Columbia University was founded in 1754 as King's
College by royal charter of King George II of England. It is
the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New
York and the fifth oldest in the United
States.
Controversy preceded the founding of the
College, with various groups competing to determine its
location and religious affiliation. Advocates of New York City
met with success on the first point, while the Anglicans
prevailed on the latter. However, all constituencies agreed to
commit themselves to principles of religious liberty in
establishing the policies of the College.
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Columbia's first
home
Trinity Church
schoolhouse | |
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In July 1754, Samuel Johnson held the
first classes in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church,
located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan. There were
eight students in the class. At King's College, the future
leaders of colonial society could receive an education
designed to "enlarge the Mind, improve the Understanding,
polish the whole Man, and qualify them to support the
brightest Characters in all the elevated stations in life."
One early manifestation of the institution's lofty goals was
the establishment in 1767 of the first American medical school
to grant the M.D. degree.
The American Revolution
brought the growth of the college to a halt, forcing a
suspension of instruction in 1776 that lasted for eight years.
However, the institution continued to exert a significant
influence on American life through the people associated with
it. Among the earliest students and trustees of King's College
were John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States;
Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury;
Gouverneur Morris, the author of the final draft of the U.S.
Constitution; and Robert R. Livingston, a member of the
five-man committee that drafted the Declaration of
Independence.
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Columbia's third
home
East 49th St. and Madison
Ave. | |
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The college reopened in 1784 with a new
name—Columbia—that embodied the patriotic fervor that had
inspired the nation's quest for independence. The revitalized
institution was recognizable as the descendant of its colonial
ancestor, thanks to its inclination toward Anglicanism and the
needs of an urban population, but there were important
differences: Columbia College reflected the legacy of the
Revolution in the greater economic, denominational, and
geographic diversity of its new students and leaders.
Cloistered campus life gave way to the more common phenomenon
of day students who lived at home or lodged in the
city.
In 1857, the College moved from Park Place, near
the present site of city hall, to Forty-ninth Street and
Madison Avenue, where it remained for the next forty years.
During the last half of the nineteenth century, Columbia
rapidly assumed the shape of a modern university. The Columbia
School of Law was founded in 1858. The country's first mining
school, a precursor of today's Fu Foundation School of
Engineering and Applied Science, was established in 1864 and
awarded the first Columbia Ph.D. in 1875.
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Columbia's
fourth home
Morningside
Heights | |
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When Seth Low became Columbia's president in 1890,
he vigorously promoted the university ideal for the College,
placing the fragmented federation of autonomous and competing
schools under a central administration that stressed
cooperation and shared resources. Barnard College for women
had become affiliated with Columbia in 1889; the medical
school came under the aegis of the University in 1891,
followed by Teachers College in 1893. The development of
graduate faculties in political science, philosophy, and pure
science established Columbia as one of the nation's earliest
centers for graduate education. In 1896, the trustees
officially authorized the use of yet another new name,
Columbia University, and today the institution is officially
known as Columbia University in the City of New
York.
Low's greatest accomplishment, however, was
moving the university from Forty-ninth Street to the more
spacious Morningside Heights campus, designed as an urban
academic village by McKim, Mead, and White, the renowned
turn-of-the-century architectural firm. Architect Charles
Follen McKim provided Columbia with stately buildings
patterned after those of the Italian Renaissance. The
University continued to prosper after its move uptown in
1897.
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The construction
of
Low Memorial
Library | |
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During the presidency of Nicholas Murray Butler
(1902–1945), Columbia emerged as a preeminent national center
for educational innovation and scholarly achievement. The
School of Journalism was established by bequest of Joseph
Pulitzer in 1912. John Erskine taught the first Great Books
Honors Seminar at Columbia College in 1919, making the study
of original masterworks the foundation of undergraduate
education, and in the same year, a course on war and peace
studies originated the College's influential Core
Curriculum.
Columbia became, in the words of College
alumnus Herman Wouk, a place of "doubled magic," where "the
best things of the moment were outside the rectangle of
Columbia; the best things of all human history and thought
were inside the rectangle."
The study of the sciences
flourished along with the liberal arts. Franz Boas founded the
modern science of anthropology here in the early decades of
the twentieth century, even as Thomas Hunt Morgan set the
course for modern genetics. In 1928, Columbia–Presbyterian
Medical Center, the first such center to combine teaching,
research, and patient care, was officially opened as a joint
project between the medical school and The Presbyterian
Hospital.
By the late 1930s, a Columbia student could
study with the likes of Jacques Barzun, Paul Lazarsfeld, Mark
Van Doren, Lionel Trilling, and I. I. Rabi, to name just a few
of the great minds of the Morningside campus. The University's
graduates during this time were equally accomplished—for
example, two alumni of Columbia's School of Law, Charles Evans
Hughes and Harlan Fiske Stone (who was also dean of the School
of Law), served successively as Chief Justice of the United
States Supreme Court.
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The construction
of South Hall
(later renamed Butler
Library) | |
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Research into the atom by faculty members I. I.
Rabi, Enrico Fermi, and Polykarp Kusch brought Columbia's
Department of Physics to international prominence in the
1940s. The founding of the School of International Affairs
(now the School of International and Public Affairs) in 1946
marked the beginning of intensive growth in international
relations as a major scholarly focus of the University. The
oral-history movement in the United States was launched at
Columbia in 1948.
