History
Truman State University was founded in 1867 by Joseph Baldwin as the First Missouri Normal School and Commercial College. Baldwin was considered a pioneer in education, and his school quickly gained official recognition in 1870 by the Missouri General Assembly, which designated it as the first public teaching college in Missouri.
25 Missouri counties were designated as the school's college district, including Adair, Audrain, Boone, Callaway, Chariton, Clark, Howard, Knox, Lewis, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Macon, Monroe, Montgomery, Pike, Putnam, Ralls, Randolph, St. Charles, Schuyler, Scotland, Shelby, Sullivan and Warren.
No official school colors have ever been selected. However, Basil Brewer wrote the school song "The Purple and White" in 1902, prompting the college to adopt school colors of purple and white. They have remained the school colors since. And in 1915, the bulldog became the official mascot of the university.
In 1924 a fire destroyed Old Baldwin Hall and the library. Both were rebuilt, with $25,000 for the library donated by Samuel M. Pickler, a member of the first graduating class of 1870, former faculty member, and local merchant. The broad pond in the quadrangle (a prominent feature in pre-1924 photographs) was pumped dry in a futile attempt to put out the fire. The depression was filled in with debris from the ruined buildings and covered with grass, now serving as the quadrangle ("Quad") of the campus.
The college was renamed Northeast Missouri State University in 1972, and, in 1983, the university was awarded the G. Theodore Mitau Award for Innovation and Change in Higher Education by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Northeast Missouri State continued pushing for excellence. On June 20, 1985, Governor John Ashcroft signed a bill that designated the university as Missouri's only statewide public liberal arts and sciences university. This changed the school's mission to a state-wide rather than a regional (northeast) objective. As such, nearly 100 programs were dropped in the span of six years, including all two-year programs that did not fulfill the liberal arts mission.
The school continued to win praise from such publications as US News and World Report and the university's reputation continued to spread. By the 1990s, the university was no longer solely a teachers' college, but also had a nationally-known accounting division and schools of science, mathematics, computer science and literature. Ten years after Governor Ashcroft's designation, Governor Mel Carnahan signed legislation renaming the school Truman State University. Truman State University is designated by statute as Missouri's premier public liberal arts and sciences institution.
| Years | Name |
|---|---|
| 1867–68 | North Missouri Normal and Commercial School |
| 1868–70 | North Missouri Normal School |
| 1870–1918 | North Missouri Normal School of the First District |
| 1918–68 | Northeast Missouri State Teachers College (Commonly called Kirksville State Teachers College) |
| 1968–72 | Northeast Missouri State College |
| 1972–96 | Northeast Missouri State University |
| 1996–present | Truman State University |
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“They are a sort of post-house,where the Fates
Change horses, making history change its tune,
Then spur away o’er empires and o’er states,
Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
Excepting the post-obits of theology.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)