Old University of Chicago
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The University of Chicago, renamed the Old University of Chicago in 1890, was a university which operated in Chicago, Illinois from 1856 to 1886.
The school, founded by Baptist church leaders, was called the "University of Chicago" (or, interchangeably, "Chicago University"). After years of financial struggle, the university's campus was badly damaged by fire, the school was foreclosed on by its creditors, its classes ceased in 1886, and it no longer admitted students. Rather than try to continue operations, its trustees decided in 1890 to change the school's name to the "Old University of Chicago" and allow the establishment of a new "University of Chicago".
The Northwestern University School of Law began as a department of the Old University of Chicago and transferred completely to Northwestern when Old UC folded. The Baptist Theological Union had formed as a separate theological school alongside the University in 1865, and would later be grafted into the new university as the University of Chicago Divinity School. While the present-day University of Chicago, which was established in 1891, is a separate legal entity and in a different location, it recognized Old University of Chicago alumni as its own and maintained a number of other continuities from its pre-1890 origins.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.