Northwestern medical students experiment in a physiology laboratory equipped with the newest technology and instruments of 1900. Courtesy of University Archives.
Founding Northwestern's Professional Schools
Northwestern University was one of the early institutions to offer professional and graduate-level study.
Although trustees purchased land 12 miles north of Chicago for the main campus, they also quickly moved to establish professional schools and academic sites in Chicago. Four programs were started in the 19th century, and others followed early in the 20th century.
Early Professional Programs
The Medical School began in 1859 and formally affiliated with the University in 1870 through an agreement with the Chicago Medical College, at 26th Street and Prairie Avenue. In its first year, the school enrolled 75 students. Today, the Medical School serves about 1,200 full-time students.
In 1873, trustees negotiated an agreement with the original University of Chicago, which had a law department for 10 years, to jointly operate the Union College of Law located off Court House Square near today's Richard J. Daley Center. It opened three years later with 54 students. The School of Law has grown to about 900 full-time students.
The School of Pharmacy was established in Chicago in 1886 with 62 students. It ceased operation after the 1916-17 academic year with only 162 students. The Dental School, which was opened in Chicago in 1887 with just nine students, met a similar fate. It closed in 2001, citing difficulty in competing with public dental schools, which receive as much as $60,000 per student annually in state support.
Twentieth Century Programs
Northwestern awarded its first doctoral degree in 1896. The graduate school was organized in 1910 and officially became The Graduate School in 1923 and today is the largest graduate-level division, with about 6,000 full-time students with classes on both campuses.
The School of Commerce, forerunner to the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, opened in 1908 as an evening program in Chicago with 255 students. In 1920, Northwestern established a full-time undergraduate program in a bachelor of science in commerce on the Evanston campus. In 1966, the faculty, recognizing the growing importance of MBA programs, made the decision to discontinue it and focus on graduate studies. Thirteen years later, the John L. and Helen Kellogg Foundation made a gift of $10 million to Northwestern University and the School was renamed the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Now based on the Evanston campus, Kellogg has about 2,000 full-time students.
Kellogg continues to hold classes on the Chicago campus as does the School of Continuing Studies, with a combined enrollment of about 2,700 part-time students.
The School of Continuing Studies, successor to University College, traces its roots to 1903 when the College of Liberal Arts began to offer evening courses for teachers on the Evanston campus. Thirty years later, a new and more expansive program of evening undergraduate studies was opened on the Chicago campus, under the name University College.
During the post-World War II years, University College offered both full- and part-time college programs on the Chicago campus that lured many war veterans to the classroom. It was the largest school at the time because of the GI Bill, with 15,000 full- and part-time students on the the Chicago campus.
In addition to those academic divisions, the School of Education and Social Policy, Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated
Marketing Communications, School of Communication, and School of Music also offer graduate-level study.
Expansion in Chicago
From 1902 to 1926 Northwestern University's professional schools were located in or near Chicago's loop. In 1920 Northwestern purchased approximately 8.5 acres for $1.5 million at Chicago Avenue and Lake Shore Drive in Streetervile. University Architect James Gamble Rogers designed the buildings erected there. Funding came from several donors who lent their names to the buildings -- Weiboldt Hall, Levy Mayer Hall of Law and the Montgomery Ward Medical and Dental Building. All of the University's professional schools relocated to the new campus in 1926.
The campus itself was originally named the Alexander McKinlock Memorial Campus in memory of donor George McKinlock's son, who died in World War I. During the Depression, when McKinlock's financial losses prevented him from continuing his promised support, the University forgave his debt and, in 1937, officially changed the the name to the Chicago Campus.