Wheaton College (Illinois)

==History==
Wheaton College was founded in 1860. Its predecessor, the Illinois Institute, had been founded in late 1853 by [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (United States)|Wesleyan Methodist]]s as a college and preparatory school. Wheaton's first president, [[Jonathan Blanchard (Wheaton)|Jonathan Blanchard]], was a former president of [[Knox College (Illinois)|Knox College]] in [[Galesburg, Illinois]], and a staunch abolitionist with ties to [[Oberlin College]]. Mired in financial trouble and unable to sustain the institution, the Wesleyans looked to Blanchard for new leadership. He took on the role as president in 1860, having suggested several Congregationalist appointees to the board of trustees the previous year.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bechtel|first=Paul M.|title=Wheaton College: A Heritage Remembered, 1860–1984|year=1984|publisher=H. Shaw Publishers|location=Wheaton, Ill|pages=18–19 |isbn=0-87788-347-5}}</ref> The Wesleyans, similar in spirit and mission to the Congregationalists, were happy to relinquish control of the Illinois Institute.<ref>Clyde S. Kilby, "A Minority of One," (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), p. 146.</ref> Blanchard officially separated the college from any denominational support and was responsible for its new name, given in honor of trustee and benefactor [[Warren L. Wheaton]], who founded the town of Wheaton after moving to Illinois from [[New England]].

A dogged reformer, Blanchard began his public campaign for [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]] with the [[American Anti-Slavery Society]] in 1836, at the age of twenty-five.<ref>Clyde S. Kilby, "A Minority of One," (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), p. 45.</ref> Later in his life, after the Civil War, he began a sustained campaign against [[Freemasonry]]. This culminated in a national presidential campaign on the American [[Anti-Masonic Party]] ticket in 1884.
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Blanchard Hall, Wheaton College
| nrhp_type = 
| image = Blanchard Hall Wheaton College.jpg
| caption = Blanchard Hall
| location = 501 College Ave., [[Wheaton, Illinois]]
 <!-- | lat_degrees = 44 | lat_minutes = 27 | lat_seconds = 35 | lat_direction = N | long_degrees = 93  | long_minutes = 10 | long_seconds = 48 | long_direction = W | locmapin = Illinois -->| built = 1853
| architecture = Classical Revival, Romanesque
| added = November 14, 1979
| area = Less than one acre
| refnum = 79000836
}}

Under Blanchard's leadership, the college was a stop on the [[Underground Railroad]].<ref name="nps.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/ntf_member/ntf_member_details.htm?SPFID=375703&SPFTerritory=NULL&SPFType=NULL&SPFKeywords=NULL/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721002903/http://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/ntf_member/ntf_member_details.htm?SPFID=375703&SPFTerritory=NULL&SPFType=NULL&SPFKeywords=NULL%2F|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 21, 2015|title=Member Details|work=nps.gov|access-date=January 20, 2015|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The confirmation came from the letters of Ezra Cook, one of Blanchard's relatives by marriage, who notes that the town and college's anti-slavery beliefs were so widely held that he, along with hundreds of other Wheaton residents, had seen and spoken with many fugitive slaves.<ref>{{cite press release|title= Wheaton College Confirmed as Underground Railroad Stop|url= http://www.wheaton.edu/news/releases/09-10_releases/09.21.09_UGRR.html|publisher= Media Relations Office|date= September 21, 2009|access-date= March 9, 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110112163327/http://www.wheaton.edu/news/releases/09-10_releases/09.21.09_UGRR.html|archive-date= January 12, 2011|url-status= dead|df= mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Clark|first=Charles M.|url=http://archive.org/details/historyofthirtyn00clar|title=The history of the Thirty-ninth regiment Illinois volunteer veteran infantry, (Yates phalanx.) in the war of the rebellion|date=1889|publisher=Chicago|others=The Library of Congress}}</ref>

Blanchard consistently lobbied for universal co-education and was a strong proponent of reform through strong public education open to all. At this time, Wheaton was the only school in Illinois with a college-level women's program. Also, Wheaton saw its first graduate of color in 1866, when Edward Breathitte Sellers took his degree.<ref>{{cite web|title=Wheaton 'Firsts'|url=http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu/wheaton-firsts-1|work=Wheaton History A to Z|publisher=Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections|access-date=March 9, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110228135445/http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu/wheaton-firsts-1|archive-date=February 28, 2011|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Additionally, he is one of the first African-American college graduates in Illinois.
In 1882, [[Charles A. Blanchard (academic administrator)|Charles A. Blanchard]] succeeded his father as president of the college.

