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Macalester College

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The Macalester Bagpipe Band performs at Minneapolis department store Donaldson’s in 1953.

Founded in 1874, Macalester College began as a Presbyterian college with few resources and only six students. The private liberal arts college became known for its rigorous academics and commitment to internationalism, multiculturalism, and service to society.

Macalester College, named for benefactor Charles Macalester, was founded in 1874 by Minnesota education leader Edward Neill. After bobbling between locations, including the elegant Winslow House, Macalester found a permanent home on forty acres of land between Minneapolis and St. Paul. The surrounding sprawl was named Macalester Park. The college’s first building, the east wing of Old Main, was completed there in 1884. It opened for classes the following fall to just five professors and six students.

The college’s beginnings were rocky, slammed with falling enrollment and rising debt. Yet president James Wallace helped the college gain financial footing with a vigorous fundraising campaign. Figures like George Dayton, James J. Hill, and Andrew Carnegie chipped in to keep the college afloat.

James Wallace’s son and daughter-in-law, Dewitt and Lila Wallace, followed to become some of Macalester’s most generous and consistent donors. The Reader’s Digest founders helped the college through the Great Depression and many other financial setbacks in the decades to follow.

Though founded as a nonsectarian college, Macalester has always held ties to the Presbyterian Church. Early on, its religious focus attracted Presbyterian students and led many to work in religious fields after graduation. Charles Turck, president from 1939 until 1958, began to shift the college toward a more religiously welcoming and less explicitly evangelical atmosphere in the 1940s. He also began to define the set of values for which the school became known: internationalism, multiculturalism, and service to society.

Macalester’s ties with internationalism reach back to 1893, when the college admitted its first international student. Many domestic students also travelled abroad during those early years, though their trips were often fueled by a desire to evangelize or provide humanitarian aid. By the 1930s, the curriculum had expanded to include subjects like international law and additional world languages. In 1950, Macalester became the first Minnesotan college to fly the United Nations flag. In the 2010s, international students made up about 12 percent of the student body, and 60 percent of students studied abroad during their college career.

Multiculturalism, too, has a long history with the college. In 1915, Catharine Lealtad became Macalester’s first African American graduate. Esther Suzuki followed as its first Japanese American graduate in 1946. In 1969, Macalester joined the Expanded Educational Opportunities (EEO) program. EEO admitted more than 300 students of color before approaching an end in 1975, a year after substantial budget cuts sparked a twelve-day student protest.

In its earlier years, Macalester focused heavily on religion and the sciences. The curriculum expanded to include the arts when women were admitted in 1893. A school of music opened soon after. Later, during Turck’s presidency, the college focused on preparing students for work with a variety of vocational programs. Macalester is known today for its liberal arts curriculum, which was introduced in 1964.

Outside of classes, students can play for a sports team or choose from a variety of campus clubs. The student newspaper, the Mac Weekly, has published student work since 1914. WBOM (now WMCN) became Minnesota’s first campus radio station in 1948. In honor of its Scottish roots, the college also offers free bagpipe lessons to any interested student. Macalester celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year with a game of pushball, first played on campus in 1914.

In the 1990s, Macalester’s Reader’s Digest shares rocketed in value. The college has used the funds in the decades since to remodel much of the campus, as well as diversify the faculty and strengthen academic programs.

Notable alumni include Kofi Annan, Danai Gurira, Joan Adams Mondale, Walter Mondale, Tim O’Brien, and John S. Campbell founder of Malt-O-Meal Company, as well as members of the music groups Sounds of Blackness and Hüsker Dü. Notable professors include former vice president Hubert Humphrey and Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James.

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  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

Haebig, Steve. “Macalester’s Old Main and Its First Century.” Ramsey County History 25, no. 3 (Fall 1990): 35.

Kilde, Jeanna Halgren. Nature and Revelation: A History of Macalester College. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Macalester College. Macalester’s History.
https://www.macalester.edu/about/mission/history/

Macalester College, a Century and Beyond. St. Paul: Macalester College, 1985.

Swanson, Edward. “Macalester and its First Forty Years.” Ramsey County History 11, no. 1 (Spring 1974): 3–11.

Related Images

Macalester Bagpipe Band

The Macalester Bagpipe Band performs at Minneapolis department store Donaldson’s in 1953.

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Winslow House
Photograph of the Winslow House
Photograph of the Winslow House

Winslow House, where an early version of Macalester College held classes for a short time (ca. 1870).

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Macalester in 1886
Photograph of Macalester in 1886
Photograph of Macalester in 1886

Macalester College eight years after its founding (ca. 1886).

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Macalester Park
Photograph of Macalester Park
Photograph of Macalester Park

Drawing of Macalester Park from the Northwest Magazine (1886).

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Baseball Team
Photograph of Macalester College Baseball Team
Photograph of Macalester College Baseball Team

The Macalester baseball team (ca. 1888).