Columbia celebrated its bicentennial
in 1954 during a period of steady expansion. This growth
mandated a major campus building program in the 1960s, and, by
the end of the decade, five of the University's schools were
housed in new buildings.
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Statue of
Alexander
Hamilton, Hamilton
Hall | |
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It was also in the 1960s that Columbia experienced
the most significant crisis in its history. Currents of unrest
sweeping the country—among them opposition to the Vietnam War,
an increasingly militant civil rights movement, and the
ongoing decline of America's inner cities—converged with
particular force at Columbia, casting the Morningside campus
into the national spotlight. More than 1,000 protesting
students occupied five buildings in the last week of April
1968, effectively shutting down the University until they were
forcibly removed by the New York City police. Those events led
directly to the cancellation of a proposed gym in Morningside
Park, the cessation of certain classified research projects on
campus, the retirement of President Grayson Kirk, and a
downturn in the University's finances and morale. They also
led to the creation of the University Senate, in which
faculty, students, and alumni acquired a larger voice in
University affairs.
In recent decades, Columbia's
campuses have seen a revival of spirit and energy that have
been truly momentous. Under the leadership of President
Michael Sovern, the 1980s saw the completion of important new
facilities, and the pace intensified after George Rupp became
president in 1993. A 650-million-dollar building program begun
in 1994 provided the impetus for a wide range of projects,
including the complete renovation of Furnald Hall and
athletics facilities on campus and at Baker Field, the wiring
of the campus for Internet and wireless access, the rebuilding
of Dodge Hall for the School of the Arts, the construction of
new facilities for the Schools of Law and Business, the
renovation of Butler Library, and the creation of the Philip
L. Milstein Family College Library.
The University also
continued to develop the Audubon Biotechnology and Research
Park, securing Columbia's place at the forefront of medical
research. As New York City's only university-related research
park, it also is contributing to economic growth through the
creation of private-sector research collaborations and the
generation of new biomedically related business.
A new
student-activities center, Alfred Lerner Hall, opened in 1999
and features the Roone Arledge Auditorium and Cinema. Current
building projects include major renovations to Hamilton Hall
and Avery Library.
These and other improvements to the
University's physical plant provide a visible reminder of the
continuing growth and development of Columbia's programs of
research and teaching. From its renowned Core Curriculum to
the most advanced work now under way in its graduate and
professional schools, the University continues to set the
highest standard for the creation and dissemination of
knowledge, both in the United States and around the
world.
Clear in its commitment to carrying out such a
wide-ranging and historic mission, and led by a new president,
Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia is proud to celebrate its 250th
anniversary and look ahead to the achievements to
come.
THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
In 1897, the university moved from Forty-ninth
Street and Madison Avenue, where it had stood for fifty years,
to its present location on Morningside Heights at 116th Street
and Broadway. Seth Low, the president of the University at the
time of the move, sought to create an academic village in a
more spacious setting. Charles Follen McKim of the
architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White modeled the new
campus after the Athenian agora. The Columbia campus comprises
the largest single collection of McKim, Mead & White
buildings in existence.
The architectural centerpiece
of the campus is Low Memorial Library, named in honor of Seth
Low's father. Built in the Roman classical style, it appears
in the New York City Register of Historic Places. The building
today houses the University's central administration offices
and the visitors center.
A broad flight of steps
descends from Low Library to an expansive plaza, a popular
place for students to gather, and from there to College Walk,
a promenade that bisects the central campus. Beyond College
Walk is the South Campus, where Butler Library, the
university's main library, stands. South Campus is also the
site of many of Columbia College's facilities, including
student residences, Alfred Lerner Hall (the student center),
and the College's administrative offices and classroom
buildings, along with the Graduate School of
Journalism.
To the north of Low Library stands Pupin
Hall, which in 1966 was designated a national historic
landmark in recognition of the atomic research undertaken
there by Columbia's scientists beginning in 1925. To the east
is St. Paul's Chapel, which is listed with the New York City
Register of Historic Places.
Many newer buildings
surround the original campus. Among the most impressive are
the Sherman Fairchild Center for the Life Sciences and the
Morris A. Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Science
Research. Two miles to the north of Morningside Heights is the
20-acre campus of the Columbia University Medical Center in
Manhattan's Washington Heights, overlooking the Hudson River.
Among the most prominent buildings on the site are the
20-story Julius and Armand Hammer Health Sciences Center, the
William Black Medical Research Building, and the 17-story
tower of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1989, The
Presbyterian Hospital opened the Milstein Hospital Building, a
745-bed facility that incorporates the very latest advances in
medical technology and patient care.
To the west is the
New York State Psychiatric Institute; east of Broadway is the
Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, which includes
the Mary Woodard Lasker Biomedical Research Building, the
Audubon Business Technology Center, Russ Berrie Medical
Science Pavilion, and the Irving Cancer Research Center as
well as other institutions of cutting-edge scientific and
medical research.
In addition to its New York City
campuses, Columbia has two facilities outside of Manhattan.
Nevis Laboratories, established in 1947, is Columbia's primary
center for the study of high-energy experimental particle and
nuclear physics. Located in Irvington, New York, Nevis is
situated on a 60-acre estate originally owned by the son of
Alexander Hamilton.
The Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory was established in 1949 in Palisades, New York,
and is a leading research institution focusing on global
climate change, earthquakes, volcanoes, nonrenewable
resources, and environmental hazards. It examines the planet
from its core to its atmosphere, across every continent and
every ocean.
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