In 1925, [[J. Oliver Buswell]], an outspoken [[Presbyterian]], delivered a series of lectures at Wheaton College. Shortly after that, President Charles Blanchard died, and Buswell was called to be the third president of Wheaton. Upon his installation in April 1926, he became the nation's youngest college president at age 31. Buswell's tenure was characterized by expanding enrollment (from approximately 400 in 1925 to 1,100 in 1940), a building program, strong academic development, and a boom in the institution's reputation. It was also known for growing divisiveness over faculty scholarship and [[personality clashes]]. In 1940, this tension led to the firing of Buswell for being, as two college historians put it, "too argumentative in temperament and too intellectual in his approach to Christianity."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wolfe|first=Alan|title=The Opening of the Evangelical Mind |date=October 2000 |volume=286 |issue=4|pages=55–76 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/10/wolfe.htm|access-date= March 9, 2011|author-link=Alan Wolfe}}</ref> By the late 1940s, Wheaton was emerging as a standard-bearer of [[Evangelicalism]].<ref name = statement>{{cite web|url=http://a2z.my.wheaton.edu/statement-of-faith|title=Statement of Faith - }}</ref>

By 1950, enrollment at the college had surpassed 1,600. In the second half of the twentieth century, enrollment growth and more selective admissions accompanied athletic success, additional and improved facilities, and expanded programs.

In 1951, Honey Rock, a camp in [[Three Lakes, Wisconsin]], was purchased by the college.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wheaton College Heritage |url=http://www.honeyrockcamp.org/gallerySideList.asp?pageid=19 |publisher=HoneyRock of Wheaton College |access-date=March 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719092134/http://www.honeyrockcamp.org/gallerySideList.asp?pageid=19 |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

In 2010, the public phase of "The Promise of Wheaton" campaign came to a close with $250.7 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=250700000|start_year=2010}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) raised, an "unprecedented 5-1/2 year campaign figure for Wheaton College".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wheaton.edu/promise/prog-prayrequests.php |title=News and Prayer Requests as of April 1, 2009 |website=Wheaton College |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100627001402/http://www.wheaton.edu/promise/prog-prayrequests.php |archive-date=June 27, 2010 }}</ref>

In 2010, Wheaton College became the first American Associate University of the [[Tony Blair Faith Foundation|Tony Blair Faith Foundation's]] Faith and Globalization Initiative. Tony Blair noted that the partnership will "give emerging leaders in the United States and the United Kingdom the opportunity to explore in depth the critical issues of how faith impacts the modern world today through different faith and cultural lenses" and that Wheaton's participation will "greatly enrich the Initiative".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/news/2010/12/03 |title=Wheaton College to become the first American Associate University of the Tony Blair Faith |website=Tony Blair Faith Foundation |date=March 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519033831/http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/news/2010/12/03 |archive-date=May 19, 2012 }}</ref>

{{As of|2015}}, the college continued to retain its Christian "Statement of Faith and Educational Purpose"<ref name = statement/> and expected public statements of its faculty members to conform to it.<ref name = NYT121615/>

===Presidents===
*[[Jonathan Blanchard (Wheaton)|Jonathan Blanchard]] (1860–1882)
*[[Charles A. Blanchard (academic administrator)|Charles A. Blanchard]] (1882–1925)
*[[J. Oliver Buswell]] (1926–1940)
*[[V. Raymond Edman]] (1941–1965)
*[[Hudson Armerding]] (1965–1982)
*[[J. Richard Chase]] (1982–1993)
*[[Duane Litfin|A. Duane Litfin]] (1993–2010)
*[[Philip Ryken|Philip G. Ryken]] (2010–present)