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Columbia College Chicago was founded in 1890 as the Columbia School of Oratory, a coeducational institution teaching methods of physical culture, expression, elocution, public reading, and dramatic action. From the 1930s onward, the college focused on the growing fields of radio, television, and other mass communication. By the 1960s, the school had created a liberal-arts curriculum with a hands-on approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. In the 1970s, the college relocated to its permanent home in the South Loop. Today, with deference to its past, the college encourages students to author the culture of their times, to produce a body of work, and to realize their abilities according to the school's original motto "esse quam videri" (to be rather than to seem).
About the author
R. Conrad Winke is associate dean of the Library and Academic Research at Columbia College Chicago. He holds an M.A. in library and information science from Rosary College (now Dominican University) and an M.A. in history from Northeastern Illinois University. Heidi Marshall is the head of College Archives and Digital Collections/College Archivist at Columbia College Chicago. She holds an M.S. in library science and an M.A. in American history from Simmons College.
