From MAC to UMD: Mapping Campus History

The University of Maryland Archives posted a wonderful new online resource, From MAC to UMD, that presents the "...development of the UMD campus from its earliest days as the Maryland Agricultural College to the present."

"New UMD Story Map Unveiled" was posted on the Terrapin Tales blog where the Story Map author and guest blogger Caitlin Burke, provides details of her research process and the technology she used to create the online resource.

Burke used ArcGIS, a geographic information software owned by Esri, to create the UMD Story Map.

Maryland Agricultural College in College Park, MD was initially chartered in 1856. The institution was beset with financial difficulties after the Civil War and the State of Maryland acquired one-half ownership in 1866 and then assumed full state control in 1916. It was renamed Maryland State College and became part of the University of Maryland in 1920.

Mapping Change on Purdue's West Lafayette Campus

Purdue University's Libraries, Archives, and Special Collections website includes a Purdue Campus Facilities and Buildings Historic Database page that allows users to become familiar with the history of the West Lafayette campus using an interactive map.  Users can adjust the slider below the map to see how the campus has changed over the course of the institution's history from 1874 up to the present.  There is also a search box for entering keywords to locate a more specific collection of buildings.

Consider leaving a comment below with url if you know of a similar project on another campus...

Campus Landmark Tour: Walking to Reflect on African-American History

The University of Maryland is offering an African-American History and the University of Maryland: A Campus Landmark Tour.  The self-guided walking tour of the campus commissioned by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion highlights landmarks associated with the impact of African Americans at the university and throughout history.  

The landing page for the tour notes, "From its antebellum founding through the present day, Terp life has been shaped by more than just those who wrote the official version of history. There was a time when students and visitors of color were outsiders here, but through the sacrifices of earlier pioneers—reflected in our campus fabric—each brick and blade of glass belongs to them as well."

The materials used in developing the tour and related website were drawn from campus reports and the university libraries and archives.

Consider leaving a note and link in the comment section below this post if you know of other campus walking tours.

Mapping Campus History

The University of Illinois Library hosts a web page with several interactive maps that display aspects of the institution's history. One, focuses on campus buildings from the 1860s to the present. 

Another example...African American Student Housing at the University of Illinois: 1930- 1950.  Photos and historical sketches appear as you scroll down the landing page 

A third...University of Illinois Fraternity and Sorority Tour: 1912-1913 with locations and photographs. 

Consider posting links in the comments below if you have been involved with a project mapping institutional history or run across a good example in your web searching.

Selling the Campus of Daniel Webster College

New Hampshire Public Radio posted an interesting article last week by Paige Sutherland, "For Sale: A 53-Acre College Campus (With Airplane Hangar)," on the sale of the Daniel Webster College campus in Nashua, NH.  The for-profit institution closed after the 2016-17 academic year.  The article is accompanied by a five-minute audio version.  It also includes a wonderful graphic of the state with the colleges that have closed since 1969.  Readers can click to find out when an institution closed and the current use of each campus.

You can also find links to earlier reporting from NHPR on Daniel Webster's closing:

• "After Nashua's Daniel Webster College Signs Off, What's Next For Students And Staff?" By RICK GANLEY & MICHAEL BRINDLEY • MAY 26, 2017
• "SNHU Decides Against Buying Former Daniel Webster Campus," By PAIGE SUTHERLAND • JUL 31, 2017
• "Nashua Aldermen Say 'No' to Buying Daniel Webster College Campus," By PAIGE SUTHERLAND • SEP 13, 2017
• "Looking to Buy a College Campus? There's One for Sale in Nashua," By PAIGE SUTHERLAND • AUG 30, 2017

If you are interested in recent trends for closures and mergers, access College Closures since 2009 in the index at the right of any College History Garden page.  There are separate tabs for non-profit and for-profit closures.  Each tab includes basic information for each institution, i.e., Carnegie Classification, sector, accrediting agency, and the IPEDS unitid.

Higher Education Institutions on the National Register of Historic Places

I downloaded a file earlier today with 90,000+ sites on the National Register of Historic Places.  The National Park Service includes urls in the file for the .pdfs of applications and photographs for those that have been scanned.

After a quick sort to identify 444 sites with "college" in their names, I opened the data as a Fusion table for geocoding and creation of the map below.  Some of the sites are for institutions that have closed, like the one for Gooding College in Idaho.  Click on a red icon to see a card with information for the site.  As always, your comments and suggestions are appreciated!!

Missouri Colleges and Universities in 1895

There were 38 institutions of higher education in Missouri in 1895.  Most were small with the median enrollment of 145 students.  Fifty-three percent (53%) of these students were actually enrolled in collegiate, professional, or graduate programs.

	Preparatory	Collegiate	Graduate	Professional
% of Total	47%	44%	1%	8%
# Students	3,478	3,244	64	607

The MO institutions are mapped below or you can follow a direct link offers a full screen view in a new window.  The pins are color coded to reflect whether institutions are still operating or have closed.  You can check or uncheck the boxes corresponding to the respective category.  You can also select a specific pin and a pop-up will display with the name of the institution, the location, and the founding date.