Macalester College
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Chemistry class
Photograph of students in a chemistry class at Macalester College, 1886
Photograph of students in a chemistry class at Macalester College, 1886

Students in a chemistry class led by Dr. Forbes (1889).

Macalester College
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Pledge Form
Photograph of Pledge Drive form for Macalester College, 1890
Photograph of Pledge Drive form for Macalester College, 1890

A pledge form asking for help with Macalester’s debt (1890).

Macalester College
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Women’s basketball team
Photograph of Macalester Women's baseketball team, 1899
Photograph of Macalester Women's baseketball team, 1899

The Macalester women’s basketball team (ca. 1899).

Macalester College
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Library
Photograph of student in Macalester Library
Photograph of student in Macalester Library

Student Nicholas Seffinger in the library (undated).

Macalester College
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Macalester Dorm Room
Photograph of Macalester Dorm Room
Photograph of Macalester Dorm Room

A student in her dorm room (undated)

Macalester College
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Student performance of Macbeth
Students performing Macbeth at Macalester, 1907
Students performing Macbeth at Macalester, 1907

Students perform a scene from Macbeth (1907).

Macalester College
44.939966
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May Day at Macalester College
Photograph of May Day Celebration at Macalester, 1915
Photograph of May Day Celebration at Macalester, 1915

May Day celebration in front of Carnegie Hall (1915)

Macalester College
44.939966
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Aerial view of Macalester College in 1921
aerial photograph of Macalester College campus, 1921
aerial photograph of Macalester College campus, 1921

Aerial view of the college (ca. 1921).

Minnesota Historical Society
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Geology field trip
Photograph of Geology field trip, Macalester, 1923
Photograph of Geology field trip, Macalester, 1923

Students on a geology field trip (1923).

Macalester College
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Macalester "Pushball"
Photograph of students playing "pushball," Macalester, 1924
Photograph of students playing "pushball," Macalester, 1924

Students play pushball, an annual Macalester tradition (1924).

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Swim Class at Macalester
Photograph of swim class at Macalester College, 1930
Photograph of swim class at Macalester College, 1930

A swim class (ca. 1930).

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Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Charles Turck

Two future Vice Presidents of the United States — Professor Hubert Humphrey (center) and student Walter Mondale (right) — chat with Macalester president Charles Turck (left) in 1947.

Minnesota Historical Society
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Instruments
Photograph of Macalester students with accordion and ukuleles
Photograph of Macalester students with accordion and ukuleles

Students play music together on campus (undated).

Minnesota Historical Society
44.939966
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Macalester Student Peace March
Photograph of anti-war protest, Macalester, 1970
Photograph of anti-war protest, Macalester, 1970

Macalester students march for peace from campus to the Capitol building (1970).

Minnesota Historical Society
44.939966
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Hüsker Dü
Photograph of early Hüsker Dü handbill, Macalester Student Union, 1982
Photograph of early Hüsker Dü handbill, Macalester Student Union, 1982

Handbill for a Hüsker Dü show at the Macalester Student Union (1982). Member Bob Mould started the band when he was a student at Macalester.

Minnesota Historical Society
44.939966
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Cricket Game at Macalester College
Photograph of cricket game at MAcalester College, 2000
Photograph of cricket game at MAcalester College, 2000

Students play a game of cricket on campus (2000).

Minnesota Historical Society
44.939966
-93.172340

Turning Point

In 1939, Charles Turck becomes college president. He steers Macalester toward a more nonsectarian identity and begins to define its key values.

Chronology

1853

Baldwin School, the college preparatory school associated with Macalester in its early days, opens.

1874

Edward Neill founds Macalester College, naming it after benefactor Charles Macalester.

1881

A group of investors purchases 160 acres between Minneapolis and St. Paul, then gifts forty of those acres to Macalester College for its campus.

1884

Macalester’s first building, the east wing of Old Main, is completed.

1885

Macalester opens for its first day of college-level classes to just six first-year students.

1893

Women are admitted to the college for the first time. Macalester also admits its first international student: Joseph Koshaba, from Persia.

1901

After years of fundraising, president James Wallace eliminates Macalester’s debt and restores its financial security.

1915

Catharine Lealtad becomes Macalester’s first African American graduate.

1931

Dewitt and Lila Wallace, the founders of Reader’s Digest, make the first of many donations to Macalester College.

1939

Charles Turck becomes president of the college, driving it towards a more nonsectarian, international focus.

1950

Macalester becomes the first Minnesotan college, and one of the first in the nation, to fly the United Nations flag.

1961

College officials approve a plan to fully convert to a liberal arts curriculum and build more residence halls on campus.

1970

The religion requirement, in effect to some degree since the college’s founding, is eliminated.

1990

Macalester’s Reader’s Digest shares explode in value, allowing the school to begin a campus-wide revitalization including widespread building renovations and new faculty positions.