University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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DIR. FIELD The streetskrunning through this tract were vacated by the city coun- cil, making the University's land one unbroken piece, fronting south on the Midway Plaisance, having Ellis Avenue on the west and Lexington Avenue on the east. Washington Park is four blocks west and .T ack- son Park seven blocks east of the site. These parks, with the Plai- sance, which is also a park, contain a thousand acres. The annual meeting of the Ed- ucation Society in June, 1890, was held in Chicago and the board of the society adopted articles of incorpor- ation and a charter for the new institution. Un September 10 of the same year the University was incorporated under the laws of Illinois with the following trustees: E. NELSON BLAIQD, JUDGE JOSDPH M. BAILI-Lv FRANCIS E. HINCKLEY, WII,I,I.uI R. PI.-XRPER, PH HON. GEORGE A. PII.I,sIsU EDWARD GOODMAN, 1 .D., Rv, ALONZO K. PARRIQR, UD., J. W. MIDGI,I1:x', :XNDREXV RICLEISH, FRI-:D A. SMITH, FERD W. PECK, HERMAN H. IQOHLSAAT, CHARLES L. HUTQHINSON, ELI B. FELSENTHAI., MARTIN A. RYERSON, JUDGE DANIEL L. SHOREY, GEORGE C. VVALKER, C. C. BONVEN, ELIIIER L. CORTHIQLL, HENRY A. RUST, CI-I.xRI,Ias W. NEEDHAM. The trustees perfected their organization bv the election of the following officers: Pl'z'.S'1'zfCl1l . . . I '1're- P1 Fililllfllf . T1'eas1zrff1' . . . Nf'f01'rI'1'f1rg'Srr1'f'lIzljl' . . . E. NELSON BI.,xRIf3. BI.-XRTIN A. RYI-:RsoN. . . . CII.-IRLIQS L. HUTCHINSON. . JUSTIN A. SMITH. D.IJ. Cm-navponn'z'z1g and l z'11a11f1'a! Sefrelaljf. T, XV. GUOIJQIJFI.-D IJ IJ . . . , . . ln the charter of the University are two noteworthv sections. Ong ig .. , '4,. ,' '..f Y- - . that the object ot the corporation Is ' Fo proxide, nnpart and furnish oppor- tunities for all departments of higher education, to persons of both sexes 011

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of S600,000 toward an endowment fund, conditioned on the pledging of 3400,000 more before .Tune 1, 1890. Immediately following the action in Boston and the announcement of Mr. Rockefellerls subscription, early in June, 1889, a meeting was held in Chicago, and a college committee of thirty-six was appointed to co-operate with the society in the effort to meet the condition proposed. This com- mittee appointed Rev. Thomas W. Goodspeed to assist Mr. Gates in raising the 95,400,000 required. Although this project was considered impossible by REX. MR. GOODSI Ll.I many wise men, these two immediately entered upon their labors and within the prescribed period carried their work to success, accomplishing more than was required of them. They secured, a little more than S400,000 in subscrip- tions to be paid in money, about 315,000 in books, scientific collections and apparatus and a site for the institution valued at S125,000. The site, consisting of a block and a half of land, was donated by Mr. Marshall Field, Chicago's great merchant prince and noble-minded philan- thropist. Two and a half additional blocks were afterwards purchased for 52823-500, thus providing a site of four blocks, or about twenty-four acres.

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equal terms. The other section requires that the President and two-thirds of the Trustees shall be Baptists. The incorporators named in the charter were John D. Rocke- feller, E. Nelson Blake, Marshall Field, Fred T. Gates, Francis E. Hinckley and Thomas W. Good- speed. The name of the corporation in law is t'The University of Chi- cagof' At the first meeting of the board soon after its incorporation in September, 1890, Professor Willizrm Rainey Harper, of Yale University, was elected President. He signified his acceptance in the spring of 1891 and entered on the duties of his ofiice July 1, 1891 7 . ' f 3, ,gf am : ' , - ' ,. gf? .- . ., ' ti'--'rf ' -.'-.1119 5 M ' If ff:-53? .r - riff'-I 45.-gf 7-162 f4.vg?6:,: ' M V .3 f ff . - 1 My -1- x 4' ' E , , . Hi, -. , , ff ' ,M . DR.HARI'E'R Before Professor Harper accepted the presidency, the scope of the institution had been greatly enlarged. Professor Harper felt that it should be in fact, as Well as in name, a University, and Mr. Rockefeller agreeing with this view, in September, 1890, added 31,000,000 to his former subscription. In accordance with the terms of this second subscription, the Theological Seminary was removed from Morgan Park to the University site, as the Divinity School of the Universityg an Academy of the University was established at Morgan Park, and 55l00,000 of the amount of the subscription were devoted to the erection of divinity dormitories on the grounds of the University. In the spring of 1891, the executors and trustees of the estate of Willizrin B. Ogden, first Mayor of Chicago, designated to the University seventy per cent of that portion of the estate devoted by Will to benevolent purposes. It is expected that more than half a million dollars will be realized from this designation, for 'tThe Ogden C,Graduatej School of Science of the University of Chicagof, The first payment on this gift, amounting to S250,000, was received October 2, 1893. The University began the erection of its first buildings on November 26,