Tulane University

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The forerunner to Tulane University - the Medical College of Louisiana - was founded in 1834 as the Deep South's second medical school. By 1847, the public University of Louisiana was established, and the Medical College was joined by a law department (now School of Law) and a collegiate department (now Tulane College). Tulane was established as a private university in 1884 when the public University of Louisiana was reorganized and named in honor of benefactor Paul Tulane, a wealthy merchant who bequeathed more than $1 million to endow a university for the city where he had earned his fortune. This newly-formed institution included schools of liberal arts and sciences, law, medicine and graduate studies.

In 1886, Josephine Louise Newcomb founded Newcomb College at Tulane as a memorial to her daughter, Harriott Sophie. Newcomb College was the first degree-granting women's coordinate college in the nation, and the Newcomb/Tulane model was later emulated by institutions such as Pembroke/Brown and Barnard/Columbia.

In 1894, Tulane University, then located in downtown New Orleans, moved to uptown New Orleans. That same year the School of Engineering was established with its inaugural classes on the campus, including Tulane's first architecture classes.

The independent architecture department opened in 1912 (School of Architecture) as did the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, followed in 1914 by the College of Commerce and Business - later named the A. B. Freeman School of Business. Four years later, Newcomb College moved from its original Garden District location to join Tulane's uptown campus. In 1927, Tulane established the School of Social Work, one of the first in the South. Next came University College founded in 1942 as Tulane's division of continuing education.