Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/188

 160 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Ohio and the Rocky Mountains, and all together they did not have endowments aggregating more than half a million dollars. The promoters of Chicago felt that with twice that sum, more than half of it endowment, the new institution was rich to begin with. Their hopes and expectations were large. Mr. Goodspeed, in immediate connection with the statement already quoted, that "the initial educational work will be that of a college," went on to say, The board, however, has been called to consider that Chicago, a great city, is growing with marvelous rapidity, .... that leading citizens are already interested in this institution and are asking that provision be made for enlarging the scope of its work, when the time for so doing shall come and the means shall be provided, and that it is properly expected to meet in due season all the requirements of a great school for a mighty city and a wide region of country. In view of facts like these the Board has deemed it wise to incorporate under the old title "The University of Chicago." Not only was the new college, in this spirit of large expectation, named University, but the articles of incorporation, which might be called the charter, contemplated far more than a college. A college could have been conducted under its provisions. But it was framed for a university and for a university of the most comprehensive character. After stating that the objects of the corporation were, in general, "to provide, impart and furnish oppor- tunities for all departments of higher education to persons of both sexes on equal terms," and indicating in detail that it might "con- duct academies, preparatory schools, manual training schools and colleges," the charter goes on to include among these objects, to establish and maintain a university, in which may be taught all branches of higher learning, and which may comprise and embrace separate depart- ments for literature, law, medicine, music, technology, the various branches of science, both abstract and applied, the cultivation of the fine arts, and all other branches of professional education which may properly be included within the purposes and objects of a university. While therefore the American Baptist Education Society and Mr. Rockefeller established a college, they at the same time opened the door for any possible enlargement and expansion. And enlargement and expansion were not slow in coming. Indeed the story of the expansion of the college founded in 1890