University of Chicago was founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society , the oil magnate John D. Rockefeller made a substantial financial donation and Marshall Field that supplied the land where buildings settled.
The first classes were held in 1892, by William Rainey Harper a young theology student who came from Yale University and who understood the institution in an environment of acceptance equal opportunities.
The first university buildings copied the style of English Gothic architecture : towers, spiers, cloisters, and gargoyles. In 1910, the university takes most traditions, including a coat of arms that bore a phoenix rising from the flames and a Latin motto, Scientia Crescat, Excolatur Vita (If knowledge grows, human life is enriched).
During the reign of Robert Hutchins as president, from 1929 to 1951, they established many of curricular innovations that still continue today. For example, plans specifically devoted to studies were created interdisciplinary education , continuous assessment rather than final exams; courses are focused on the study of original documents and classics , and an emphasis on classroom discussion rather than lectures.
During the 1960s they arose student revolts and youth came to occupy classrooms and buildings . This widespread discontent was motivated by conditions on rental policies and layoffs to a well-known teacher.
In 1978, University of Chicago named Hanna Gray as president of the institution and became one of the first women to command a university in the US
Today the institution is still strongly committed to interdisciplinary general education, and does so through a new curriculum that strongly emphasizes the learning of foreign languages and higher educational opportunities to international and intercultural level.
* Source: University of Chicago