Institutions That Have Closed
Institution	Location	DateEstablished	Percent Collegiate Graduate or Professional Enrollment
Central Christian College	Albany MO	1892	69%
Northwest Missouri College	Albany MO	1892	69%
Pike College	Bowling Green MO	1882	70%
Missouri Wesleyan University	Cameron MO	1883	16%
St. Vincent's College	Cape Girardeau MO	1843	45%
Grand River Christian Union College	Edinburg MO	1858	42%
Synodical Female College	Fulton MO	1872	77%
Pritchett College	Glasgow MO	1866	28%
Presbyterian College	Independence MO	1871	34%
Baptist Female College	Lexington MO	1855	79%
Central Female College	Lexington MO	1869	68%
Elizabeth Aull Female Seminary	Lexington MO	1859	67%
Liberty College for Young Ladies	Liberty MO	1890	79%
Hardin College	Mexico MO	1873	81%
Morrisville College	Morrisville MO	1872	27%
Scarritt Collegiate Institute	Neosho MO	1888	30%
Christian Brothers College [CBC High School still operating]	St. Louis MO	1851	34%
Tarkio College	Tarkio MO	1883	49%
Avalon College	Trenton MO	1868	44%
Central Wesleyan College	Warrenton MO	1864	41%

Institutions Still Operating
Institution	Location	DateEstablished	Percent Collegiate Graduate or Professional Enrollment
Southwest Baptist College [now Southwest Baptist University]	Bolivar MO 65613	1878	45%
Christian University [now Culver Stockton College]	Canton MO 63435	1855	100%
Christian College [now Columbia College]	Columbia MO	1851	62%
Stephens College	Columbia MO	1856	81%
University of Missouri	Columbia MO	1842	100%
Central College [now Central Methodist University]	Fayette MO	1857	48%
Howard Payne College [now Central Methodist University]	Fayette MO	1844	51%
Westminster College	Fulton MO	1853	70%
Lincoln Institute [now Lincoln University]	Jefferson City MO	1866	2%
LaGrange College [moved to Hannibal, MO, now Hannibal LaGrange University	LaGrange MO	1858	73%
William Jewell College	Liberty MO	1849	51%
Missouri Valley College	Marshall MO	1889	40%
Cottey Female College [now Cottey College]	Nevada MO	1884	46%
Park College [now Park University]	Parkville MO	1875	33%
Drury College [now Drury University]	Springfield MO	1873	29%
Lidenwood Female College [now Lindenwood University]	St. Charles MO	1830	77%
St. Louis University	St. Louis MO	1829	20%
Washington University	St. Louis MO	1859	36%

The Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1896-97, Vol. II.  Washington:  Government Printing Office, 1898 serves as the source for data.

Top 20 Colleges by Enrollment in 1878

The various Reports of the U.S. Commissioner of Education that are available through the Internet Archive or Google Books offer a wealth of interesting data.  Have you ever wondered about the size of colleges and universities in the decades following the Civil War??

I created this map where you can select a specific pin and a pop-up will display with the name of the institution, the location, and the founding date....link to a full screen map in a new window.  A table with the data is included below this map.



The report includes a list of 361 colleges and universities.  Students enrolled in college preparatory academies or in graduate and professional programs are not included.  The median collegiate enrollment for the 322 institutions with figures provided, is 66 students and the mean value is 92 students.

Most of the institutions on the Top 20 are familiar names.  Trinity University has since moved to San Antonio and Rutherford College later merged with another institution to serve as a predecessor for Brevard College.

Institution	City	State	Rank	Enrollment
Harvard University	Cambridge	MA	1	884
Yale University	New Haven	CT	2	663
Baltimore City College	Baltimore	MD	3	526
College of the City of New York	New York	NY	4	496
University of Missouri	Columbia	MO	5	461
University of Cincinnati	Cincinnati	OH	6	455
College of New Jersey	Princeton	NJ	7	449
University of Virginia	Charlottesville	VA	8	365
Amherst College	Amherst	MA	9	335
Oberlin College	Oberlin	OH	10	323
Dartmouth College	Hanover	NJ	11	315
University of Wisconsin	Madison	WI	12	281
Mt. Union College	Alliance	OH	13	278
University of Notre Dame du Lac	Notre Dame	IN	14	275
Trinity University	Tehuacana	TX	15	270
Rutherford College	Rutherford	NC	16	250
Ohio Wesleyan University	Delaware	OH	17	249
Columbia University	New York	NY	18	246
Brown University	Providence	RI	19	243
University of Illinois	Urbana	IL	20	242

Commercial Schools & Colleges in the U.S. during the late 1800s

I generated several maps to learn a bit about the differences between use of Google's Fusion Tables and the Google Map Engine Lite.

I used Fusion Tables with this first one.... direct link to a full screen view in a new window.



Then, Map Engine Lite for this one... direct link offers a full screen view in a new window.

The pins are color coded to reflect their date of origin.  You can check or uncheck the boxes corresponding to the respective decades. Select a specific pin and a pop-up will display with the name of the institution, the location, and the founding date.



The dates are drawn from Table 2-Statistics of Commercial and Business Colleges 1889-1890, Part I, found in The Education Report from Vol. II of the Report of the Secretary of the Interior, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1893.

These are my first baby steps with creating maps that can be embedded in a Blogger post, so I'll appreciate suggestions and feedback!!

Presbyterian Colleges & Universities

Methodist Colleges & Universities

Lutheran Colleges & Universities

Episcopalian Colleges & Universities

Christian Church / Disciples of Christ Colleges & Universities

Catholic Colleges & Universities

Baptist Colleges & Universities

Colleges & Universities founded in 1850's

Colleges & Universities founded in 1840's

Colleges & Universities founded prior to 1840