Belknap Campus, the historic heart of the University of Louisville (UofL), was laid out just before the Civil War as a city-owned reform school and orphanage. In 1925, the university acquired the site, relocating its undergraduate college and adding an engineering school. Eight structures from that earlier use give the modern campus its strong historical feel. This volume is rich with images of student life, from homecoming and campus hangouts to intramurals and sports. University of Louisville: Belknap Campus chronicles the dramatic expansion of the campus into adjacent neighborhoods, drawing heavily on archival sources. The Belknap Campus story provokes both warm recollection and pride in a 200-plus-year-old institution that is part of the core fabric of what makes Louisville great.

Dwayne Cox and William Morison trace the twists and turns of the University of Louisville's two hundred year journey from provincial academy to national powerhouse. From the 1798 charter that established Jefferson Seminary to the 1998 opening of Papa John Stadium, Cox and Morison reveal the unique and fascinating history of the university's evolution. They discuss the early failures to establish a liberal arts college; tell the extraordinary story of the Louisville Municipal College, U of L's separate division for African Americans during the era of segregation; detail the political wrangling and budgetary struggles of the university's move from quasi-private to state-supported institution; and confront head-on the question of the university's founding date. The history of the University of Louisville defies the stereotype of orderly and planned growth. For many years, the university was essentially a consortium of two professional schools—medicine and law. Not until the first decade of the twentieth century did the liberal arts gain a firm and permanent foothold. Because of its early emphasis on practical, professional education and the virtual autonomy of its separate units for many years, the University of Louisville is unusual in the annals of higher education.