenaeum Literary Society. Alumni directories and alumni reunion programs are also included in this series.

Series V. Historical Materials. Among the miscellaneous materials in the records are: a history of the university (ca. 1889) by W. W. Everts, trustee; two scrapbooks (1856-66, 1876-90) compiled by Edward Goodman, Chicago newspaper publisher and trustee of the second university, consisting primarily of newspaper clippings concerning the university, along with some memorabilia; a checklist of pre-fire publications of the university, compiled by Douglas McMurtrie; and a file of newspaper clippings concerning the university, 1875.

The Records of the Old University of Chicago remaining in the custody of the institution's last secretary, O. W. Barrett, at the time of his death (1893) were deposited with Thomas W. Goodspeed, secretary of the new university. These records form the core of the present collection in the University Archives. They have been supplemented over the years by donations of material from alumni, as well as from former faculty members and trustees.

Other resources on the Old University of Chicago in the University Archives include: The Papers of the Baptist Theological Union (1865-1924) and of the Baptist Union Theological Seminary (1867-1892); photographs (faculty, students, buildings) in the archival photographic files; a student term paper, "The Architecture of the First University of Chicago," (1948), by Peter H. Selz, typescript, 13 pp.; a student term paper, "The Old University of Chicago," (1941), by Arthur A. Azlein, typescript, 71 pp.; and "History of the First University of Chicago, 1856-1886," written by an alumnus, C. H. Koenitzer, ca. 1927-28, typescript with sketches and photographs, 85 pp.

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• Names
  • University of Chicago (1857-1886)
  • University of Chicago -- History
• Subject
  • Baptist universities and colleges
  • Baptists -- Education