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The Early History of University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago is state-funded university located in Chicago, Illinois. The University of Illinois at Chicago or UIC has a deep history that not everyone who attends the state-funded university is aware of. The earliest history of the UIC goes all the way back before the United States Civil War in 1959.

Early Medical Roots (1852-1945)
The American Pharmaceutical Association, also known as the American Pharmacists Association was created in 1852 to advance the knowledge of pharmacy throughout the United States. One of their main goals was to create an educational system for students who wanted to become druggists (what pharmacy practitioners were called at the time). It all started with a small society of druggists from Chicago who focused on offering a more formal way of training future druggists. It was not until September 1859 when the Chicago College of Pharmacy was created but at the time, the college offered no campus or classrooms and the lectures had to be held in the homes of the lecturers or in halls that were rented just for these lectures. Despite these setbacks, the Chicago College of Pharmacy was able to graduate its first class in 1861 which only included two students.

The Great Chicago Fire

Before 1871, the Chicago College of Pharmacy had finally gotten a building in which their lectures were held. But on October 8th,1871 a fire alarm was pulled because a "small fire" had started in the Chicago area and had consumed a lot of the City of Chicago and later on the fire became known as the "Great Chicago Fire". Unfortunately, the fire burned down the majority of the buildings including the Chicago College of Pharmacy. With the help of students and colleagues, the College Secretary Albert Ebert was able to gain support from around the world to rebuild the college and other facilities. The college reopened in the fall of 1872 with 37 students.

Other Early Colleges

In 1895, the state legislature allowed the University of Illinois to expand its education outside of the Champaign County, where the original campus was located. Due to the change to the original charter, the University of Illinois was able to acquire educational bodiess in other parts of the states. On May 1, 1896, the University of Illinois acquired the Chicago College of Pharmacy along with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Colombian College of Dentistry and changed the name of the college to the University of Illinois of Pharmacy. In 1913 all the Chicago based health colleges became fully incorporated as the Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy. The College of Pharmacy was the first pharmacy school west of Allegheny Mountains and focused on research. The College of Dentistry was the first dental school that was fully equipped with electric drills. As of the College of Medicine, it grew at a great rate and became the largest medical school in the U.S.

Navy Pier Campus and Congress Circle
After the Second World War, the University of Illinois created a temporary two-year campus in Chicago. The campus was located in Navy Pier which at the time was not the attractive Navy Pier we know today, but instead was a dull functioning port that only had one long corridor half a mile along the pier. Navy Pier was initially used by the U.S. Navy for technical training of troop during World War II but was later transformed into a two undergraduate university. The Chicago Undergraduate Division primarily focused on returning veterans that were under the G.I. Bill, which provided students with grants for college tuition. The school prepared and allowed all students to complete their first two years of college in Chicago before going South to finish their degrees at Urbana-Champaign. Classes at Navy Pier started in October 1946, and each semester, about 4,000 students enrolled into the University. Because Chicago had no public university at the time, most students were first-generation college students from working families. Most of the students who attended their first two years of college at the Navy Pier were commuters. Even after the war had ended and the wave of veterans had passed, there was a high demand of a public university in Chicago, so the University of Illinois made plans to create a permanent campus in the Chicago area. After a long controversial decision process, Mayor Richard J. Daley offered the Harrison and Halsted site for the new campus.