Motto | Latin: Veritas |
---|---|
Motto in English
|
Truth |
Type | Private |
Established | February 15, 1837 |
Endowment | US$ 127 million (31 March 2015) |
President | Teresa Amott |
Academic staff
|
120 |
Students | 1,420 |
Location | Galesburg, IL, USA |
Campus | Small city |
Colors | Purple and gold |
Athletics | 21 varsity teams NCAA Division III Midwest Conference |
Mascot | Prairie Fire (nickname), Blaze (mascot) |
Website | www.knox.edu |
Knox College is a four-year coeducational private liberal arts college located in Galesburg, Illinois, United States. Knox is classified as a more selective institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and is ranked 75th among liberal arts colleges by the 2013 edition of America's Best Colleges in U.S. News & World Report. It is one of 40 schools featured in Loren Pope's influential book Colleges That Change Lives.
Knox College was founded in 1837 by anti-slavery social reformers, led by George Washington Gale. Many of the founders, including the Rev. Samuel Wright, actively supported the Underground Railroad. The original name for the school was Knox Manual Labor College, but it has been known by its present name since 1857.
The college's name came about through a compromise among its founders. Though founded by a colony of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, the county in which the college is located was already named Knox County, after Henry Knox, the first United States Secretary of War. Arguments have been made that the college was named for Calvinist leader John Knox, but it is not certain for which Knox it was named (if not both). George Candee Gale, a great-great-grandson of two of the founders, explains that