Shimer College was founded in 1852, when the pioneer town of Mt. Carroll, Illinois, lacking a public school, incorporated the Mt. Carroll Seminary with no land, no teachers, and no money for this purpose.[1][2][a]
Founded as non-denominational, it was affiliated with Baptists from 1896 into the 1950s, and subsequently with The Episcopal Church between 1959 and 1973, after which it became non-denominational once again.[3]
Shimer has evolved over time from a coeducational seminary to a women's seminary, a women's academy, a women's junior college, a women's college, and finally a coeducational Great Books college.
Throughout its existence, it has been involved a series of crises and profound changes. Because of this, the college is often symbolized by a phoenix which is reborn from its own ashes.[4][5] Crises throughout Shimer's history have included three abandonments of the college by its board in 1855, 1973 and 1977; a catastrophic fire in 1906; bankruptcies in 1974 and 1977; and struggles over governance in 1966 and 2010.
Faculty and students have historically worked together to keep the college viable. The college has undergone two hotly contested moves, from Mount Carroll, Illinois to Waukegan, Illinois in 1978 and from Waukegan to Chicago in 2006. In 2017, Shimer College became the Shimer School of Great Books at North Central College.
Characteristics that have been noted to recur throughout Shimer's history,[6] include a unique degree of student involvement in administering the school's affairs. The school maintains a tradition of welcoming any pupils as they are ready and able to learn, admitting students many schools would consider too young.
The school has maintained notably high standards of academic performance and required workload. In the 19th century, it sent students to the East Coast ready to skip the first years of college.[7] In the 20th and 21st centuries, Shimer students had among the highest GRE scores and rates of graduate study in the country.[6][8]
| Name Changes[9] | |
|---|---|
| 1853: | Mount Carroll Seminary |
| 1896: | Frances Shimer Academy of the University of Chicago |
| 1908: | Frances Shimer Academy and Junior College |
| 1910: | Frances Shimer School |
| 1932: | Frances Shimer Junior College |
| 1942: | Frances Shimer College |
| 1950: | Shimer College |
| 2017: | Shimer Great Book School of North Central College |
- ^ Society for the Advancement of Education (1936). School and Society. 43: 873. ISSN 0036-6455.
{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "An Act to Incorporate the Mount Carroll Seminary". Laws of the State of Illinois Enacted by the General Assembly. 1: 13. 1867. OCLC 38559494.
- ^ Armentrout, Donald S. (1996). "Episcopal Colleges and Universities". In Hunt, Thomas C.; Carper, James C. (eds.). Religious Higher Education in the United States: A Source Book. p. 261. ISBN 0815316364.
- ^ David R. Koukal (2009-10-17). "Coming Home Again" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
- ^ Eric Nicholson (1973). "Phoenix Fly".
- ^ a b Harold Henderson (1988-06-16). "Big Ideas: Tiny Shimer College has survived for 135 years on great books, high hopes, and very little money". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2010-04-16.
- ^ Jeriah Bonham (1883). "Mrs Frances A. Wood Shimer". Fifty Years' Recollections. J. W. Franks & Sons. pp. 201ff.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
TIMEwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Songe, Alice H. (1978). American universities and colleges: a dictionary of name changes. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. p. 187. ISBN 0-8108-1137-5.