Yale University

Yale University, at New Haven, Conn. coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was finally moved to its permanent location in New Haven. Its name was changed to Yale College in 1718 in honor of Elihu Yale , who had been persuaded by Cotton Mather and Jeremiah Dummer to contribute to the college. Its present charter was drawn up in 1745.

Extensive changes were made in the college during the 19th cent. Numerous schools were added, such as medicine (1813), divinity (1822), law (1824), graduate studies (1847), and art and architecture (1865) as a result in 1887, under Timothy Dwight , the college was renamed Yale Univ. Later, other schools were added: music (1894), forestry (1900, now forestry and environmental studies), nursing (1923), engineering (1932), drama (1955), and management (1975). Women were admitted to the graduate school in 1892 and to Yale College in 1969. The Yale Library, one of the largest in the nation, houses a large number of important collections, including the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Also notable are the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the well-known Yale Univ. Art Gallery, expanded in 2012, and the Yale Center for British Art. Yale Univ. Press was established in 1908.

See E. Oviatt, The Beginnings of Yale (1916, repr. 1969) J. Lever and P. Schwartz, Women at Yale (1971) B. M. Kelley, Yale: A History (1974).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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