Editing Northwestern University (section)

=== Founding and early years ===
[[File:Traditional Northwestern University Hall, June 1977 (2984002823).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[University Hall (Northwestern University)|University Hall]] (1869), the oldest building still standing on campus]]
The foundation of Northwestern University can be traced to a meeting on May 31, 1850, of nine prominent Chicago businessmen, Methodist leaders, and attorneys who had formed the idea of establishing a university to serve what had been known from 1787 to 1803 as the [[Northwest Territory]]. On January 28, 1851, the [[Illinois General Assembly]] granted a charter to the ''Trustees of the North-Western University'', making it the first chartered university in Illinois.<ref>{{Harvnb|Williamson|Wild|1976|pp= 5–6}}</ref><ref name="Charter">{{cite web |title= The Northwestern University Charter and Amendments |url= http://www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/nu_charter.pdf |access-date= August 5, 2007 |publisher= Northwestern University |archive-date= July 4, 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080704140522/http://www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/nu_charter.pdf |url-status= live }}</ref> The school's nine founders, all of whom were Methodists (three of them ministers), knelt in prayer and worship before launching their first organizational meeting.<ref name="Northwestern">{{cite web |url= http://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/northwestern/summer2002/features/coverstory/index.htm |title= Keeping the Faith |publisher= Northwestern |quote= Northwestern's own religious identity stretches back to its genesis. The University began with a prayer&nbsp;— the school's nine founders (all of them Methodists, three of them ministers) knelt in worship before launching their first organizational meeting. During that meeting, they agreed to establish a university under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Throughout most of its history, Northwestern kept a strong Methodist tie. Regional church conferences chose a member of the board of trustees, and until 1890 every University president was an ordained Methodist minister. |access-date= July 20, 2007 |archive-date= July 10, 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200710032039/https://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/northwestern/summer2002/features/coverstory/index.htm |url-status= live }}</ref> Although they affiliated the university with the Methodist Episcopal Church, they favored a [[non-sectarian]] admissions policy, believing that Northwestern should serve all people in the newly developing territory by bettering the economy in [[Evanston, Illinois|Evanston]].<ref name="Planning a university">{{cite web |url= http://www.nu150.northwestern.edu/news/stories/10_21_00_founders.html |title= Planning a university to serve the Northwest Territory |quote= Although the founders were strong Methodists — three of them were Methodist ministers and before the meeting all those in attendance joined in prayer — they also firmly believed that Northwestern should be an institution that would serve all people. At that time in history, particularly in the Midwest, many religious denominations founded colleges aimed at educating only members of their religion. |access-date= August 15, 2013 |publisher= Northwestern University |archive-date= October 27, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181027101305/https://www.nu150.northwestern.edu/news/stories/10_21_00_founders.html |url-status= dead }}</ref>

[[John Evans (Colorado governor)|John Evans]], for whom Evanston is named, bought {{cvt|379|acre}} of land along [[Lake Michigan]] in 1853, and [[Philo Judson Farnsworth|Philo Judson]] developed plans for what would become the city of Evanston, Illinois. The first building, [[Old College, Northwestern University|Old College]], opened on November 5, 1855.<ref>{{Harvnb|Williamson|Wild|1976|pp= 10–11}}</ref> To raise funds for its construction, Northwestern sold $100 "perpetual scholarships" entitling the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition.<ref>{{Harvnb|Williamson|Wild|1976|pp= 6}}</ref><ref name="Perpetual scholarships">{{cite web |url= http://www.northwestern.edu/features/historic_moments/11_5_00_scholarship.html |title= Perpetual Scholarships provided early university funding |access-date= August 5, 2007 |publisher= Northwestern University |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070803194448/http://www.northwestern.edu/features/historic_moments/11_5_00_scholarship.html |archive-date= August 3, 2007 |url-status= dead |df= mdy-all }}</ref> Another building, [[University Hall (Northwestern University)|University Hall]], was built in 1869 of the same Joliet limestone as the [[Chicago Water Tower]], also built in 1869, one of the few buildings in the heart of Chicago to survive the [[Great Chicago Fire]] of 1871.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/10/28/Campus/Eclectic.By.Design-1902783.shtml |title= Eclectic by Design |newspaper= [[The Daily Northwestern]] |date= October 28, 2002 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070929092609/http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/10/28/Campus/Eclectic.By.Design-1902783.shtml |archive-date= September 29, 2007 |df= mdy-all }}</ref>

In 1873 [[Evanston College for Ladies]] merged with Northwestern, and [[Frances Willard (suffragist)|Frances Willard]], who later gained fame as a [[Women's suffrage|suffragette]] and as one of the founders of the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]] (WCTU), became the school's first [[dean of women]] ([[Willard Residential College]], built in 1938, honors her name). Northwestern admitted its first female students in 1869, and the first woman graduated in 1874.<ref>{{Harvnb|Williamson|Wild|1976|pp=23–28}}</ref> Northwestern fielded its first [[College football|intercollegiate football]] team in 1882, later becoming a founding member of the Big Ten Conference. In the 1870s and 1880s, Northwestern affiliated itself with already existing schools of law, medicine, and dentistry in Chicago. As the university's enrollments grew, these professional schools were integrated with the undergraduate college in Evanston; the result was a modern research university combining professional, graduate, and undergraduate programs, which gave equal weight to teaching and research.<ref>{{Harvnb|Williamson|Wild|1976|pp= 83–84,110}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Northwestern Undergraduate Catalog 2005–07 |volume= XXVIII |edition= 3 |year= 2005}}</ref>